[Avodah] Redemption

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

.

R' Zev Sero wrote:

> The idea that revenge is not a legitimate or worthy goal is not
> Jewish. The Xian despises Shylock for demanding his revenge,
> but we believe otherwise. "Kol d'mei achicha tzo`akim elai min
> ha'adamah". For what are they shouting? For revenge.

Where do you get this from? I always understood the screaming to be in
pain, in mourning for oneself, sorrow to be gone from the world.

Me'am Lo'ez (R' Aryeh Kaplan's The Torah Anthology, pg 293) explains:
"You must realize that your brother is suffering very much because he
has no place to go. If his soul comes to heaven, it will be all alone,
since no one else is here. If it comes down to earth, it feels great
anguish when it sees its body's blood spilled on rocks and stones."

> Ya'akov Avinu woke up from death to enjoy his revenge on Eisav.

I don't remember hearing this before. Got a source?

> And every time we mention a murdered person we say HYD, because
> Kel Nekamos Hashem.

I concede that to be a real pasuk, Tehillim 94:1. But when I see "HYD"
actually spelled out (rather than just the rashei taivos), the nun is
often missing. "Hashem yikom damam" - Hashem will uphold their blood.
Not quite the same thing as vengeance. I've long wondered which is
intended, when only the rashei taivos appear.

It is not my nature to make such comments without offering examples,
but this phrase is not an easy one to find. So instead I tried an
experiment: I switched to my Hebrew keyboard, and tried Google: Heh
apostrophe [blank] yud nun kuf vav mem-sofit [blank] dalet mem
mem-sofit. Hashem yinkom damam got 9960 hits. Without the nun, 45,300
hits. Quite a difference! When I changed "damam" to "damo", both
numbers went down by about half, with "yinkom" still far fewer than
"yikom".

In any case, even if Hashem *is* a God of Vengeance, that doesn't mean
it's appropriate for us.

RZS continues in another post:

> But there is no issur on taking revenge.  There is only an
> issur on doing so against your own people, because you are
> commanded to love them like yourself, and you wouldn't want
> revenge against yourself.  But the objection to revenge in
> itself does not come from any Jewish source.

Seriously??? How do you understand the first part of "Lo sikom v'lo
sitor"? (Vayikra 19:18)

Akiva Miller