Forgiveness and its lack...the collective result

I have been reflecting on something a longstanding Jewish friend said about forgiveness recently and how, if he were able to forgive the Holocaust, he would know he had really reached a high level of consciousness. I have no answers and know relatively little about the Jewish community though my roots some 125 years ago may have been Jewish. I have always been fascinated by what took place and naively believed for a long time that it was the only example of of such severe atrocities but my knowledge of history plus subsequent events in places like Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia proved that to be very wrong.

So, when such atrocities occur, how can one forgive and what are the impacts on the collective community of not doing so? I don't have many answers and so I posed the question in an email to that friend and copied it to two other mutual Jewish friends in the hope that they could cast some light on the subject for me.

The email read:

Dear Craig

In quiet moments, a couple of times I thought about what you said about forgiveness of the Holocaust and how you will know you have truly mastered forgiveness and yourself when you can achieve that. Though I have nothing to add as to how to do it or anything useful (since it is such a big subject), I did however wonder what the impact of lack of forgiveness was likely to be doing to the Jewish community as a whole (not each and every individual but the generic group or majority).

I start from an individual perspective on forgiveness (as I said, I did 3 short videos on the subject that are on YouTube) and the reason I chose it was because, in my life, forgiveness was what liberated my spirit to allow me to find my true self, freedom and happiness, allowing my spirit to soar to new heights of awareness.

On an individual basis, a lack of forgiveness eats at the person from inside and also holds them back in life. As I often say, it is like swallowing poison expecting the person you are angry or resentful at to drop down dead! It is a silent poison, one that may not be at all apparent in its impact and its impact will indeed vary according to the intensity of the anger and resentment and the nature of the individual concerned but my brother's disease of cancer was a typical reaction for being "eaten away" - the body reflects its energetic balance or imbalance and how the imbalance is typically expressed (as in "he is eaten away with...") is often a clue as to how it will show up.

One further step beyond this is the fact that in reality everyone and everything is connected, all one, part of a greater whole that some call God, Allah or the universe. That oneness means that whatever applies on an individual level will also apply on a collective level, whatever the size of the relevant collective group involved (be it just 5 people, a million or hundreds of millions).

So this then begs the question, "What could be the hidden impact on the Jewish community or at least those that are still affected by the Holocaust?" I have no answers for you or even ideas on how it shows up (though it must have an impact and that the impact must be a negative one), but I thought I would share my intrigue with you and if you have a moment of quiet reflection, perhaps you could dwell on it and perhaps share any insights or observations with me.

Incidentally, I am not suggesting anyone "should" forgive the Holocaust: I don't believe in "shoulds" and people must always do what feels right for them. I am just intrigued to understand forgiveness at a still deeper level, on a collective level, and if I too get any further thoughts on it I will let you know.

Best wishes

Maitland

PS I am copying this to June as I would like to hear what she and Leon have to say on the subject.