Jeremy Rosen
Why Do We Repent?
Summary
Jeremy Rosen will take a look at the Book of Jonah which is read on Yom Kippur, exploring the theme of repentance, as opposed to penitence. He also looks at the difference between atonement and forgiveness.
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Both sides utterly believe they are right. And both sides represent two very different worldviews about what a state should be in general and what Israel should be. And the difficulty is that in Israel there are so many different tribes that have so many different views and perspectives, which is why up to now Israel has been so good at finding ways of compromising. And I believe that in the end there will be compromises.
I am very unhappy about synagogues or religious people being judgemental. I have always criticised those synagogues that have banned people for whatever reason if their behaviour changed. Because we do believe, and my monitor says in black and white, if a person’s behaviour has changed, and they’re behaving in a good way, you must not remind them of their past. You must accept their changed state. And it’s forbidden to remind them of the past. Now I’ve come across synagogues who have banned people for sexual abuse, and I think that is something that is something that has to be faced, and the person has to show complete repentance. But at the same time, I happen to know that in so many synagogues there are people who have committed adultery, who have destroyed marriage, who have done horrible things, and they are still treated as important members of the synagogue, sometimes because they give big donations. And so you have a huge moral problem here about how you deal with people who have repented.