Q:
Do you have to forgive somebody who tried to destroy you?
A:
If that person doesn’t ask your forgiveness, you’re not obligated to forgive him. If he comes and asks your forgiveness so then you should forgive him. However, if you understand that he’s not sincere and he intends to persist in his wickedness then you don’t have to forgive him.
Now, actually you never have to forgive a man. If you don’t want to forgive, you don’t have to. But you have to know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu deals with people as they deal onto others and all of us have plenty of things that we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be good enough to forgive us. So He says נושא עון ועובר על פשע: למי נושא עון למי שעובר על פשע – you want Me to forgive you? Then you should forgive others (Rosh Hashanah 17a). And if you won’t forgive others, you may be within your rights, but I won’t forgive you.
So therefore it pays for a person to be mochel because everybody will have to get some charity from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Nobody can stand on his rights with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. כי לא יצדק לפניך כל חי, Dovid said. No living person is righteous in Your eyes (Tehillim 143:2). And so it’s middah keneged middah.
TAPE # 227 (August 1978)
