For the past 10 days, Jews around the world have celebrated Rosh Hoshanna and Yom Kippur, the High Holy Days. Rosh Hoshanna ushers in the new year on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is the big one, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the 28 hours, beginning at sundown, of fasting and praying for the all of yours and the world's, sins to be erased. A very intense way to spend 28 hours.
Yom Kippur is the day you stand before God and ask for forgiveness for all your indiscretions throughout the previous year. Most of us ask for forgiveness for things such as using God's name in vain (guilty) to lewdness (most times not guilty). The main theme of Yom Kippur is forgiveness from God and God allowing you to forgive for yourself for doing these bad things. By forgiving yourself, and being forgiven, you can move on with your life until the next time you stand before God.
I am all about forgiving. I can easily forgive an unkind word or action, given time. Jews have long memories. Forgiveness is most difficult when there has been a pain inflicted of such magnitude, that forgiving the evil responsible seems impossible.
Evil is one thing I take issue with regarding forgiveness. Have the Jews really forgiven the Romans for destroying the Temple or the Nazi's for trying to wipe us out? Is forgiveness the outcome of long memories - Never Forget, but forgive?
I had a run-in with pure evil over 15 years ago. I have been forgiven by those closest to me for allowing evil into our lives, but I have not forgiven the evil. Today I realized I must forgive the evil so that I can forgive myself. God has forgiven me, of that I am sure. I don't believe this sort of evil is forgiveable, therefore I will carry this for the rest of my life. I will find myself standing before God on an annual basis, unable to forgive.
Evil got its day in court and will only see sunlight from a cage for the next 20 years. Evil will get its time before God, or in Hell, most likely. I can say that we stopped evil from affecting anyone else and 40 years in a cage is a long time. The cost, however, is enormous and life-changing. I cannot find it in my heart to forgive evil.
I believe in a lot of things. God, a Great Spirit, Mother Nature. God is hard to believe in because he asks so much of you. Only eat certain foods. Light the candles for the Sabbath weekly and bring God into your life three times a day. Mother Nature on the other hand, is God in female form, one who brings harmony and an appreciation of her beauty and her fury into life on a daily basis. There is beauty in birth and death and rebirth. There is no beauty in evil.
