[Cz-L] forgiveness

 Here we go again... Do we forgive?

Sometime ago, one of our friends received an answer from his Rabbi, which I am
resending. I think it is worthwhile reading and remembering it.

"I have an acquaintance who was born in Germany, but raised most of his life in
the USA. His father was a member of the Nazi youth. I find this very difficult
to ignore. My friend is not like his father. Yet he made a point to tell me of

his father's past and his father's hatred of Jews.

Can I truly befriend such a person??"

Answer:

There is a precedent for your question. It goes all the way back to the story of

Purim.

Haman was the wicked Persian minister who plotted the annihilation of the Jewish

people. Through a complex sequence of seeming coincidences that were only
retrospectively recognized as miraculous, his plot was overturned, the Jews
saved, and Haman executed on the very gallows he had prepared for the Jewish
leader Mordechai.

We celebrate the festival of Purim to remember Haman's downfall and the victory
of the Jewish people over their enemies. But there is a little known ironic
addendum to the story. Haman's relationship with the Jewish people continued
posthumously in a most curious way.

The Talmud relates that "Haman's grandchildren studied Torah in BneiBrak." That
means Haman had Jewish offspring. The very man who wanted to destroy the Jews
had rabbis as his descendants.

When the Haman family came to convert to Judaism, their background was known,
and yet they were embraced by the Jewish people as one of us. Indeed a the great
Talmudic rabbi, Shmuel bar Shilas, was a member of that family.

We don't hold children culpable for the wrongs of their fathers. A child or
grandchild of a monster who disassociates from the evils of the past should be
accepted for who they are. Whether Persian or German or Amalekite, the gates of
reconciliation are always open.2

We should never exonerate unrepentant perpetrators of evil. But their innocent
children who actively repudiate their ways, move to a new society and adopt
different values, should not suffer for the moral failures of their forebears.

Haman was evil. His grandchildren weren't. They celebrated Purim too. What
better expression of the triumph of good over evil can there be than that.

Good Shabbos and Happy Purim,

Rabbi Moss-Nefesh Synagogue. Sydney, A

Ruth Glasberg Gold

20191 E Country Club Dr, #1802

Aventura, FL 33180 USA

T 305.936.9494

F 305.936.9992

email: glasgold_at_bellsouth.net
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Received on 2013-03-17 20:29:49