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In ancient Israel, the lack of winter rains was not only seen as an economic crisis, but also as a warning from God. Whenever the rainy season passed without rainfall, the sages proclaimed a public fast. Part 2 of the Mishnaic tractate Tacanit treatise deals in detail with the rituals that the patriarch, the president of the tribunal, the clergy and the members of the congregation were required to perform. The external ceremonies, such as the sprinkling of ashes on the ark, included various blessings which pointed to the real purpose of fasting: to set the heart back on the right path. The days of fasting, therefore, provide an opportunity to fulfil the prerequisites for conversion: confession and repentance of sins. The chapter also mentions the days on which fasting is expressly forbidden and those who are exempt from fasting in the strict sense. Lastly, because it was a matter of the repentance of the community, the sages also took care to ensure that thus traders did not fall into the sin of greed, and tried to exclude any attempts of abuse in business.

Der Para-Traktat der Mischna erklärt unter dem Titel die „Die rote Kuh“ die Bestimmun­gen bezüglich 4 Mose 19. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung folgt die Übersetzung von drei Kapi­teln mit kurzen Sacherklärungen. Dies ist die erste ungarische Übersetzung des Textes.

This paper is an analysis of the text entitled Pardonner?, published in 1971 by the French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch. This paper is, to a certain extent, a counterpoint, to Jankélévitch’s earlier writing, Le Pardon (1967). This earlier publication is a calm indicative, while the later publication poses a question: Pardonner? Of course, this latter is not a suspension of what had been written before, but it shows that the creative yes of forgiveness can easily be made irrational and, thus, questionable by a lack of repentance, the tormentor’s arrogance which leads him to think he is indeed worthy of the immeasurable gift offered to him by the victim.

This paper examines the issue of absolution by Vladimir Jankélévitch. The absolving party’s role is to discover the cause external to man, deep down beneath human malice, which motivates the criminal actions. With an investigator’s zeal, an answer is sought to the question of “unde malum”? The old answer comes from dualism: the negative transcendent force, Satan, is the source of all sins. If there is an explanation, sin is mitigated and rage is attenuated, therefore explanations must be found. So one needs to explain – and this absolves one from all obligations of forgiveness. But this method fails the three requirements of true forgiveness, too: it is not an “immediate” “event”. It does not involve a personal relationship between the perpetrator and the injured. The offender is not offensive – at the very most, he is ill or illadvised, but there are no bridges from here to the other side of the abyss, where there is an obligation of love. Absolution is painless, but forgiveness is a heart-breaking, painful sacrifice. However, there is always something behind the intention of absolution which is ultimately similar to forgiveness and love: our author calls it a surplus of energy. The state of the soul is not the same when it seeks exempting or aggravating circumstances.

Another substitute for forgiveness treated by Jankélévitch is the thoughtless purging of the crime committed and its destruction. The author does not use Freud’s concept of suppression, but essentially that is what he is about: throwing the case file into the fire and “never speaking about it again”. According to Jankélévitch, this misleading, abrupt gesture, which sends the message that nothing happened, primarily lacks the third characteristic of true forgiveness, the personal relationship between the parties. The relationship between the victim and his tormentor remains superficial, mere window-dressing, if they fail to work through the most sensitive questions, if the former fails to strive to show mercy, love and forgiveness so that the requirement of truth is left intact.

We are always seeking for the sense of the life, for ourselves and for the place in our family and community. Religion shows a new way to us, according to Jesus Christ’s principles. The son of God not only created a religion, but gave us an example how to live, and sacrifice himself for us. Sándor Karácsony reckons religion as a spiritual behavior, the base of our social contacts. We have to see into our lives and character according to the message of Jesus Christ. The right and appropriate personality can be evolved by individual training.

This paper concludes that within the moral philosophy of Jankélévitch, the problem of forgiveness is ambiguous; or rather the author has an ambiguous attitude towards forgiveness. His point of view also has shortcomings that are due to the deficiencies of his metaphysics, his anthropology, his image of God and his interpretation of death. The God of Jankélévitch is creative energy, eternal acting goodness and love, but it is not a person and does not personally know its creations. It does not rule, does not enter into a covenant, does not bring redemption at the cost of its own heartbreak, does not judge sins and does not forgive them, does not speak, does not give commandments, does not conquer death, does not resurrect the dead, and does not offer eternal life. So the imperative of forgiveness is not —cannot —be supported by faith.

This paper concludes that within the moral philosophy of Jankélévitch, the problem of forgiveness is ambiguous; or rather the author has an ambiguous attitude towards forgiveness.His point of view also has shortcomings that are due to the deficiencies of his metaphysics, his anthropology, his image of God and his interpretation of death. The God of Jankélévitch is creative energy, eternal acting goodness and love, but it is not a person and does not personally know its creations. It does not rule, does not enter into a covenant, does not bring redemption at the cost of its own heartbreak, does not judge sins and does not forgive them, does not speak, does not give commandments, does not conquer death, does not resurrect the dead, and does not offer eternal life. So the imperative of forgiveness is not — cannot — be supported by faith.

Es ist eine Zumutung sondergleichen, die man an jeden, der sich mit Problemen christlicher Ethik beschäftigen will, stellen möchte, folgende zwei Fragen, die ihn überhaupt zur Erörterung ethischer Probleme führten, beantworten zu können. Wie werde ich gut? und Wie kann ich etwas Gutes tun? Auf diese Art formulierte Fragen muß man aber von vornherein als der Sache unangemessen verzichten, und die zwei sehr verschiedenen Fragen sollten in das Licht Gottes Willens gestellt werden um sie beantworten zu können.

The views of Sándor Karácsony about religious education can be clearly discerned from his writings. The main task of reformed pedagogy is to activate continuously the divine notions in this continuously changing world. Protestant teachers must accomplish their daily work according to the Gospel of Christ. The Hungarian Reformed Church was a so-called “church of schools” for hundreds of years. This means that even between WWI and WWII it owned more schools than churches. The number of Reformed schools is significant even today. Sándor Karácsony claims that only Reformed people and communities are able to maintain Reformed schools by people who “are ready to serve and sacrifice themselves” for this cause (Karácsony, Sándor: A magyarok Istene. Széphalom Könyvműhely, Budapest 2004, 172).