The Torah Scholar Who Strikes Back Like a Snake
“Hashem, Power of vengeance; Power of vengeance, appear!” The Question The Torah says it plainly: “Do not take revenge, and do not hold a grudge against the members of your people.” It is a sweeping, sharp ban, with no exceptions. So what do we do with what our Sages say in the Talmud? “Any Torah scholar who does not take revenge and hold a grudge like a snake is not a Torah scholar.” The Talmud does more than allow a wise person to take revenge. It says that if he does not take revenge, he loses his standing as a Torah scholar. This is not a technical contradiction. It touches a raw nerve: how should you respond when someone hurts you? A World of Consequences Maimonides defines the ban: “Whoever takes revenge on another person violates a prohibition of the Torah.” But Maimonides himself adds, in the same work, that the ban speaks of revenge that comes from “hatred in his heart.” In other words, the ban is rooted in the motive, not in the act itself. Here a deeper principle comes in. The world was not created through kindness alone. The very first words of the Torah, “In the beginning Hashem created,” hint that strict justice came first, before kindness. A world with no cause and effect, with no reward and punishment, is not a world of mercy. It is a world of chaos. When a person does wrong and it has no consequence at all, a hole is broken in the wall that holds creation in order. In the Book of Psalms, Hashem Himself is called “Power of vengeance.” Hashem’s vengeance is not weakness, and it is not anger. It is structure. Two Kinds of Revenge Here is the basic distinction. Without it, you cannot understand either the verse or the Talmud. There is revenge that comes from the forces of darkness. This is the revenge of someone whose ego has been hurt: a personal insult, wounded pride, a pain that will not leave him alone. What drives it is a small, narrow mind. The person is so wrapped up in himself that every hurt feels like a threat to his very existence. This is the revenge the Torah forbids. It comes from the animal soul, our self-centered side. And there is revenge that comes from holiness. This is a measured, calm response that comes from responsibility, not from pain. When a person does wrong and nothing at all happens to him, he learns to do it again. A “policeman” who lets things slide is not merciful. He is breaking down the fence. On the other hand, someone who sets a clear limit, with a cool head and a broad, open mind, is teaching. He is protecting the structure of reality. Why a Snake? Why a snake, of all creatures? There are other animals that take fierce revenge! A snake does not act out of emotion. It carries no personal grudge. It does not get angry. When someone steps on it, it responds. Not out of hatred, but out of structure. Its bite is precise, cold and surgical. It is exactly as much as needed to deliver a message: there is a limit. That is how a Torah scholar responds. There is no “I was hurt” in it. There is only: “You did something that has a consequence, and this is the consequence.” Separating what is personal from what is about the greater good: that is true strength.
Putting It into Practice
Young married man, the hardest moment is the moment of the hurt itself. Someone comes along, says something, does something, and you are standing before a choice. If you stay quiet, you feel like a pushover. If you respond, you are afraid it is coming from anger. It seems there is no third way. There is a third way. Stop for a moment. Ask yourself: where is this urge to respond coming from? Is it my ego crying out, my honor, my pain, my pride? If so, stay quiet, and work it through before Hashem. But if you feel clearly that the matter is bigger than you, that something here is twisted and needs to be fixed, that staying silent will cause harm, then the limit you set is not weakness. It is strength. And knowing this, knowing that you can set a limit, is exactly what lets you truly forgive. Only someone standing in his strength can choose to let go. Someone who lets go out of weakness is not forgiving. He is only holding back.
Questions and answers
Q: Which verse about Hashem as the Power of vengeance opens the essay on the Torah scholar who strikes back like a snake?
Rabbi Landau answers: “Hashem, Power of vengeance; Power of vengeance, appear!”
Q: How can the Talmud say a Torah scholar must take revenge like a snake when the Torah says “Do not take revenge”?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Torah says it plainly: “Do not take revenge, and do not hold a grudge against the members of your people.” It is a sweeping, sharp ban, with no exceptions. So what do we do with what our Sages say in the Talmud? “Any Torah scholar who does not take revenge and hold a grudge like a snake is not a Torah scholar.” The Talmud does more than allow a wise person to take revenge. It says that if he does not take revenge, he loses his standing as a Torah scholar. This is not a technical contradiction. It touches a raw nerve: how should you respond when someone hurts you?
Q: What are the two kinds of revenge?
Rabbi Landau answers: Here is the basic distinction. Without it, you cannot understand either the verse or the Talmud. There is revenge that comes from the forces of darkness. This is the revenge of someone whose ego has been hurt: a personal insult, wounded pride, a pain that will not leave him alone. What drives it is a small, narrow mind. The person is so wrapped up in himself that every hurt feels like a threat to his very existence. This is the revenge the Torah forbids. It comes from the animal soul, our self-centered side. And there is revenge that comes from holiness. This is a measured, calm response that comes from responsibility, not from pain.
Q: Why does the Talmud compare a Torah scholar’s response to a snake?
Rabbi Landau answers: Why a snake, of all creatures? There are other animals that take fierce revenge! A snake does not act out of emotion. It carries no personal grudge. It does not get angry. When someone steps on it, it responds. Not out of hatred, but out of structure. Its bite is precise, cold and surgical. It is exactly as much as needed to deliver a message: there is a limit. That is how a Torah scholar responds. There is no “I was hurt” in it. There is only: “You did something that has a consequence, and this is the consequence.” Separating what is personal from what is about the greater good: that is true strength.
Q: How should a young husband respond in the moment someone hurts him?
Rabbi Landau answers: Young married man, the hardest moment is the moment of the hurt itself. Someone comes along, says something, does something, and you are standing before a choice. If you stay quiet, you feel like a pushover. If you respond, you are afraid it is coming from anger. It seems there is no third way. There is a third way. Stop for a moment. Ask yourself: where is this urge to respond coming from? Is it my ego crying out, my honor, my pain, my pride? If so, stay quiet, and work it through before Hashem.