Some thoughts about teshuva, then and now
Sometimes I wonder why we read through David's sins in smooth fashion, accepting and moving on, while when certain rabbis - or even non-rabbis - nowadays sin in similar ways, their lives are basically over. Is it because the media causes great hype? Is it because of (somewhat radical) movements such as MeToo? Many believe there was hype over the David and Bat Sheva story way back when it happened, too. But it seemed that people managed to move past that. And there were other sins as well - but ultimately, David came out alright, for the most part. By the way, I'm reminded of a story I heard from one of the rabbis in my yeshiva: One of his sons once went out on a date with a girl from a certain " kavnik " midrasha and somehow they got to talking about this particular story. The girl announced that of course there was no way that David sinned. That's a very popular view that appears in the gemara, but it's actually the minority view in the gemara. The guy poin...