Yesterday, Dennis Prager had cited the counsel of Maimonides* on how to apologize. Today, I Googled "apology" and "Maimonides" to see what came up. I found this on Cold Fury. Dennis Prager wrote an article recommending how a high-ranking Senator should handle having said something bone-headed, and what an apology should look like.
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In the hope that it will help anyone, public or private, who wishes to be forgiven for a sin, here are two guidelines taken from the "laws of penitence" as codified by the 12th-century Jewish philosopher Maimonides. The first thing a penitent must do is acknowledge precisely what he did and precisely describe it to the injured party. It is entirely insufficient to tell a business partner from whom you have stolen, "I'm sorry for any thing I did that might have hurt you." You must say, "I stole $10,000 from you while you trusted me as your business partner." Second, a penitent must offer restitution.
Just in case you were wondering.
It's interesting, also, to read the comments on the affair. The post's author, Sasha Castel, is not prepared to give the Senator the benefit of the doubt. After the two-step apology process is laid out, Sasha says:
Will it ever happen? I don't think so.
Two other people commented, with similar amounts of charity:
Yeah, well that would require him to be really regret that, and it looks like he regrets saying it far more than he regrets thinking it.
That's what it comes down to. If it was really a case that he opened his mouth and said something without thinking, and he really understood why what he said was so offensive, then a wholehearted apology would have been an extraordinarily easy thing to give. The only thing the absense of a quick, wholehearted apology can possibly indicate is that he does not think that what he said was offensive.
It sounds like the guy can't do anything to redeem himself.
* Moses ben Maimon, 12th C.
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