There was an interesting ad placed in the Hamodia newspaper (Hebrew) today:


and if that is too hard to read, here is a close-up of just the specific ad:

The ad is of a person requesting forgiveness for something he had done 40 years ago. He says that 40 years ago he caused grievous shame to a shliach tzibbur when the fellow refused to begin the repetition of the Shmoneh Esrei and he refused. At that point, the writer stepped up to the amud and took over the repetition. The chazzan was shamed and left. The writer is asking that the victim from 40 years prior forgive him, and that he do so verbally.

I imagine that if he still remembered this specific incident 40 years later, it must have gnawed at him all this time. Probably every time he davened for the amud, as well as every year before the High Holidays and he was thinking what he must repent for, and probably plenty of other incidents that might have cropped up and reminded him of that old one in the back of his memory...and it drove him crazy. I wonder if the victim, the apologee, remembers it as much as the apologer and has it burned in his memory as such a significant incident - not that it matters.

How else can one try to beg forgiveness from someone whom he doesn't know where to find besides for placing an ad in a popular frum newspaper and hope he sees it? Perhaps he should have at least made it a slightly larger ad, maybe a full-page ad, so it would at least be more noticeable..