The Great Revenge

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna.  

 

A Quarrelsome Person Ignites Dispute 

One of the wonders of the war with Iran is the fact that a faraway country, with which we had no contact and no dispute – not over land, not over natural resources, not any conflict that can be explained – decided to declare war on a tiny, faraway state. All it wanted to do was to wipe out and eradicate all those who live in Israel. Iran invested immense sums of money in this project, spending decades on it – seeking to control of the entire area and plotting against that small entity. 

 

The truth is, that this reality is familiar to us, going way back to the beginning of time: “For in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us”¹ – whether there’s a reason or not. They devise sly schemes against Your people. Against Hashem and against His anointed one. What dispute did we have with those cursed Germans? Nothing. It was pure hatred on their side. 

 

The Torah, too, in the past few parashas (weekly Torah portions), tells us of a distant nation, with whom we had no contact or connection, that put their all into harming the Jewish People. It was willing to make peace with its bitterest enemies – all in order to cause harm to the Jewish People and annihilate it.  

 

This nation was Midian. Outwardly, they didn’t touch any Jew. They didn’t declare war. They seemed to be innocent and “uninvolved”. But behind the scenes they conducted a campaign and advised Moav to summon the wicked Bilam, even going themselves to convince him to come and curse.  

 

After that scheme didn’t work out because of Hashem’s special providence and His love for His people, they decide to cause strife between the Jews and their Father in Heaven, by making their daughters available to the Jews, thus causing them to transgress the severe sins of adultery and avodah zarah (idol worship).  

 

And that is the worst of the worst, as brought in Yalkut Shimoni: “Midian’s advice was merely to cause the Jews to sin, and because of them twenty-four thousand died, and all Jews were liable of the death penalty, for someone who causes a person to sin is worse than someone who kills him.”² The very fact of the sin is more severe than being killed, but the sin also causes much more Jewish blood to be shed, as is brought in the midrash: “No hater comes upon them unless there is sin and transgression.” 

 

Vengeful Sword – Avenging the Broken Covenant 

And that is why Hashem speaks to Moshe using interesting words: “Take revenge for Bnei Yisrael against the Midianites; after that you will be gathered to your people.”³ 

 

A few points stand out here. Hashem seems to be saying to Moshe: True, you have fulfilled your tremendous role completely, you’ve done great things, you feel seemingly that you can “retire” in peace after your immense accomplishments and the tremendous mark you have left – but no, you have not finished your role, you cannot yet “rest”, until you do one more very important thing: take revenge on the Midianites. 

 

Secondly, the Midianites were not threatening the Jews, nor were they fighting them. The danger had passed a long time before that. This was not a defensive war, but rather a war that the Jews were initiating. We were initiating and going to war against them. That is revenge! 

 

The main thing is that Hashem wants revenge. Hashem is commanding us to take revenge. We are forbidden to remain indifferent to what happened. We must take the initiative and wipe out this source of evil. Why? Because they caused us to sin! Because they were trying to distance us from Hashem! That, and only that, was the reason for revenge. 

 

Even when it comes to Pharaoh, the wicked king who caused us endless suffering, we don’t find any wish for revenge. But we are commanded to take revenge on the Midianites, because they wanted to harm our spirituality.  

 

The Moabites, too, were severely punished – no converts are accepted from them – but the Midianites must be wiped out completely. Rashi notes, that unlike the Moabites, who were neighbors of Yisrael and feared the Jews’ power, and there was a somewhat good reason for them to be afraid – the Midianites were getting involved needlessly, and that is why Hashem related to their deeds with much greater severity. 

 

Completing the Project 

Hashem links the revenge against Midian with Moshe Rabbeinu’s demise, because that was the peak of Moshe Rabbeinu’s toil in this world: to save the Jewish people from transgressions and to bring Yisrael closer to their Father in Heaven and make them more connected to Him. 

 

Moshe Rabbeinu did help the Jewish people materially: He took them out of the House of Slaves and took care of all their needs in the wilderness. But his main greatness and true glory is attributed to what he did for them spiritually; and that is why he is Moshe Rabbeinu, the rabbi of all Jews; he was the one who brought them to emuna and devekut (cleaving) to Hashem yitbarach and to His Torah and mitzvahs. 

