Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Three Ideas About Forgiveness, by William A. Galston:

[T]he nature of forgiveness suddenly has become front-page news.

At the mass memorial service for Charlie Kirk, his widow, Erika, said that she forgave her husband’s killer. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it was what Charlie would do,” she said. “The answer we know from the Gospel is love and always love.”

President Trump didn’t buy it. “He did not hate his opponents,” Mr. Trump said of Kirk at the memorial. “He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them. . . . I can’t stand my opponent.”

Here, on vivid display, were two opposed understandings: the Christian ethos of forgiveness and the pagan ethos of vengeance. In Colossians 3:13, Paul urges his readers: “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” …

The Jewish view stands between these poles. …

While forgiveness is a divine attribute, human beings must earn it. On Yom Kippur we are instructed that while we can earn forgiveness from God for sins through ritual confession and sincere repentance, which is hard, earning forgiveness from human beings we have wronged is even harder. … For Jews, repentance has two basic purposes—to promote individual moral improvement and to rebuild damaged relationships among human beings as well as between us and God.