If your brother becomes impoverished…[2]
A midrash[3] pairs two events – but it is difficult to see how they are related. “Revenge against Yisrael, on behalf of its poor; revenge against Edom, on behalf of Yisrael.” What do the poor have to do with Edom?
We are forbidden by the Torah to take revenge on those who have wronged us. That is not to say that revenge, per se, is a horrible part of human nature, akin to wanting to become a chain-saw murderer. The Torah speaks positively of revenge in many places – at least when it is administered by Hashem, rather than us. There is positive value in justice catching up with perpetrators.
Revenge, explains Rav Saadia Gaon,[4] often works positively even when nothing is remedied thereby. The victim of some injustice finds revenge to have a calming effect on the heart that churns with hurt and resentment. However, this positive effect only takes place when the victim is there to witness it. He feels the relief when he personally witnesses the comeuppance of his oppressor, when he watches the Egyptian taskmaster who beat him suffer in a manner commensurate with the evil he inflicted upon him.
We can understand our midrash along these lines. Hashem will wreak His vengeance upon Edom for all that they inflicted upon our people over centuries. The Jewish people will be there to witness it from up front. The point of the midrash is that the same will happen to some Jews who listened with heartless silence to the cries of the poor – or, worse yet, participated in taking advantage of them. The poor will see the fulfillment of the verse,[5] “He will call out about you to Hashem, and it will be reckoned as your sin.” In both of these cases, the evil that was done is not reversed or undone. There is no negotiated settlement, or offer of compensation. Nonetheless, justice is somewhat served. The guilty do not “get away” with their misdeeds. And the victims take satisfaction in seeing that their pain was never ignored, and those who wronged them are made to pay a price.
As the Jews of the desert prepared to attack Midian for their treachery at Ba’al Peor, Hashem instructed them to “take vengeance for the Bnei Yisrael.”[6] Hashem, in His love for His children, wanted to lift their spirits after the calamitous events. He therefore demanded that the Midianites be punished in a way that the Bnei Yisrael could see. The vengeance was to be for their benefit. Interestingly, Moshe flipped the command. He instructed the nation to “inflict Hashem’s vengeance upon Midian.”[7] Moshe asked that their intentions concentrate on vengeance for Hashem (kivayachol/as if He Himself would find satisfaction in seeing justice catch up with the Midianites.
The Torah legislates against both taking revenge and bearing a grudge against a fellow Jew.[8] Halachically, revenge means telling your neighbor who refused to lend you his lawn-mower a month before, that you will treat him the same way. Now that he is asking to borrow yours, you emphatically tell him that you will turn him down, just as he did to you.
Bearing a grudge means, under the same circumstances, telling him that you will be delighted to lend him your mower, and wouldn’t think of treating him in the same manner as he treated you. Clearly, the grudge is still alive and well, even though you stop short of taking revenge.
According to our analysis, the latter is not just different than revenge. It is worse. It means, that the wound is open. The past has not been forgotten or forgiven. By taking revenge, however, at least the anger and resentment of the victim are extinguished, allowing for a better relationship ahead!
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Sho’el U-Meishiv ↑
- Vayikra 25:35 ↑
- Vayikra Rabbah 34:9 ↑
- Emunos V’Deos 10 s.v. ha’asiri ↑
- Devarim 15:9 ↑
- Bamidbar 31:2 ↑
- Bamidbar 31:3 ↑
- Vayikra 19:18 ↑