I have a very serious question and I need answers that are true and not really opinion. Here are my questions:
1. A person who holds to political views that hurt another group/race/culture, are they obligated to seek forgiveness from said group?
2. A person that hurts another without knowledge of causing said hurt, are they obligated to seek forgiveness from that person once that person informs them of the hurt? What about, if they don’t believe they did wrong?
3. In our bedtime Shema we say “Master of the universe, I hereby forgive anyone who has angered or vexed me or sinned against me, whether physically or financially, against my honor or against anything else that belongs to me, whether accidentally or intentionally, inadvertently or deliberately, by speech or by deed….. How can we get up the next day and post/say/feel the same ager and hate towards others that we felt the day before?
4. How do you forgive those that show hate towards a group/race/culture when they, themselves don’t see that they are doing it and therefore NEVER seek forgiveness for that pain they cause?
As you may see my heart is burden today as we move closer to Yom Kippur. I see post by my fellow Jews that are so filled with hate and pain and out-right distrust. I have, over the past few days been trying to figure out just how to forgive and let it all go, in spite of the fact, they, themselves have never sought forgiveness. I fear that we have become so engrossed in our “who’s right and who’s wrong” that we forgot that on both sides are people. We no long call each other brother or sister. It is now liberals vs conservatives and left vs right.
Yet, we are all to stand before the judge of all things and feel clean and forgiven. How can any Jew agree with such hopefulness and still believe he/she is a righteous person? Friends, my heart is heavy with these and other matters today.
Living in Germany, I see and feel the rise of the most hateful, vail people in all the world. Someone shared with me an incident that happened over the weekend at Ikea. A group of young men were calling names to certain people who were going to shop. When reported to the store, they called the police and the men were removed. What I found most troubling is the fact they felt OK to do such a thing. One older women said to me, this is how it all happened before.
The Joys Of Home 