Good Teshuva Throw-Away Line
My annual Rosh Hashanah shiur is now available for download
A bit of review of important themes in the machshavah of Rosh Hashanah. A few new themes developed (Malchus Hashem; why we have festive meals) Some shorter pieces. Pretty much something for everyone, except those who respond best to moving stories, of which I had none to offer this year. Torah from the Chasam Sofer, Rav Kook, Ramchal, R Simcha Zisel, and R Yechezkel Lipshitz. Now available for download, till Dropbox discovers the traffic. [NB Through the suggestion of a reader, the file has been converted to mp3, making for a much faster download]
I will share my best/only throw-away line for those who have the good sense not to listen to the shiur. It is built on an anecdote William Kristol told at the Tikvah Institute for Yeshiva Men. He related how his father, the late Irving Kristol, had defined a neo-conservative as a liberal who had been mugged by reality. A protogee of his then quipped that a neo-liberal was also a liberal who had been mugged by reality, but who refused to press charges.
Failure to do teshuva in Elul means that although we have been mugged by the reality of aveirah, we too refuse to press charges.
A 180MB .wav file? You should convert it to mp3, then Dropbox will never object and people can download it in a reasonable length of time.
[YA Thanks for the great suggestion. Working on it. First step is to find an online converter that will accept a file greater than 100MB]
It seems to me that there are two very different entities doing the forgiving here, which makes all the difference in the world. It is much easier for G-d to forgive us, simply because He is not really affected by anything that we do. But to ask our fellow human beings to forgive us for wrongs we do against them, is quite a different matter, since human beings, being so fragile, do get deeply affected by the wrongs done to them. While there is some room for forgiveness in some situations involving some people, there also has to remain the consequences for one’s behavior, so as to help train people to become better people, or at least reduce how much we harm one another.