Are we commanded to love an Apikores as a fellow Jew, or are the regarded as something else?
My question is: does the Mitzva of Viahavta Lereiacha Kamocha apply to an Apikores?
Answer
This seems to be addressed Sefer Chafetz Chaim 8:5
(Source provided from Sefaria.org)
And this entire issur of lashon hara applies only [when spoken] against the man who is in the category of "your neighbor" [amitecha], "am she'techa", i.e. "a people who is with you" in Torah and in mitzvoth. But those people whom he knows to have "apikorsoth" [heresy] among them, it is a mitzvah to demean and to shame, both in their presence and not in their presence, in everything that he sees or hears about them. For it is written (Vayikra 25:17): "And you shall not wrong, one man, his fellow [amito]" and (Vayikra 19:16): "You shall not go talebearing among your people [be'amecha]." And they are not in this category, for they do not act as Your people. And it is written (Tehillim 139:21): "Do I not hate your haters, O L-rd? And against those who rise up against You do I strive." And one who denies the Torah and prophecy of Israel, both the written and the oral Law, is called an apikoress [heretic], even if he says all the Torah is from Heaven, except for one verse, or one kal vachomer [a fortiori argument], or one gezeirah shavah [identity deduction], or one dikduk [inference].
Hope this helps.
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