“I love having a Forgiver’s License in my wallet. Whenever I look at it, it reminds me not to take things personally and to overlook potential insults. It’s my job to forgive others and to forgive myself when I forget to forgive others. That’s what having a Forgiver’s License means to me.”
Herb Levine, Teacher of Mussar, Jewish ethical mindfulness. ![]()
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The Forgiver's License is inspired by the life of Eva Kor Mozes, who is featured in the documentary Forgiving Dr. Mengele.
"What I discovered (offering forgiveness to a Nazi officer) for myself was life changing. I discovered that I had the power to forgive. No one could give me that power and no one could take it away. In my humble opinion forgiveness is the secret for world peace. No victim ever wants to be a victim. I have never seen anybody volunteer to be a victim. When somebody takes away our power for using our mind or body or both, by force, to liberate ourselves from it is to forgive. It's the only power we have left to remove that burden. I call anger a seed for war. No happy person ever wanted to start a war. People who forgive are in peace with themselves and don't want to start a war. Therefore I call forgiveness a seed for peace. We can teach forgiveness. The biggest gift we could give victims who have been liberated from any oppressive situation is to teach them how to heal themselves. We cannot heal them, each person has to do it for herself or himself. But we can plant that little seed of forgiveness in their mind. The holocaust happened almost seventy years ago, and the majority of survivors are still victims. Isn't that tragic?" Eva Kor Mozes, a Holocaust survivor who decided to forgive the Nazis.
FORM 601(c), the Compassion Exam, application for a Forgiver's License. Follow instructions and submit to the ECN, processing may take 2-3 weeks.
In order to issue a Forgiver's License applicants need to file Form 601(c) - the Compassion Exam. Some of them agree for the ECN to share their applications, here are some of them.
Want to increase compassion stats in your community? Register as an EPF (Empowerment Processing Facility) and start issuing Forgiver's Licenses using your home printer today! Contact us to learn how.
So far about 200 Forgiver's Licenses were printed. |