Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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If we are to forgive, there is so much to forget. Perhaps too much.
Tonight, the Jewish world begins the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
It is the most solemn reminder that people make mistakes, people can be hateful, hurtful and lack the humility that allows communities, countries and colleagues to work together for mutual benefit. Simply put, it is a centuries-old affirmation that humans are, well, human, and that the only way to move forward with all of our faults and frailties is to not only be forgiven but to forgive ourselves.
In the Jewish tradition, it is said that for all the sins we commit against God and his commandments, only he can forgive. That is what we pray for during Yom Kippur, so that we will be inscribed in the Book of Life for yet another year.
But there is an equally compelling facet of forgiveness that in today’s world may have more immediate application. And that is that forgiveness of the sins we commit against each other — our neighbors and those we do not know — can only come from those whom we have wronged.
And to figure out that scorecard in today’s world of the upside down takes a talent which, I admit, I am sorely lacking.
I am focused mostly on the future of the state of Israel. As an American Jew — and especially as a person who grew up in a home committed to not only the birthing of the Jewish state but its continued well-being — I have always been supportive and appreciative of the close relationship between the United States and the Jewish state.
As the only democracy in the turbulence that is the Middle East, Israel’s values and America’s values have bound one to the other.
From the beginning, when the ashes of the Holocaust led our somewhat guilt-ridden country to do the right thing and recognize Israel’s existence as well as its right to exist throughout ensuing decades of wars for survival in the most hostile neighborhood on Earth, there was never a question about our friendship and dedication to each other.
But, today, long after the patriots of Israel who fought and survived the longest of odds have left the scene, and long after those in America who volunteered to help make it all happen have also departed, there is a breach in that unbreakable bond.
And I, for one, blame some of my fellow Americans and, yes, some of my Jewish brethren, for the rending of what should be the unrendable.
It is not my desire to inject politics — as petty as they may be these days — into a discussion of such important matters like faithfulness to God’s plan, but the smallest of minds have injected fear where a belief in something so much bigger than ourselves has always carried the day.
Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, began a little more than a week ago. On that same day, a former president couldn’t help himself when he spewed the antisemitic tropes of yesteryear and yesterday in his continuing effort to embolden the haters in his midst — of which there are plenty — and to divide Jewish voters over the issue of Israel.
While I have never expected anything else from the narcissist-in-chief, I do expect more from my fellow Americans and, especially, my Jewish brethren when it comes to buying the hate that Donald Trump is selling.
And therein lies my dilemma this Yom Kippur.
I know what the generation before me sacrificed for America and for Israel so that these democracies could survive and prosper. And I hate to see it squandered by people today who refuse to acknowledge their own complicity in what could be the demise of a democratic Israel — not to mention the stress to our own democracy all this has caused here at home.
And that is where I am having trouble regarding this forgiveness thing.
I can forgive almost anything — and I have during my life. But for people who should know better to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to that which they know is right, and by doing so condoning all that is so very wrong, well, that’s where I have a problem.
God can forgive all he wants. But if man has to forgive other men (and women) for the harm they are doing to Israel and America then, perhaps, some of us just need a little more time.
My prayer for this Yom Kippur is that people of good will and good intentions have the time to do just that. To those people so inclined, I wish an easy fast and a very happy and peaceful new year.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
