麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Alex Chapper, Community Rabbi
Borehamwood & Elstree Synagogue

Good morning

It was John F. Kennedy who said: 鈥淔orgive your enemies, but never forget their names.鈥�

A feature of the human condition is that we鈥檙e much quicker to forget the good that other people have done for us than we are to forgive those who鈥檝e wronged us.

We seem to possess selective memory as we unconsciously choose to remember what we want to and forget the rest.

But is this the healthiest way to live our lives?

You see everybody makes mistakes, to paraphrase King Solomon, no-one is totally righteous only doing good and never sinning, and if we want other people to forgive us, then we also have to be prepared to forgive them.

Of course, just as we鈥檙e entitled to physically protect ourselves against those who seek to harm us, so too we have every right to avoid those who threaten our emotional wellbeing -never forgetting the names of those who鈥檝e hurt us in the past.

But bearing a grudge or taking revenge has the potential to cause us greater psychological damage than it will inflict on our intended target.

And so here鈥檚 a little exercise that may help us to maintain the correct perspective.

Whenever someone upsets you, try to recall a moment when they made you happy.

Whenever someone hinders you, try to recall a moment when they helped you.

And if you can鈥檛 think of anything positive to counterbalance what one person did to you then think of how someone else has.

And so let鈥檚 pray that we鈥檙e be quicker to forget when someone has wronged us.

Let鈥檚 be quicker to forgive someone who鈥檚 upset us.

And let鈥檚 be quicker to remember the good others have done for us.

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