Week 3: Response from
Rabbi Joseph Black
During the month of Elul, we are commanded to forgive. We must let go of anger and resentments that build walls between ourselves and those in our families and communities. This is not always an easy thing for us to do.

A story is told about the Nazi hunter, Simon Weisenthal:

There was a man living next to Weisenthal in one of the DP camps after the war. One day, the man borrowed $10 from him and assured him that he had a package coming from a relative any day - and would positively pay him back the next week. At week's end, he had an excuse for not paying, and the next week he had an even better one, and so it went on for almost a year. Finally, one day the man approached Weisenthal with a $10 bill in hand and said: "My visa has just come through. I'm leaving for Canada tomorrow, Here's the $10 I owe you." Weisenthal waved him away and said: "No, keep it. For $10 it's not worth changing my opinion of you."

It's difficult to bury the past. We know how tempting it is to nourish our anger and hold on to grudges with all of our might. It's not easy to break through the scar tissue that forms around old wounds. The irony of it all, though, is that holding a grudge hurts us more than the person at whom we are angry. Reb Shelomo Carlebach was a Vienna-born folksinger and teacher who fled from the Nazis as a teenager and came to America. A few years before his death, he returned to Austria to give a series of concerts. Someone asked him why he did it. "don't you hate them?" this person asked.

Carlebach answered: "If I had two souls, I would devote one to hating them. But since I only have one, I don't want to waste it hating."

Elul gives us a gift: the opportunity to rid ourselves of this excess baggage that brings us down and wears on our souls.

Certainly, there are some actions that cannot be forgiven – but these are few and far between.

Now is the time to assess the power of the resentments and grudges that we carry with us on a daily basis.

Now is the time to rebuild relationships – to tear down walls and build bridges of compassion and openness.

Congregation Albert -- Albuquerque, New Mexico