Parashat

Nitsavim-VaYelech

Rav Haim Lifshitz

Essays and Articles:

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Jewish Forgiveness and Christian Forgiveness

 Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai

Childish forgiveness is an external expression, a lip service, a sort of code in a game of role-playing, in which the kindergarten teacher determines the rules of the game.

Very gradually, the expression of forgiveness undergoes a process of deepening and internalization, within the personalities of both sides.  The forgiveness of the adult has a social function, addressing the arena of interpersonal relations more than one's relations with one's self.  This forgiveness deals with the connection rather than with the substance.  One requesting forgiveness is not expressing a wish to repair the injustice, but rather to repair the connection with the victim who has been harmed.

Such is the Protestant forgiveness.  Christianity does not believe in repair at all.  Catholics do not believe in the human ability to repair, and this inability dates from the Original Sin.  At best, man can recognize his wretched and shameful situation, and deepen his dependency upon his lord, and this is all his lord expects from a creature as base as he.

Protestants do not speak, as Catholics do, of confession, of making one’s guilt known and recognizing man’s wretched situation.  Rather they speak of man as an egocentric, egoistic center, who recognizes his dependency upon the Creator of the universe, and who therefore sees himself as important and as the principal factor, and also the Creator agrees with him, and blesses him with success.  This means:  If I am successful, my success is the sign of God’s loving me.  Therefore I deserve it, and the fruits of my success are mine alone, and I am not required to bestow of my success upon, or share of my success with – anyone.

I request forgiveness for a failure that puts me at risk of spoiling my relations with the Creator of the universe, and therefore the making of an apology is the expression of a request to repair a connection, and not to repair the sin, or my own self.  This too grows out of the assumption that man has lost the capacity for repair.  “Distorted beyond repair” is this utterly wretched organism, and he is slave to his arbitrary fate.  Only repair of the relationship with the Creator of the universe holds out the chance for improving the condition of the connection, and of all the abundance entailed in that connection.

Jewish forgiveness (teshuva) touches the infrastructure of the Godly quality inherent in a human being.  One who asks forgiveness is expressing a consciousness of sin, and a consciousness of the need for repair, and a knowledge that that repair has two sides to it, which are both connected to the covenant: It is ben adam laMakom, between oneself and God, in mutual guarantee, and it is, needless to say, between the harmer and the harmed, when it involves relations ben adam la’havero, between oneself and one’s fellow human being.

Therefore the meaning of forgiveness is that after admission of guilt comes the will to repair the damage done, both baheftsa, at the objective level, and bagavra, at the subjective level, on both sides.  At the level of the condition of the quality of the self, for it is there that the roots of repair are embedded, in one’s midot, one's personal character traits, and in repairing the heftsa, the objective damage done – done also to the one who committed the sin, and not only to the one who was harmed.  In addition to this, there is the will to repair the relations between them, but this is not the main issue of forgiveness.

Group Repentance and Private Repentance
In the Bible, individual repentance is not specifically mentioned.  The sages of the Talmud delve in great depth into a description of the introspective thoughts of teshuva experienced by Cain, by Lemech, by David, etc.  However, the Bible itself deals with teshuva, in which the Jewish people were influenced to  undertake the return to teshuva by a king, by Moses, by a prophet (Elijah at Mount Carmel), at the covenant in the wilderness of Moab, and by the kings of Judah, Jo’ash and Josiah.  The priest Joyada manages to bring the people to repentance in the name of a king who is only seven years old.  In the Book of Chronicles, the subject of bringing the public to teshuva, is dealt with in reference to the reign of Ma’acha and in the beginning of the reign of Asa, king of Judah. 

We have here a functional teshuva, born of distress.

Objective repentance versus subjective repentance.  (Remorse -  sounding the ram's horn.)  Between the group and the private individual, a dialectic  of absurdity exists, which reflects  the formula of the two contradictory scriptures, which only a third scripture can resolve.

An absolutely objective teshuva means transforming the subject, transforming the self (the self’s capacity) into an absolute object, by attributing an absolute capacity for repair to the subjective human being.  Here we have the absolute height of optimism.  An absurdity, it transforms the absolutely subjective into the absolutely objective.  Such is the mysterious substance of – and the key to – Jewish repentance.

Guilt Feelings:  Guilt feelings blur the distinct, uniquely original self.  Imitativeness and guilt are the result of an overemphasis upon what is common to all creatures.  Guilt feelings are a source of anti-teshuva: They engender pessimism and limitedness, immortalizing limitedness through competitive comparison.

The Jewish repentance connects the previous year with the coming year.  It grants continuity and renewal.  It separates the consummable from the waste, asks forgiveness for the waste and requests reward for investment.  “Let a year and its curses cease, let a year and its blessings commence.”   Jewish repentance makes a year impoverished at its beginning - wealthy at its end.

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