LEV709 See [[EXOD549]] Exodus 21:14 neighbor SPERO 126-30

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LEV713 It is a negative commandment not to take revenge from one's fellow-man as Scripture says, You shall not take vengeance [this verse]. Revenge means repaying a person who has harmed someone, according to his own act: for example, if one asked his neighbor, "Lend me your axe," and he would not lend it to him; and the next day his neighbor has to borrow something from him, whereupon he tells him, "I will not lend it to you, just as you refused me when I wanted to borrow from you." This is revenge, whereby he exacts vengeance from the other, repaying him according to his own evil action.

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LEV714 You are forbidden to refuse to lend any article when motivated by revenge. This applies even if you do not explicitly say that you are taking revenge. Similarly, if you lend the article but think to yourself that you are unlike the borrower who refused your request, you are guilty of bearing a grudge. The Torah prohibits feelings of animosity even though nothing is actually said. (Shaarey T’shuvah 3:38; Yad Haktanah, Daios 7:14)

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LEV712 At times, one who speaks lashon hara also transgresses the prohibition of לֹֽא־תִקֹּ֤ם וְלֹֽא־תִטֹּר֙, “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge" (Vayikra 19:18). This could happen if the speaker once asked the person he is speaking about to lend him money as a favor and he refused. As a result, the speaker developed hatred toward this person, and when he subsequently noticed something negative about him, he publicized it before others. Initially, when he harbored those negative feelings in his heart, he violated the prohibition of “Do not bear a grudge.” Afterward, when he actively took revenge by telling others about the flaw that he noticed in the other person, he violated the prohibition of “Do not take revenge.” In such a situation, one is obliged to erase the ill feelings from his heart.

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LEV711 [How is: "Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge" to be understood? It is comparable to a knife slipping while one is slicing meat and cutting his hand. Will he thereupon cut his other hand? This is precisely the same] (Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:4)

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LEV715 The Torah, indeed, draws the implication of the teaching that all men are created in the image of God. False and irrelevant distinctions must not be introduced to disqualify human beings from their right to justice. For if man is made in the image God, if he is the creation God, then every human being is included and the entire significance of the one man is extended to embrace every man. Said Rabbi Akiva, "Beloved is man, for he was created in the image [of God]." (Avot 3:18). Every man is fellow man to every other man, or is "thy brother." The fatherhood of the one God implies the brotherhood of all men, which generates the concept of universal morality. It has been suggested that the well-known passage in Leviticus, usually translated "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord," [this verse] should be interpreted, "Love thy neighbor; he is as thou [kamokah]," and in that "as thou" lies the full meaning of the commandment. The identification of justice with God projects God's infinity and absoluteness onto the concept of justice, removing it from the category of subjective reality and relativity. (See Psalms 89:5; 97:2, Genesis 18:19 and Jeremiah 23:5). (Continued at [[EXOD673]] Exodus 22:21 widow SPERO 126)

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LEV720 Occasionally, by refraining from doing a favor, one transgresses the negative commandment of "You shall not take vengeance." For instance, he had previously asked a favor of someone, either a loan of money or the like, and the other person had failed to help him. Now that other person comes to him for a favor and he gains his revenge, repaying that person by refusing to help. In this case, by refraining from doing a favor, the person transgresses the commandment [this verse], "You shall not take vengeance." If, through his hatred of that person, he spreads the report in the city that the other person is not reliable, thereby discouraging others from granting the loan that person requires, he transgresses all the more. In addition to violating the two prohibitions against taking revenge and bearing a grudge, he transgresses the commandment forbidding slander (leshon hara'), since here he attacks the person's very life.… Furthermore, even if he had helped that other person, but rebuked him by saying: "I am not like you; you did not help me," he violates the prohibition [this verse]: "You shall bear no grudge," since he has shown here that he still harbors the hate in his heart. He should erase his ill–feeling and lend with a perfect heart, reflecting that all the affairs of this world are vain and worthless, not important enough to arouse the desire for revenge and grudges. [Continued at [[LEV473]] Leviticus 19:16 idly AHAVCH 28].

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LEV723 The Torah clearly prohibits revenge as a biblical mitzvah in [this] verse immediately following the prohibition to hate in one's heart. The Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 30a) explains why a Jew may not take revenge against another Jew. The hand of a person would never take revenge against the other hand that cut it, since all belong to the same body and the concept of revenge against one's own body is nonsensical. So, too, each Jew belongs to one body of the Jewish people, where revenge against different parts of the same body would be nonsensical.

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LEV717 But why is it that in regard to all other traits and actions, Jews should imitate the behavior of God, and only in the case of revenge does God operate alone, not wanting His actions to be emulated? Perhaps it is precisely because revenge is such an intense and volatile feeling that God forbade it completely from the realm of man's actions. Human beings would not know how to use this feeling properly and repay a wrong in the proper proportion. Just as Cain murdered Abel as revenge for a sacrifice favored by God, which was certainly an "overreaction," perhaps no person can properly control rage and feeling the need for revenge, and therefore cannot administer it properly against another human being who is deserving of punishment. That is why it is left only to God to take revenge and avenge a sin properly, in a way that is exact compensation for a wrong committed. Chizkuni implies as much when he says that only God can assuage the feeling of revenge within man. [Chizkuni commentary on this verse].

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LEV719 In explaining the prohibition against taking revenge in the Torah, Chizkuni writes that the feeling of seething rage completely overtakes a human being [Chizkuni commentary on this verse].

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