On the Verge of Forgiveness

Is amendment still possible?

“Only painters know that bitter taste when nothing can be corrected or ‘brought back’ (what a luxury for those who work with words)” (Yehudit Hendel).

These are the days of forgiveness – is it possible to forgive the really painful things? Is it in fact possible to ask to be forgiven for them? We will study the words of the Gemara in Masechet Yoma, and the opposite interpretation given to them by two Jewish-French philosophers – Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida.

Rabbi Elhanan Nir is a teacher at the Siach Yitzhak yeshiva, editor of the Shabbat supplement of the Makor Rishon newspaper, a poet, and a writer.