{"id":281564,"date":"2026-09-08T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281564\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:36:10","slug":"remember-when-a-time-to-forgive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281564\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember When: A Time to Forgive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Courtesy of Jewish Exponent Archives<\/p>\n

As we look forward to the new year, we also reflect on our past.<\/p>\n

Looking back at the history of Jewish Philadelphians, we find them, too, reflecting for their own Rosh Hashanah \u2014 and practicing forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Congregation Mikveh Israel during the month of Elul, members gather before dawn twice each week to recite the penitential prayers of Selichot \u2014 forgiveness,\u201d wrote Jewish Exponent staff writer Marilyn Silverstein in a Sept. 9, 1999, article titled \u201cA Time to Forgive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silverstein noted synagogues in Philadelphia encouraging their congregants to reflect and forgive for Rosh Hashanah 5760.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Shabbat Selichot, before Rosh Hashanah, in the sanctuary of Congregation Mishkan Shalom, members washed each other\u2019s hands, symbolically granting each other the spiritual balm of forgiveness,\u201d Silverstein wrote. \u201cAt the Germantown Jewish Centre on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, women of the congregation will give witness to stories from the Bible, the community and their own personal lives in an exploration of the limits of forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

That year, Temple Sinai in Dresher, Congregation Mikveh Israel, Congregation Mishkan Shalom and Germantown Jewish Centre encouraged their congregants to focus on letting go and forgiving.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t a coincidence. Silverstein wrote that throughout the Jewish world, Elul is considered a time of forgiveness. That year in particular, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America issued a sourcebook, \u201cA Time to Forgive,\u201d to many Orthodox synagogues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program aims, in this season of repentance, to bring families together across the country to study the nature of sin, remorse, regret and response,\u201d Silverstein wrote, quoting Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein, co-editor of \u201cA Time to Forgive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silverstein explained it was believed that forgiveness in Elul and atonement of their sins during Yom Kippur were different, distinct processes. \u201cYom Kippur, the day of atonement, can [affect] atonement only for the sins one has committed against God. But if one has offended another person, even if only verbally, one must beg that person\u2019s forgiveness directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy of Jewish Exponent Archives As we look forward to the new year, we also reflect on our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[117677,117678,117679,69,71,70,19788,117680],"class_list":["post-281564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-congregation-mikveh-israel","tag-elul","tag-germantown-jewish-centre","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-remember-when","tag-rosh-hashanah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}