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Shalom and Peace:
We will continue to look in depth at some of the many verses held in common by Judaism and Christianity, and at the same time, understand their Jewish Rabbinical roots.
Matthew 5:23-24 teaches: ''If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your fellow has anger against you; take your gift from the altar, and go your way, and first be reconciled to your fellow, and then come and offer your gift.''
500 years or so before Matthew, the oral tradition of Talmud Yoma 8:9 states: ''For transgressions that are between man and God, repentance effects atonement; but for transgressions that are between a man and his fellow, repentance effects atonement only if he has appeased his fellow.''
Judaism teaches that sincere repentance to God, for sins against God, via simple prayer, are immediately forgiven. "The Gates of Repentance are always open (Midrash).'' But to sit in synagogue on Yom Kippur, during the Jewish Autumn High Holy Days, and harbor resentments, or not make amends (teshuvah) to those we have harmed, is an affront to God.
Even if we believe that the other person has harmed us, and they have not made amends to us, we still need to make amends to them, without mentioning their role. "One moment of repentance and good deeds in This World is better than all of Life in the World to Come (Pirkei Avot 4:22).''
Through teshuvah, we will return those whom we have harmed to the state they were in before becoming the victim of our ill behavior. Tell them we wish to make amends. Our intention is to make amends for our selfishness, dishonesty, ego, or whatever we did to hurt this person. What they did is of no consequence.
When we experience fear, or arrogance, about doing teshuvah, having trust in an infinite God, and not in our finite selves, will help us defeat these fears. "There is no one so righteous in the world who does only good, but has never sinned." (Proverbs 7:20). Doing Teshuvah is a humbling process that will deflate our ego, but, fortunately, we are not left to do it alone. We just need to get the process started, and then God will join in and help us surmount the difficulty.
Blessings for spiritual Holy Days to my Jewish friends, and love of our fellows, to all.
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