“ Take a feather pillow- cut it open and let the feathers scatter in the wind. Wait a day and then go and gather up all those feathers”
The above scenario is, according to tradition, what the tale-bearer was told to do to make amends for the ‘lashon Hara” (disparaging remarks) he spoke about someone .
In other words, it is impossible to truly make amends for sullying someone’s name.
How much worse is it when an ‘eminent ‘ ‘impartial’ judge publishes a damning judgment against an entire country, the State of Israel, full of lies, false accusations and fabrications. Judge Goldstone’s report which accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity, caused hatred against the country , destroyed its name and the reputation of its army, one of the most humane armies ever to reluctantly take up arms.
Eighteen months later, for some reason which is not yet clear, Goldstone decides to admit that his report was without foundation, totally wrong and was set up to be biased against Israel from the start.
Is Judge Goldstone’s conscience clear now after that op-ed in the Washington Post?
It shouldn’t be.
Now he has to travel the world from country to country, to the United Nations and all European and international organizations and gather up the feathers sullied with lies, hatred and Jewish blood that he has thrown to the wind.
Only when he has confessed his libelous and slanderous crimes to all those he persuaded to accept his report as ‘factual and honest’ ,will he be able to beg Israel’s forgiveness.
And still it is too late – for those feathers can never be gathered up again. Words, once said, can never be unsaid and reports once written can never be unwritten.
1 comment:
I love your use of the feathers analogy. It is so appropriate. Of course, it won't make amends even if he could gather up every single feather. Once a slander has been spoken there's always a doubt in the minds of listeners however convincing the argument may be for later withdrawing that slander.
p.s. As a child I used to think that 'lashon Hara' had something to do with lockshen pudding. Oh to be young and living in my own simple world once more!
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