One of the mitzvos in this week's parsha, Parhsha's Kedoshim, is not to take revenge. The Luzzatto (the Ramchal) says "revenge is sweeter than honey." If that's the case, how is it possible for a person not to take revenge?

What's the classic example of revenge? If Reuven asks Shimeon, "Lend me your axe," and Shimeon says, "No." The very next day, Shimeon goes to Reuven and says, "Lend me a hammer," and Reuven says, "No, I will not lend it to you the same way you didn't lend your axe to me."

Says the Chinuch in Mitzvah 241, "The root of the commandment not to take revenge against your fellow Jew is that a person has to realize that whatever happens to him, from good to bad, is caused by HaShem." Nothing can be without the will of HaShem. So if someone causes another person pain or harm, the harmed person must know that your deeds caused it, and that G-d has decreed the infliction or insult upon him. Therefore, the harmed party may not take revenge.

The Zohar says that King Dovid was the fourth leg of HaShem's Throne of Glory. The first three legs were the Avos, Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaacov. The question is, what did Dovid do to merit being the fourth leg? Says the Zohar, when Dovid was cursed and his entourage told him to kill the curser, Dovid said, "G-d told him to curse." Not only does Dovid not take revenge, but he sees, in his lowest moment on the face of the planet, when he, the king, has been publicly insulted, that it was THE HAND OF G-D that cursed him.

Torah Blessings,
Y. Bertram

bertram@ohr.israel.net