Q:
Why is it that the prohibition against revenge doesn’t apply to revenge against criminals or wicked people?
A:
There’s a tape called Kosher Revenge. If you’ll listen to that, you’ll see the subject is explained at length.
But briefly now; every instinct in mankind is implanted for a purpose. There’s no instinct that’s intrinsically wrong. And the instinct of revenge is for the purpose of executing justice.
We have to be angry at wrongdoers. Not like the liberals who ridicule the idea of the death penalty because they say it’s only relieving your feelings.
We must relieve our feelings because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us those feelings. The purpose of revenge is in order that wrongdoers should be punished. We must be angry at wrongdoers!
And therefore, it was a very great crime when a certain Orthodox organization worked hard to get Governor Carey elected. That Orthodox organization committed a great crime against the Jewish people because the restoration of the capital punishment is of the utmost necessity for checking crime. And you should keep in mind that these people, the Orthodox group who fought to have Governor Carey elected, have done a very big disservice to the Jewish people.
Revenge is important; it’s necessary for us to be angry at criminals and wrongdoers. And it’s only when people have atrophied their natural instincts, they have lost the feeling of revenge, that’s when crime flourishes and justice is no longer practiced.
TAPE # 256 (February 1979)
