Teshuvá is the key concept in the rabbinic view of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. The tradition is not of one mind on the steps one must take to repent of one's sins. However, almost all agree that repentance requires five elements: recognition of one's sins as sins (hakarát ha-chét'), remorse (charatá), desisting from sin (azivát ha-chét'), restitution where possible (peira'ón), and confession (vidúi).
http://www.crosscurrents.org/blumenthal.htm
A New York Times op-ed column by Roger Cohen discusses the candidacy of Egyptian Farouk Hosny to head to head the United Nations cultural agency Unesco, and his past talk of burning Israeli books.
But there are shadows over Hosny. Questioned in Parliament last year about the presence of Israeli books in the Alexandria Library, the minister replied: “Let’s burn these books. If there are any, I will burn them myself before you.”
....Hosny responded with an apology. He “solemnly” regretted his words. The book-burning phrase was “the opposite of what I believe and what I am.” It was uttered “without intention or premeditation.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/opinion/07iht-edcohen.html?_r=1&hp
A white supremacist who killed a postal worker and wounded five people at a Los Angeles area Jewish community center in a 1999 shooting spree says he has renounced his racist views.
In a letter to a Los Angeles Daily News reporter, Buford O. Furrow Jr. says he regrets the pain he has caused.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090906/ap_on_re_us/us_jewish_center_shootings
Whether the two individuals who are the subjects of the articles above are true repentants, it is up to G-d to decide. But, for us, in the month of Elul, let us genuinely regret past transgressions and resolve to desist from the behavior in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment