Can We Forgive People For Crimes Committed Against Others?

Rabbi Heschel on Simon Wiesenthal's The Sunflower

In his response to Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower—a novel about a Nazi who asks a Jew to forgive him for his crimes—Rabbi A.J. Heschel tells a story/parable about a rabbi who refuses to forgive a man who wronged him. The reason he refuses to forgive the man is that the man wronged him, thinking he was a nobody and only apologizes when he discovers he …