 

Therefore, his last task is to take revenge on those who caused the Jews to sin, thus disconnecting them from their Father in Heaven, as Rabbeinu Hakadosh says in his teaching, “Ki merachamam yenahagem” – only a merciful person can be a leader, as Rabbeinu explains there. Only Moshe Rabbeinu was a true rachman (merciful person), for he knew how to act mercifully towards the Jews, because the main aspect of rachamim (mercy) is saving Jews from sinning.  

 

Rabbeinu goes on to say that one must know well what mercy is and what it is not. Everyone understands that one should not have compassion for murderers. So too Moshe understood and had to teach the Jewish people that it is forbidden to act mercifully towards those who cause many Jews to sin, and that is why the behavior towards Midian was seemingly very cruel:  

Bnei Yisrael killed all the males and set fire to all the cities, and when they came back to their camp with the tens of thousands of captives – all women and children – Moshe Rabbeinu got angry at them: “Moshe grew furious with the commanders of the forces” and ordered them to kill all the married women and all the boys! 

That same Moshe, who had pity on the thirsty little sheep and was willing to give up his life for the Jewish people – at the end of his life gives an order to kill children, and by doing so shows the people what is true mercy: To take revenge – in raging anger – on anyone who threatens our soul spiritually and wipe him out completely.  

That is why it was Pinchas in particular – who rose to take revenge on Zimri who led the severe sin with the Midianite women and was given a covenant of peace – was the one chosen to lead the war against Midian. Because to be cruel to the wicked is the height of mercy, and likewise, to fight them is true peace.  

 

The Mercy of the Generation 

Now that we have all seen the horrible massacre that the cursed terrorists did to us at the instigation of Iran, and everything that they planned for us in the north as well, plus the threat of atomic bombs and missiles in other places – we all have a burning desire for revenge. But the Torah teaches us that one need not take revenge when there was only bodily harm. True, one ought to strike enemies and annihilate them. But revenge is reserved for those who make others sin. The real danger to the Jewish People are those who cause many Jews to sin. That is what ought to bother us and truly pain us. 

 

As the Kli Yakar (Parashat Kedoshim⁴) writes: “…for what they did to your body or your money, and those things are not so hidden and important that make them worthy of being revenged for. It is permitted to take revenge on non-Jews because one can assume they want to take you away from the mitzvahs of Hashem and seduce you away from Hashem, your G-d, and this is an important and hidden thing and it is right to wish for revenge on that, because it is called G-d’s revenge… but for all the bodily incidents, Hashem did not want a person to wish to revenge them.” 

 

What is the practical application for us? 

First of all, in our times we have no way of fighting against those who cause many to sin, but we have a way of battling to bring merits to the many. And against all those who separate Yisrael from Hashem yitbarach, we must use all our power and go out to a milchemet mitzvah (a war that is a mitzvah) – a battle to bring the Jewish nation closer to its Father in Heaven, connect between them and increase peace in the world. 

 

Secondly, something that is relevant mainly to rabbis and influential figures: They should speak up and warn the Jewish people against all the immorality and lustful behavior that are spreading very much – that is what is really endangering the Jewish People. A key element in this is impure technology. There is no way one can own such gadgets and not fall into a spiritual sinkhole. 

 

And this should cause pain to anyone who is a leader and who has true mercy on the Jews. Just like it pains us to hear about every drop of Jewish blood that is shed – just like it and much more so, we should feel pain about Jewish neshamas (souls) that are being consumed by the fire of the yetzer hara (evil inclination). 

 

It depends on the leaders, as it says in our parasha: “Moshe grew furious with the commanders of the forces”.⁵ Rashi explains: “since all the stink of the generation is dependent on the great figures, who have the power to protest but don’t.” Every Jew has some influence, as Rabbeinu says: even if you are not a rabbi or a leader, you are the leader and influencer in your home, responsible for the people in your household.  

 

May Hashem help us have mercy on ourselves and on all Jews, truly, and in the merit of that we will be completely saved from all our enemies and those who wish us ill. 

 

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Editor’s Note: 

¹ Pesach Haggadah, Maggid section 

² Yalkut Shimoni, Bamidbar (Numbers), Chapter 3 

³ Bamidbar (Numbers) 31:2 

⁴ Kli Yakar, Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:18 

⁵ Bamidbar 31:14