forgiveness

[cellio]

I was reading Invisible Lines of Connection by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner this afternoon, where I came across this:

"To be forgiven, you must first learn how to forgive. Many of us waste years waiting to be forgiven. But since we have never offered forgiveness ourselves, we do not know how to recognize it when it is extended to us. To 'forgive' means not only to excuse someone for having committed an offense, but also to renounce anger and claims of resentment. Forgiving someone therefore means that you are willing to endure the risk that he will hurt you in exactly the same way again, but that you trust him not to."

Just some food for thought at the beginning of the month of Elul...

Comments

Wow

[gunhed.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that. Would you mind if I linked to this post in my LJ? I know someone who needs to read this.

Re: Wow

[cellio]

Sure, go for it. I figure anything public is linkable. :-)

[bfly.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's good food for thought. I agree with most of it, but I'm not sure I agree with that last sentence. I think you can forgive someone - i.e., let go of anger and resentment over their behavior - and still quite reasonably choose to withhold the trust that would allow a repeat performance.

[geekosaur]

Hm. My take on that is that while you may have forgiven that particular action, you have not truly forgiven them.