Were I in Weisenthal's place I seriously doubt that I could have forgiven him. But I hope that I would live long enough to do so. There seems to be some misunderstanding of the value of forgiveness on this board. Just as apologizing is an action taken to eventually make the actor feel better about some misdeed, so forgiveness is an action taken to make the person who grants it feel better eventually.
The key is to understand that all the transgressions against you are burdens that you carry, sometimes after whatever you lost in the original action has long been made irrelevent. Granting someone forgiveness is a means of letting go of your anger / hatred or whatever. When you are ready to let it go, it is a relief to be freed from it.
All this is true regardless of the moral code you live by, and IMO it is one of the reasons that Christianity has proven so successful, as it is one of that religion's major tenets. It is useful to have the tool of forgiveness available to you, whoever you are. Life is hard enough without having to carry around a lot of anger from 20 years ago into the unforeseeable future.
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He's got the Midas touch.
But he touched it too much!
Hey Goldmember, Hey Goldmember!
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