Two weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox were playing the Baltimore Orioles, and in the course of the game, Manny Machado of the Orioles slid into second base, injuring the Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. What followed in the coming days is a baseball tradition as old as the game itself: retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two days later a Red Sox pitcher \u201cunintentionally\u201d threw a fastball towards Machado\u2019s head, which he luckily avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week an Orioles\u2019 pitcher plunked one of the Red Sox star players in the hip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Red Sox responded by throwing a pitch behind Machado, and not long after, the Orioles hit another Red Sox player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These events were followed by warnings, ejections, tirades, suspensions, and many expect the feud to continue as these teams play throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we hopefully all agree that it is wrong for grown men to hurl projectiles 95 miles an hour at each other, is there any legitimacy to baseball\u2019s tradition of some sort of a retaliation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parshas Kedoshim teaches us many of the laws of interpersonal conduct, and among them, if you have not figured out where I\u2019m headed, is LO SIKOM V\u2019LO TITOR. Do not take revenge, you should not bear a grudge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rashi provides the famous example from the gemara in Yoma:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuven asks Shimon to borrow a sickle, and Shimon says no. Some time later, Shimon asks Reuven to borrow a hatchet. How does Reuven respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Reuven says \u201cI won\u2019t lend you the hatchet because you wouldn\u2019t lend me your sickle,\u201d that\u2019s the prohibition of lo sikom, taking revenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Reuven says \u201cI will lend you my hatchet, despite the fact that you wouldn\u2019t lend me your sickle\u201d that\u2019s the prohibition of lo sitor, do not bear a grudge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuven should overlook Shimon\u2019s actions, and lend him the hatchet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chizkuni, a 13th<\/sup> century commentary on chumash, sheds light on this halacha with a very basic question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand the Torah wants me to lend the hatchet, but isn\u2019t it a double standard? Reuven asked Shimon last week to borrow a sickle, and Shimon said no. Why didn\u2019t the Torah prohibit that! Why doesn\u2019t the Torah just command us to lend our sickles, and we\u2019ll never get into this situation to begin with! Instead, Reuven and Shimon both refuse to lend their items, and in the Torah\u2019s system, Shimon did nothing wrong, and Reuven violated a biblical prohibition. Why is that fair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chizkuni explains that we are allowed to feel connected to our sickles. We love our sickle, we don\u2019t want our sickle to break, and that\u2019s okay; we are not obligated to lend it out. But that same action done out of spite, vengeance, or revenge transforms into an issur doraysa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we feel hurt by someone, that\u2019s when we need to take a step back, consider our responses, and do what we can to prevent the situation from escalating. It can be difficult in the moment to refrain from reacting harshly, but the Chizkuni explains how we are to accomplish this based on the context of this commandment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Immediately following the words lo sikom v\u2019lo sitor is the famous phrase v\u2019ahavta lreicha kamocha. If we can internalize vahavta lreicha kamocha, we can succeed it avoiding revenge. Sefiras Haomer is a time we mourn the loss of Rabbi Akiva\u2019s students for not showing respect towards one another and failing to live up to their Rebbe\u2019s mantra of vahavta lreicha kamacho. Whether it be an economic encounter like Rashi\u2019s sickle or a verbal dispute with a friend or spouse, if we begin with a desire to love one another, if we focus on the positives of our relationships, and if we judge each other the way we would judge ourselves, we can resist retaliation, repair our relationships, and we can arrive at Shavuos reenacting the camaraderie of k\u2019ish echad b\u2019lev echad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox were playing the Baltimore Orioles, and in the course of the game, Manny Machado of the Orioles slid into second base, injuring the Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. What followed in the coming days is a baseball tradition as old as the game itself: retaliation. Two days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,47,10,38],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}