elul studies #4 - so i dub thee unforgiven

8/11/2019 Elul Studies #4 - So I Dub Thee Unforgiven...

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Teshuva and The Modern Jew

Study #4 - So I Dub Thee Unforgiven

{TheSelicha/Mechila Paradox}

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(???)1. Maimonides Hilkhot Teshuva 2:7, 9-10

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7. Yom Kippur is the time of Teshuvah for all, both individuals and the community at large. It is the apex of

forgiveness and pardon for Israel. Accordingly, everyone is obligated to repent and confess on Yom

Kippur.

9. Teshuvah and Yom Kippur only atone for sins between man and God However, sins

between man and man for example, someone who injures a colleague, curses a colleague,

steals from him, or the like will never be forgiven until he gives his colleague what he owes him

and appeases him If [the wronged party] is not appeased, he should repeat the process a

second and third time. If he [still] does not want [to forgive him], he may let him alone and need

not pursue [the matter further]...

10. It is forbidden for a person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. Rather, he should be

easily pacified, but hard to anger. When the person who wronged him asks for forgiveness, he

should forgive him with a complete heart and a willing spirit. Even if he aggravated and wronged

him severely, he should not seek revenge or bear a grudge.

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2. Mishnah Yoma 8:9

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3. b. Yoma 87a-b

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R. Jeremiah injured R. Abba. R. Jeremiah went and sat at R. Abbas doorstep. When R. Abbas

maidservant poured out some wastewater, some streams of water were sprayed on R. Jeremiahs

head. He said, they have made me into refuse, and he read, as pertaining to himself, the verse: God

lifts up the needy from the refuse heap. R. Abba heard him and went out to him. He [R. Abba] said to

him, Now it is I who must appease you, as it is said, go grovel - and badger your fellow.

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When a certain person injured R. Zera, he [R. Zera] would go by and study before him and invite

himself into his presence, so that the injurer would come and appease him.

A certain animal slaughterer injured Rav. [The Slaughterer] did not come [to Rav] on the eve of the Day

of Atonement. Said [Rav], I will go and appease him. R. Huna met him. He said, where is my master

going? He said, To appease so-and-so. [R. Huna] said to [himself] Abba [that is, Rav] is going to kill

a man. Rav went and stood over him. The slaughterer was seated, cleaning the head of an animal. He

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raised his eyes and saw him [Rav]. He said to him, Abba, go; I have no dealings with you. While he

was still cleaning the head, a bone let fly from it, struck the slaughterers neck, and killed him.

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Once Rav was expounding portions of the Bible before Rabbis, and there entered R. Hiyya, whereupon

Rav started again from the beginning; as Bar Kappara entered, he started again from the beginning;

as R. Simeon, the son of Rabbi entered, he started again from the beginning. But when R. Hanina b.

Hama entered, he said: So often shall I go back? And he did not go over it again. R. Hanina took that

amiss. Rav went to him on thirteen eves of the Day of Atonement, but he would not be pacified. But

how could he do so, did not R. Jose b. Hanina Say: One who asks pardon of his neighbour need not do

so more than three times? It is different with Rav. But how could R. Hanina act so [unforgivingly]?

Had not Rava said that if one passes over his rights, all his transgressions are passed over [forgiven]?...

To forgive and forget means to throw away dearly bought experience.

Arthur Schopenhauer

4. Kriyat Shema al ha-Mittah (KorenAni TefillaSiddur, 2014)

5. Jacques Derrida On Forgiveness(Studies in Practical Philosophy, trans. MichaelHughes; 2001) [selections]

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Reddit.com AMA w/David Harris-Gershon, Author of What Do You Buy the Childrenof the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?

7. Midrash Tanhuma, Parshat Metzora

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8. b. Bava Kamma 50a

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9. R. Avraham Isaac ha-Kohen KookShemonah Kevatsim

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10. Simon Wiesenthal The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

(Book II: Symposium) [excerpts]Susannah Heschel:

Cynthia Ozick:

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11. R. KookShemonah Kevatsim 5:196

The greatest forgiveness comes from the source of acts of lovingkindness, from the utmost greatness

and grandeur, which in its infinite broadness can subsume and include all things, even the most

minor details; it knows both the loftiest holiness, the banal and mundane, and the basest, lowest

evil, and knows how to take them all into full consideration and scale, with the deepest

righteousness and honesty. All the inclinations towards evil, destruction, and sick depravity - for

them also is a reckoning, and they will too be brought in for the final accounting, and finally, truth

will be distilled from falsehood, good from evil, and lowliness from the lofty

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It takes a great, brave faith to recognize this vision In the great, overarching, all-encompassing

forgiveness of Yom ha-Kippurim, we can taste and sense this exalted and lofty state of things

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elul studies #4 - so i dub thee unforgiven

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