Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- Yom Kippur
Another powerful but really very obvious lesson of Yom Kippur is the blessed consequences of the ability to repent and forgive. All of this is easier said than done. Personal hurts done to us by others leave deep and painful scars. So forgiveness, in the truest sense of the word, becomes painful and emotionally wrenching. Nevertheless, forgiving others is really the chief means at our disposal of cleansing our souls and our inner selves. It removes the corroding bitterness that changes for the worse our personalities and nature. Brooding over past hurts only intensifies the pain that those hurts originally caused. Forgiveness allows one to move on in life and not dwell on past events and constantly relive pain and embarrassment. We are not "a turn the other cheek" people and there are certainly circumstances that do not warrant forgiveness. But in the main, forgiveness is a positive step in helping build our spiritual self and in ennobling our character. Repentance is also a difficult concept to actualize. To say that "I was wrong" or that "I am truly sorry" are difficult words to get out of our mouths. And paradoxically enough these words are far easier to say to God, so to speak, than they are to a fellow human being. In fact, the closer we are to the person - a relative, a friend, partner, business associate, employer, employee - who was wronged by our words or deeds, the more difficult the apology becomes. Yet, God’s forgiveness of us, so to speak, hinges upon our ability to forgive others as well. A person who is unforgiving and overly exacting in interpersonal relationships will be treated by Heaven in the same fashion. So Yom Kippur demands of us contriteness, a lowering of ego and a serenity of spirit that can encompass all around us as well.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
