He begins with the story of Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish. Yochanan, a great rebbe, befriended Lakish, who, at the time, was a brigand. Yochanan was impressed with his intellectual strength as well as his physical stamina. Lakish became an observant Jew and great scholar. He eventually married Yochanan’s daughter. But they had a falling out over an interpretation of Talmud, Yochanan then made a public reference to Lakish’s former life as a brigand. The two never spoke again, indeed, they both died soon after this event. They died unreconciled.
The point is - keep the fight to the issue at hand. Don’t bring up the past if it isn’t relevant to the current situation. Let the argument be about the matters on the table, not old wounds. I can only wonder how this might play out given the current events in Israel and Gaza. Is there any chance that the warring parties might look at the matters at hand, without constantly referring or at least suggesting, that the other party can’t be trusted because of previous actions. Where might we get to, if they would look at the world as it might be tomorrow, rather than how it was so many yesterdays ago?
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