Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, “Revenge – getting even with someone who has done us wrong – is everybody’s favorite sin.” We think, Someone has done me wrong, Lord! And that person should be punished! Yet the Bible forbids it.
Consider this Hasidic parable: You’re peeling an apple, the fruit in your left hand, the knife in your right. The knife slips cuts into your left hand. It is painful and bleeding. Does the left hand then grab the knife and stab the right in order to get even? Of course not; we take it to the walk-in clinic.
On the other hand, this does not mean our neighbor should get away with hurting us. If we “pay him back” or even try to do so, we run the risk of lowering ourselves to the neighbor’s level.
We held up the example of Joseph and the gaggle of brothers who detested him and sold him – on an early version of e-bay. Later, this good man was not even recognized by those brothers. They bowed before him – here was his chance to pay them back! But he does not. He would not take pleasure in hurting others, just because he could. And – ta-da! — by letting go, he gave the perpetrators no more power over him.
Written by: Carolyn Wall
