Dear
Readers,
These columns began on my area of America Online, called: Judaism
Today: Where Do I Fit? People anonymously
sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response
in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become
quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many
Jewish papers and websites. I hope you find they help you
as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood
components of the Jewish way of Life. I welcome your
comments... see the end of the column.
Gil
PS
Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward
them or use them as you see fit. Please see the friendly
copyright notice at the end. |
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Monica,
President Clinton & Rosh Hashanah
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Tired
of reading, watching and hearing about
Monica and Bill? I am. From the front
screen of AOL to the front page of the
National Enquirer and our local
newspapers, we are bombarded.
As
this whole thing has unfurled, like
everyone else I suppose, I have had
lots of questions like:
Did
Clinton perjure himself?
What
is really motivating Ken Starr?
Who
is this Monica person anyway?
Did
they really do that!!!?
Of
course, I have no answers and I have
often found myself saying "This
is all very interesting but there's
not much I can do about any of
it."
Well,
recently, I changed my mind. I decided
there is something I could do--and it
relates to Rosh Hashanah.
Specifically,
I zeroed in on something President
Clinton has been talking so much about
recently: apologizing and repenting
for wrong behavior. He has even quoted
a Jewish High Holiday prayer book! (He
openly quoted the source.) I decided,
that while I can do little about all
the events we are reading about, I can
and should give thought to the noble
idea of repentance--it is after all,
one of the major themes of the High
Holidays.
The
Hebrew word usually mentioned is
t'shuva. The word refers to
"returning" from bad
behavior and instead adopting good
behavior.
Here
I want to say in clear terms, for now,
I don't care to get into whether
Monica, Bill or Ken are right or wrong
or are decent or crummy people. I will
let the rest of the media pontificate
on that. I am not going to try to
convince you of anything relative to
the different characters or issues in
"zippergate."
Instead,
I want to share with you some
wonderful postings that I gleaned from
JCOM message boards. These are the
voices of Jews "on the
street." Some are simple, some
profound. I chose them because they
personally spoke to me. I hope you
feel as I do, that these plain talking
and honest comments offer valuable
insights as we enter the New Year and
contemplate how we can become better
people.
(Some
of these comments are running dialogue
from different people, some I have
edited)
1:
True t'shuva means turning away--all
the way from sin! This is a hard thing
to do.
2:
It also means admitting you sinned in
the first place, which a lot of people
find even harder to do! Then
correcting the sin, and finally not
repeating the sin.
3.
Even more important than turning to
God for forgiveness, is turning to
each other for forgiveness, which is
also much harder. Why is it harder to
ask someone we've wronged for
forgiveness than asking God?
4.
Because they may not forgive you.
5.
Or, worse than simply not forgiving,
is the fear that they will rake us
over the coals first, and then still
not forgive. No one wants to feel like
a fool for doing the right thing.
6.
By asking others for forgiveness, we
place ourselves in a very vulnerable
position, on emotional and ego levels.
Personally speaking, there were times
when I should have asked for
forgiveness, but didn't want to look
weak. Sad but true.
7.
You'd think it would be easier to
forgive than to ask for forgiveness,
too. But I find that it's easy to say
"Apology accepted," or
"I forgive you," but if I am
badly hurt, it is very hard to truly
forgive in my heart.
8.
Why is t'shuva so hard to do? Because
t'shuva by the laws of nature is
impossible. For a broken glass cannot
be made whole, a ripped garment like
it once was. However, Hashem's eternal
kindness allows us to
"repent." But it's not an
easy process. In a nutshell, I'll
paraphrase from Sharrei T'shuva By
Rabbenu Yona:
The
Essential Steps to t'shuva:
A)
Regret B) Confession (not to a Rabbi,
simply aloud-to God) C) Sincere
commitment never to sin again.
To
me there is a lot of wisdom in these
comments. If President Clinton is
indeed serious about repenting, then
perhaps some of these thoughts about
t'shuva will be of value to
him...though as far as I know, he is
not a regular visitor to Judaism
Today: Where Do I Fit? (Darn!)
As
for those of you who are visiting this
site, I hope that these comments by
fellow Jews can add meaning to your
High Holidays this year. If you like
them, pass this on to your rabbi.
Maybe he or she will share them with
their congregation. I know that I will
be thinking about some of these words
as I reflect this year on how I have
done wrong and how I can do better in
the coming year.
I
want to end this year's responses with
the Jewish tradition of apologizing to
you if I have offended or hurt you in
these Responses of the Week, in my
emails back to you or in any other
way. This was certainly not my
intention.
I
wish you and those you love a happy
and healthy New Year!
Gil
A FRIENDLY COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© Copyright Gil Mann
These columns can be found at www.beingjewish.org. Not
only do I give you permissions to copy these Jewish Email
columns...I HOPE YOU WILL and that you share them with others!
All I ask is that you never charge anyone for them and that you
also include this little copyright notice. Thank You!
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