In the twilight of his role as head of the IDF's personnel division, Major General (Ret.), now a member of the Knesset, Elazar Stern, addressed to me the question of a bereaved mother who was going to join the IDF delegation to the extermination camps together with the IDF commanders, on a special trip which The end of an official and state visit to the Jewish institutions in Riga, the capital of Latvia.
The incident took place during one of the days of preparation for the trip held in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, when the general gave a preparatory speech and combined in his words the need for revenge against the enemies who threaten the State of Israel and the Jews on the one hand, and on the other hand about the revenge he felt when he arrived at his family members' barracks in Auschwitz as an IDF commander wearing a uniform.
In the heat of the speech full of pathos and belief in the righteousness of the way, the bereaved mother stood up and asked what the idea was to take revenge just to return pain to another.
What, are we sadists?
That's it, the holocaust is over, what's the point of revenge?
It is we, the Jewish people who have set standards of morality and values, that should pay more attention to this than the others, she declared.
Elazar Stern moved a little uncomfortably and directed the question to me, as the leader of the military delegation.
The hall was filled with hundreds of commanders and representatives of bereaved families.
I felt embarrassed, but the general urged me to stand up and answer.
When I stood in front of the audience I felt strength and powers that accompanied me on the journey.
"Revenge, that's what I said, "is a kind of resurrection.
When you are down as dirt, your basic need is to stand up stronger than before.
This is the greatest revenge."
Actually, revenge does not have to be violent in nature, but is an action that restores your lost dignity and helps you hold your head up with genius and pride.
Sometimes this is done with a military action or a violent act, which even helps to restore deterrence, and sometimes the revenge that has the word "stand up" in it, and is expressed by raising one's head and standing tall.
MK Elazar Stern (archive), photo: Dodi Vaaknin
But from a perusal of the sources of the Sages we witness physical revenge, and sometimes there are even events for which it is necessary to arouse a feeling of revenge and anger.
For example, it is stated in the Halacha that a person who was murdered by gentiles, even though no blood came out of him, is buried in his clothes (without a full purification procedure), "to raise a grudge and take revenge".
And as it appears in the Psalms regarding that spoken revenge: "...to take vengeance on the Gentiles and rebuke the nations".
And in chapter 14 of the Psalms it is stated: "God's vengeance, God's vengeance has appeared." Is this a clear call for revenge and murder of those who oppose you in God's name?
The Book of Esther that is read on Purim also tells a classic tale of revenge, which was composed and is one of the particularly cheerful basic holiday songs: "And the other way around, the Jews will rule over their enemies".
Although the war of the Jews was according to a royal order sealed with the king's ring, to take revenge on the oppressors of the Jews who planned to destroy them to the point of destruction, it was a reason for pride and great celebrations from the Jewish point of view as well, because it caused the story of the scroll to end in an atmosphere of peace, tranquility, tranquility and security: ..Mordecai the Jew is a deputy to King Ahasuerus and great to the Jews and it is desirable for his rabbi brother to pray well for his people and speak peace to all his seed."
At a time when we hear new stories about people who wanted to take revenge for such and other actions done against them, understanding the issue of revenge is important.
Revenge is not only for a sense of satisfaction and personal victory.
Sometimes revenge and retribution are part of the reward and punishment tactic used by many countries.
A reading from the Book of Esther, in 2021, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In the 1950s, Unit 101 was established to carry out retaliatory and revenge operations as a response to the terrorist actions of the infiltrators.
The leaders of the policy of retaliatory actions were Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan. At the foundation of this policy was a "strong hand" approach, while making it clear that any act of sabotage or combat would be adequately punished, because Jewish blood is not wasted. Behind these actions was A strategy of harming the enemy, to make him stop his hostilities.
And in the words of Moshe Dayan: "It was not in our power to protect every water pipe from an explosion and every tree uprooted. It was not in our power to prevent the murder of orchard workers and families in their sleep. But we had the power to set a high price for our blood, a price too high for the Arab settlement, the Arab army, the Arab governments to pay." .
The Security Council condemned Israel for carrying out the retaliatory actions, but Israel insisted that it reserved the right to carry out these actions in order to establish deterrence in the ongoing war against it.
So what is the difference between this and liquidation of accounts or individual actions?
Why is one allowed and the other forbidden?
This is the difference between anarchy and hierarchy.
When a country makes moves with a general vision, retaliatory actions are also part of the mutual relations with the enemy.
But if the individual takes the judgment and the law into his own hands, not only will he not help, but he will harm the tactical vision and the unity of the nation.
Moshe Dayan (archive), photo: L.A.M
These things are also reflected on the spiritual-religious level, since the orders for physical revenge in Judaism depended on the decision of the kingdom or the order of the Sanhedrin, when it is a general and national concept and not a personal action of any kind.
For the Torah forbids the individual any physical cleansing and cleansing - "neither tikom nor titur", and the one who does so even commits himself to himself.
Systems are sometimes forced to express revenge, which is the strengthening of perception and deterrence in the face of the enemy, and sometimes in stubborn fighting for the defense of the people there is also systemic revenge and deterrence.
But the individual's revenge can be expressed in raising one's head and striving forward for excellence and value, from raising one's head.
My grandmother, the late Esther Weiser-Karpman, survived the Holocaust almost alone of all her brothers and sisters and raised many descendants. When the family members met for the launch of the family book she wrote many years ago as a testimony and as a memory, we saw how when the people of Israel rose from the ashes and revived their country and homeland, there was no Sweeter revenge than this - the revenge of the spirit.
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