Revenge, 2002

Abstract

Revenge 1. To inflict punishment in return for (injury or insult). 2. To seek or take vengeance for (oneself or another person); avenge. (American Heritage Dictionary, fourth edition). In part, the piece that follows was written on Yom Kippur; it came gushing out after I listened to a Kol Nidre sermon. It says some of the things I felt at that time, as well as much of what I need and want to say about war, violence, and my own Jewish feminist position. I want to talk about revenge, the desire to inflict punishment in return for injuries that we have suffered, and the wish to make right a wrong. I find myself caught in the gap between these conflicting desires. I want the release of revenge. I want to take justice into my own hands and express my rage and indignation. At the same time, I cannot find justice in these enactments. The injury is never avenged. As a woman who has known bodily harm, as an American Jew who was born well after the Holocaust and has loved Israel, this is the only way I can begin to make sense of the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine. These are not words that I share lightly. I do not feel comfortable saying them in public, yet they are the only things I feel compelled to say. I risk saying them here, in the context of this forum, in the hope that they may help initiate a more honest conversation about the painful and difficult issues they concern.* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Yom Kippur 2002