Dear Mr. Madoff,
We in the Investment Advisory, Nonprofit, and Jewish community forgive you (well maybe not EVERYONE) Let me explain:
About a week ago, I asked people if you could ever be forgiven for the crimes you have committed against charities who help to make others lives better, your own people in the Jewish community, and from advisers in the investment business (which happens to be the same business I’m in). I asked the question whether you could ever be forgiven, not because I believe that you ever will, but because I wanted to know because of my own sense of religious curiosity, whether someone who had committed the crimes you had could ever be forgiven in the eyes of god.
Prior to today, I wondered and questioned whether it was even plausible for someone who had the reputation that you did, to knowingly deceive your fellow Jews, charities who help people, and innocent investors who turned over their life savings to you. I didn’t think that anyone had it in them to be able to look someone squarely in the eye when someone turns over their life savings to you (lot of trust there right, I know, because I have these same conversations every day with people), and KNOW the way you DID that you were GOING to bankrupt them. You looked people in the eye knowing you were going to ruin them. Whoever read my previous posting on this subject, please forgive me.
Today I learned the truth. You are a monster. You knew exactly what you were doing. Sometimes when the train has left the station, it’s difficult to admit when we have done something wrong. We may tend to ignore difficult things because we don’t like to deal with them, perhaps because we are afraid. Sometimes there are consequences for this. That’s not what happened in your case though. With you, you knew what you were doing was wrong, you SAID you knew that one day it would catch up with you. Why would you CONTINUE to lure more victims when you knew would get caught? You took money from charities, Jewish ones, as a fellow Jew. You took from CHARITIES and gave to YOURSELF. The enemies of the Jews are rejoicing for what you have done. You ARE a terrorist of the worst kind. You ARE a monster.
Ruth Ann Harnisch and I exchanged a series of emails about you after she posted a comment on my article about you where I questioned whether it was possible for someone to knowingly do what you did. I couldn’t believe it. Perhaps I’m a softee and believe that people deep down want to do the right thing. Ruth Ann Harnisch didn’t think I was looking at reality. She was right. You are the monster. We already know that now though. The discussion that we proceeded to have is worth repeating to others. It has to do with forgiveness. This was the question that I had originally asked. Could you ever be forgiven? The answer we came to was YES.
The kind of forgiveness we are talking about is the same kind of forgiveness someone has when a serial killer murders their child. We forgive the act. We forgive, because WE don’t want to hold on to the poisonous venom that we feel for you for what you have done. We forgive because forgiveness is good for us, Mr. Madoff, not for you. Make no mistake Mr. Madoff, you ARE a murderer.
As I looked into “forgiveness” further, I came across the story about “casting the first stone”
The King James Version of the Bible, in John 8:1 – 11 scribes and Pharisees had caught a woman in the act of adultery (the woman commonly referred to as the prostitute) and told Jesus who was teaching in the temple that the Mosaic Law required she be stoned to death. Trying to make an opportunity of this to trick Jesus that they might accuse Him, they, with stones in hand, asked Jesus what He says about the Law. After Jesus tried to ignore their repeated questioning, He told them “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” One by one each man dropped his stone and walked away.
Jesus was not arguing with the judgment. Nor was Jesus arguing the law nor the woman’s guilt. Jesus was arguing with our right to execute the woman. Once all the men had dropped their stones Jesus confronted the woman and asked her if any of the men were still there to condemn her. When she answered “No man, Lord”, Jesus told her that neither did He – He forgave her of her sin. He did not excuse the sin of adultery/prostitution, he forgave her of it. All that is sinful before forgiveness is still sinful after forgiveness. Not only was Jesus not afraid to call a sin a sin, He was not afraid to call a sinner a sinner. He even reminded her of the sin of adultery/prostitution by telling her “Go and sin no more.”
I asked my Rabbi about the process of asking for forgiveness when you have committed a sin against another. He told me that in Judaism, part of repentance is the process of providing some form of restitution. Another smart man named Randy Pausch, whose “The Last Lecture” became an instant classic about how to live said this; “When you do something bad and want to apologize, know that a good apology has three parts. 1) I screwed up 2) I’m sorry 3) (This is the part most people don’t do) How can I make it right?”
Today in court Mr. Madoff, I heard you say you screwed up, and that you were sorry. What I didn’t hear was any interest in making good on the wrong you had done. READ WHAT MADOFF TOLD THE JUDGE Fortunately for you Mr. Madoff, you will have a lot of time to figure out how to make it right. Frankly, I’m not interested and don’t really care what you do. I’ve learned that to forgive, does not necessarily mean you have to “receive” someone back into your life. So with that Mr. Madoff, I’ll let you know that I’ve forgiven you, and now I’m done with you.
“You Go, and Sin No More”
SINcerely,
Investment Advisors, Nonprofits, and your friends in the Jewish community
Read my earlier post “Can Madoff Ever Earn Forgiveness?“
THE LIFE & WEALTH BALANCE 
Richard,
Good blog, as always. Until Madoff comes clean regarding who his fellow conspirators are, he has not done even gone a quarter-way to acting on his supposed remorse for what he has done. He has managed to get a plea deal while covering up the “sins” of many other scoundrels.
Btw, Jesus also said that, while we should be “gentle as doves”, we need to always be “wise as serpents”. That way the next Madoff “serpent” is less likely to bite us.
Ken Berger
Charity Navigator
My Rabbi reminded me of the classic book by Simon Weisenthal called “The Sunflower.” He says “The central question is about forgiving a Nazi who participated in the Holocaust. Weisenthal poses the question and then has responses by noted theologians from various religions. There is a new edication which just came out which includes more responses from people like Harold Kushner and the Dali Lama. In the first edition, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel tells a Chasidic story, the point of which is that only those who were sinned against have the right to forgive. If someone stabs you in the back, I have no standing to forgive that person for what he did to you.”