Thoughts on Punishment/Kapara by Executed Man

As Yomim Nora'im approach, I was affected by the thoughts of the murderer, Gary Gilmore which he wrote to a friend, while he was waiting to be executed on Utah's Death Row, reflecting on the meaning of his impending execution:





"Recently it has begun to make
a little sense. I owe a debt, from
a long time ago.

Once you asked me if I was the devil,
remember? I'm not. The devil would
be far more clever than I, would
operate on a much larger scale and
of course would feel no remorse.
So I'm not Beezelbub. And I know
the devil can't feel love. But I might
be further from God than I am from the
devil. Which is not a good thing. It seems
that I know evil more intimately than I
know goodness and that's not a good thing
either. I want to get even, to be made
whole, my debts paid (whatever it may take!)
to have no blemish, no reason to feel guilt or
fear.... I'd like to stand in the sight of God.
To know that I'm just and right and clean."

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of The Biography Channel)