Rabbi Nancy Rita Myers
Forgiveness is hard but so necessary
A rabbi delivered a sermon one morning about the importance of forgiving one’s enemy. Immediately afterwards, he asked, “How many of you are willing to forgive your enemies?” About half held up their hands. Not satisfied, he repeated his question. This time, he received a response of about 80 percent. Still unconvinced, he asked again. With all thoughts now on lunch, everyone raised their hands except one elderly lady in the rear. "Mrs. Cohen, are you not willing to forgive your enemies?" the rabbi wearily inquired.
"I don't have any," she replied. "Mrs. Cohen, that is very unusual. How old are you?" "Ninety three," she asserted. "Mrs. Cohen, please come down in front and tell the congregation how a person can live to be ninety-three, and not have an enemy in the world." The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, very slowly turned around, and said, "It's easy, I just outlived the bastards."
So if your rabbi were to ask you, “How many of you are willing to forgive your enemies?” How would you respond? Maybe we can consider it for the sake of our health, wellbeing, family, and friendship circle. Selicha, forgiveness, is hard. It’s hard to let go but often we have to. We can’t wait to outlive our adversaries, instead we can try to live and let live. With an open heart, an openness for selicha, we can move on to a new stage of relating to others and living our lives fully.
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