Learn To Forgive by Rabbi Harold Kushner

Rabbi Harold Kushner - Author, Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel, Natick, Massachusetts

Any religion, if you do it wrong, will leave people feeling condemned and dismissed and unworthy and any religion, if you do it right, will leave people feeling cleansed and affirmed. Let me give you one example, forgiveness.

must learn to forgive our parents and children and our neighbors for the imperfect people that we all are. We have trouble forgiving people who have hurt us or disappointed us because we think forgiveness means approval. Excusing, saying it is ok. It wasn’t so bad. Are we not prepared to say that? I want to give you a different way of understanding what it means to forgive somebody. Not as a sign of weakness and concession, but as indication of strength.

Forgiveness is a favor you do yourself, not a favor you do the other person. Forgiveness is something you can do when you are strong enough to let go. When you are strong enough to say, you, because of what you did to me, don’t deserve the power to be the ghost inside my head. Forgiveness can rejuvenate. In forgiveness, you will find freedom.