We are in Elul, the month when Jewish tradition asks us to look honestly at ourselves before the High Holidays. A major part of that process is performing teshuvah, asking whom we have hurt, what we did wrong, and what we can do to repair damaged relationships.

The timing coincides with an interesting political moment in Michigan. Abdul El Sayed emerged from a hard fought Democratic primary and faces another contested election. Jewish Democratic support could matter.

In March, after a man attacked Temple Israel, El Sayed strongly condemned the attack. But he then provided reasons for why the attacker acted, noting that members of the attacker’s family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, saying, “hurt people, hurt people.” While saying there was no justification for attacking innocent people, many Jews also heard something else: a connection between attacks on American Jews and actions in Israel.

Recently, El Sayed met with the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus. He said, “I made a mistake”, that after the attack he should have condemned it and stopped there, “full stop.” He acknowledged that trying to provide context then could trample on pain people were experiencing. He said that if he had the opportunity, he would his comments “all the way back”, saying that  “there is never a justification for a terrorist act, period.” He said he hoped to earn the trust of Jewish voters.

Those are important words. Teshuvah is a process, and when someone moves toward taking greater responsibility, Jewish tradition asks us to recognize that movement. But  El Sayed also added in his comments last week was that his comments “may have been misconstrued”.  He apologized “to anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful,” and emphasized that causing pain “was not my intention.”

Those words matter because they focus on how his comments were understood and what he intended, rather than acknowledging that making the connection itself was wrong.  So what exactly is the apology? Is he apologizing for the connections he made? Or primarily because people understood his words as justification........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)