The Sunflower

Deborah E. Lipstadt begins with a few words about the Jewish concept of teshuvah, or repentance. She quotes a passage from the Talmud that indicates that God desires the return of the sinner more than he welcomes the righteous one. She acknowledges the difficulty of this idea. She goes on to establish a series of steps required for teshuvah, as a means of evaluating whether the dying Nazi meets the criteria.

“First one must ask forgiveness of the aggrieved party” (194). She states that this must take place before a person can ask God for forgiveness, and adds that it must be “a face-to-face encounter with the aggrieved party” (194). Therefore, it is not sufficient to ask a third party to forgive. Once the repentance is expressed toward the victim, then the sinner can appeal to God for forgiveness, by confessing verbally his sins and then resolving never to commit the act again. But, Lipstadt says, there is yet a higher level, known as teshuvah gemurah, or complete teshuvah, which is “achieved when the individual is in the same situation in which he or she originally sinned and chooses not to repeat the act” (195). Further than teshuvah is the concept of kaparah, or atonement, which takes place “after one bears the consequences of one’s acts” (195).