Brachos 33 – ברכות לג

The Gemara says that there were two ‘nekamos’ (revenges) one was good and one bad.  Rashi explains the bad nekama was Hashem’s vengeance on the nations for rejecting the Torah, and the good was Hashem’s freeing their mammon to Yisroel on account of their refusal to receive the Torah.  If it is viewed from the nations’ perspective then certainly both can be considered bad revenges, alternately if we are viewing from Yisroel’s viewpoint they are both considered good, why then do we say that one is bad and one good?

3 thoughts on “Brachos 33 – ברכות לג

  1. Maybe you can say that really your’e right if you look on the side of klal Yisrael then both nakams are good but the one that is directed to be a good nekama to KLAL YISRAEl is the fact that all the mamon went to klal Yisrael, the fact that the other nations got punished is only an indirect Good to klal Yisrael. The opposite is true the bad nekama of the other nations that was directed as a Bad To THe OTHER NATIONS is their punishment it is the direct nekama to them, the fact that they lost their mamon was an indirect punishment it was meant for klal Yisrael

  2. Both of these nekamot are really the same-one is the flip side of the other: Because the nations rejected the Torah, their mammon is redistributed to Yisrael who DID accept the Torah. This is Rashi’s understanding, it would seem to me.
    Another possibility is that the nekama raah is not like Rashi says here, but that the pasuk of Kel nekamos in Tehillem is speaking about other things that the nations have done: amcha Hashem yidake’u, nachalasecha ye’anu ,almanah ve’ger yaharogu etc. These are all bad things no matter which side is being examined–and Hashem is shofet ha’aretz as in the 2nd pasuk, ie., the point of relativity is from that of Hashem, not yisrael or the nations. (And perhaps to tie the 2 answers togther: These are mitzvot sichliyot–Nations, even though you did not accept the Torah, you should have known that these were wrong things to do and therefore you earn punishment and Yisrael gets the right to your mammon). A problem is that Kel nekamos is in tehillim and this is said by David Hamelech, while Har Paran is in Devarim; however while a kasha on the memra in the Gemara, it’s within the parameters of the memra as recorded .

  3. It is true that both Nekamos had a positive effect for Klal Yisroel. The point of the Gemarah is that one of them was done through a bad action to the nations, and the other was done through a positive action for Israel.

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