On repentance and repair Making amends in an unapologetic world

In this excellent, necessary book, rabbi Ruttenberg (Nurture the Wow, 2016) addresses a problem: "people hurt one another," she writes, and "American society is not very good at doing the work of repentance and repair." Ruttenberg offers a practice model for repentance and repair based on the work of Maimonides, a twelfth-century scholar and philosopher of Jewish law. After laying out the model's steps on a long and intentional path, Ruttenberg applies it to a variety of situations on individual, public, institutional, and national scales, considering examples from apology tweets to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The author then asks what systems of justice actually affect, whether forgiveness is necessary, and what freedoms await in meaningful atonement. Her careful and thoughtful writing frequently includes the voices of others, centering the needs of victims and holding the words of perpetrators to account. The book's introduction includes a blanket content warning as painful examples abound, yet readers will find a readable, digestible text that offers a deeply needed framework.