The Sunflower

Theodore Hesburgh begins by claiming no right to give opinion on a person of another opinion with regard to the question of forgiveness. At the request of Wiesenthal, he continues by stating that, as a Catholic priest, his instinct is to forgive, because that is the basis upon which his entire religious movement is built, “God as the forgiver of sinful humanity” (169). 

Abraham Joshua Heschel uses a parable to illustrate his response to Wiesenthal’s question. A rabbi is treated with disrespect by a man who doesn’t know he is the rabbi. When the man learns the rabbi’s identity, he begs for forgiveness, and the rabbi refuses. The rabbi’s reason for not giving forgiveness is that the offence was committed against a common man, albeit one who doesn’t exist, whom the offender first thought the rabbi to be. Heschel’s summation is that “no one can forgive crimes committed against other people” (171). 

Susannah Heschel begins by stating that she “would have done exactly as Simon Wiesenthal did” (172).

She explains that the sins of the Nazis fall under the two categories of sin for which, under Judaism, no

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