Repentance consists in first acknowledging sin, “I have done
something wrong,” second, confessing this sin, third, performing
penance, and fourth, accepting that you have been forgiven. But
we can try to go easy on ourselves and fight the personal
acknowledgement of guilt. Let me put this in a manner that is
easier to understand: “I do not do that! I did not do that!”
Yet, even when we break down and acknowledge guilt, we can then
be hard on ourselves, wondering: “Am I even worthy of
forgiveness?” We can let guilt overwhelm us, our sins haunt us,
and our darkness shrouds us. As Moses Maimonides said, though,
in Guide for the Perplexed, God can turn away from a promise of
punishment, but not a promise of mercy and forgiveness, which is
to say, God’s nature is mercy-soaked, for all people. In the
story of Jonah, Jonah goes to a foreign city, the party town of
Nineveh – “what happens in Nineveh, stays in Nineveh,” as the
ancient saying went - and pronounces a prophecy to a foreign
people. When they hear the prop