Fatherly Forgiveness

God said, 'I will grant forgiveness as you have requested.’

                                                                    Numbers 14:20

            Thanks to my grandson, who was then seven and a half years old, I understood the greatness of God’s declaration “I will grant forgiveness as you have requested.” Tzur did something and I asked him not to do it again. A minute or two later, Tzur repeated the behavior, to which I responded “I am angry at you.” A few minutes later, Tzur came back to me and apologized, to which I replied “I grant forgiveness as you have requested.”

            Immediately, I began to reflect, realizing that with a child other than my grandchild, I would not have so easily or so thoroughly forgiven the infraction.

            God instructs us to behave in specific ways and to refrain from specific behaviors. We do not always follow God’s commands, yet we turn to God and ask His forgiveness. It is not to be taken for granted that God forgives us. When the Holy One, blessed be He, declares “I will grant forgiveness as you have requested” it is a tremendous expression of His fatherly love for His nation Israel.

            (Since this episode, I have hoped to find a Midrash which  compares God’s love of Israel to the love between a grandparent and a grandchild.)

            When Rabbi Ḥayyim Shmuelevitz (1902-1979, Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva) overlooked the traditional monument of Absalom, he would lift his eyes in prayer and say “Master of the universe: when a person tells his fellow “I forgive you,” it is merely words. Only a father intends such words sincerely. Behold! Though King David’s son rebelled against him and caused him untold suffering, still, as a father, he forgave Absalom. Master of the universe: You are our father and Your forgiveness is sincere, I beseech You, utter the words “I forgive.”