After the story about how Dovid HaMelech’s curses boomeranged back upon his descendants, our Gemara on amud aleph begins with an adage:

Be the one who is cursed and not the one who curses, as a curse eventually returns to the one who curses.

The Maharal (Gur Aryeh 19:19) explains this idea with greater metaphysical depth. He states that if one curses someone who is undeserving of the curse, it will rebound upon him. Maharal compares this to throwing a projectile against a surface: if the surface is hard and unyielding, the object will bounce back against the thrower. However, if the surface yields somewhat and absorbs the blow, it will not bounce back.

We have remarked numerous times that the physical and spiritual worlds share the same Designer, and therefore certain patterns repeat themselves both spiritually and physically. In this case, there seems to be a profound truth to the idea that when a malignant force is directed at another, but that recipient is not susceptible—meaning, they are not deserving of this malignancy—it will inevitably fall back upon the initiator.

Maharal uses this to explain the well-known and vexing halachic question: why do false witnesses (עדים זוממים) receive the punishment they conspired to impose on their victim only if they are caught after the verdict but before the victim is actually punished? (See Makkos 5b.) If their evil scheme is exposed before the accused is executed, then their malicious intent boomerangs back upon them. However, if the victim was already executed, the evil intentions of the false witnesses do not fall back upon them in the same way.

On a deeper psychological level—following the same patterns as the physical and spiritual worlds—pent-up hateful energy is toxic. On occasion, such energy might be justified when directed at a deserving target, such as in a justified war. However, if we harbor hateful energy and direct it at those who do not deserve it, that malignancy will ultimately come back to harm us instead.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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