The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance

by Rebecca Clarren

He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it. —Pirkei Avot 2:16

before you can fix anything, you must tell the truth, not just to God, but out loud to the entire community.

The twelfth-century Sephardic philosopher and rabbi Moses ben Maimon, known as Maimonides, arguably one of the most prolific and influential Jewish scholars, wrote a ten-chapter Laws of Repentance, which codifies a playbook for repairing relationships. Of the six steps he directs the person who has caused harm to take, an apology doesn’t occur until step five. First, he writes, we must stop doing the harm. Next, confess as specifically as possible what harm you have caused and, ideally, say this truth out loud in public.

There’s a debate, described in the Talmud, between two rabbis, over what should be done if it’s discovered that a house, or even a palace, was built using a stolen beam as part of its foundation. One rabbi says the entire building must be demolished so that the beam can be returned to its original owners. The other rabbi, the far more pragmatic, says the building can remain standing if the full value of the beam is repaid. Both rabbis make clear that, as soon as it is known that the beam was stolen, those living in the house must do something, they must make amends.