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This Jewish Inspiration Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and enhancing our relationship with Hashem by working on improving our G-d given soul traits and aspiring to reflect His holy name each and every day. The goal is for each listener to hear something inspirational with each episode that will enhance their life.
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
And now my dear friends, we resume with day 158 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orchot Tzadikim, The Ways of the Righteous, the Gate of Repentance, page 854. There are some interpersonal transgressions that are very, very difficult for one to correct and to repent from. What are they? Kigon odom shehir gil b'gezer koyom, of someone who is a perpetual thief.
Ve'einu yodem imi gozer, he doesn't know who he stole from. O'einu yodea heichon hudar, now he doesn't know where the guy lives. I stole from the guy, but he moved away to a different city, to a different country. I have no idea where to find him. O'shema holach lolam edinu siyam, he went to another country, to overseas. O'shema ovad hamamon shegazal, or he lost the item that he stole from him. He stole a watch, an expensive watch, and now how is he going to return that watch?
Whatever it may be. Ve'einu lolahashev, or he doesn't have how to return it. Ve'yei shenohag b'aveiros koyomov, at shehu morgal b'hem umulumod. And there are those who have become so habituated to certain transgressions that it has become second nature to them. As it is written, K'mo she'amar limdu l'shonom l'daber sheker ha'avei nil'u. They have taught themselves, they have taught their tongues to speak falsehood. They have become weary with iniquity. Ve'yei sh'mi she'bala erva ve'holed minu ben ve'acherpa lo tamush.
Ve'yei sh'mi she'ragil b'divrei kazav ve'lesaper g'nai al b'nei adam. Ve'yei sh'mi she'hediach b'nei adam ve'hisa osam l'daber isur. So many things that a person can do that have an effect that you don't even know how to unwind it. You teach your children to speak negatively about people. You teach your children to lie. How do you repair that? How do you deprogram that? A person who, you know, did things that are irreparable years later. Ve'hu ha'yei yari me'hem lo'chicham.
Or if someone is embarrassed to correct his family members from doing the wrong thing. O ha'yei misbayish me'hem. Or he's embarrassed. Ad she'nimna le'horos le'hem haderach ye'shara. He's so embarrassed, he's so ashamed that he desists from pointing out the just path to them. Ol ha'va kosova mer'hu rosha ba'avonu yamos v'damo miyodcha avakesh. As the verse states in Ezekiel, he is wicked and shall die for his sin, but I shall seek his blood from your hand. With all of these examples, it's very difficult to repent.
There is one thing that you can do that can fix it all. This is the first thing a person needs to do. There's no such thing as there's no hope. There's no such thing in Judaism. There's always hope. No one died for your sins, but you can take responsibility for your sins. How do you take responsibility? Number one, learn about teshuva. What is repentance? How do I become closer to the Almighty? How do I rectify my mistakes? A person should learn and understand
and scrutinize all the facets of repentance. A person should do everything he can to correct his ways. A person should use all of his strength and with all of his heart in secret and in the open to correct his way. Then, So when a person is completely committed to the Almighty, then what happens is that Hashem opens the door and gives you the opportunity to do teshuva. Hashem gives you the opportunity. So imagine this. A person suddenly one day has an epiphany.
He listens to this class on teshuva, on the podcast, and he's like, Oh my goodness, what do I do? I'll tell you. There's an amazing story. There's a true story. There's a rabbi in Israel who speaks a very, very powerful form of speech. He speaks very, very powerful in Hebrew. And he talks to the heart of a Sephardic Jew. Okay. And very, very sharp, very strong, very funny as well. And Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak is very, very powerful. Either way,
one day his assistant comes and says, There's someone waiting for you downstairs with a truck. A truck. He comes downstairs. He says, Listen, I'll be honest with you. He says, You know what I do? I'm a thief. I steal cars. I steal trucks. He said, Last night I stole this truck. But in the cassette player was your lecture. And I want to do teshuva. And I don't know where I stole it from. So I'm bringing it to you.
He says, I pulled out the cassette. And I came here to your organization. So you can return the object for me. That's someone who has an awakening of, Wow, I can't believe I did what I did. Right? He had no idea. He thought, Look, there's another way to do business. How do you do it? You just take someone's car. And you sell it. And that's how you make business. Right? He doesn't realize that it's a sin.
He doesn't realize that this is a terrible thing. Suddenly he has an epiphany. And he wakes up. He's like, Oh my goodness, I can't believe it. Hashem guides him to a way of teshuva. And it's an amazing thing. It's an amazing journey. When someone asks, Hashem, Hashem, you know what? I know I may have offended someone. I don't know who. I don't know when. I need your help. I want you to guide me. I want you to show me.
What's the right way for me to act? What's the right thing? How do I make amends? How do I clean up all of the wreckage that I caused in my wake? All of the people that I may have insulted. All the people that I didn't act appropriate with. He says, And if you stole, Hashem will figure out a way for you to get that money back to that person. How? It will come in a different form of helping somebody you didn't realize
that that was the person you actually borrowed money. Hashem will make sure that that money gets back to them if you really, really desire so. And the person will forgive you. And if you hurt someone physically or financially, Hashem will put it into that person's heart that they forgive you. When Hashem is pleased with a man's ways, his foes too make peace with him. Even your foes will make peace with you. And if the person who you robbed is far from you now,
Hashem will bring him close to you. So that you can reconcile with him. And that he can now forgive you. And if you don't know how much you stole, I have no idea, plus cost of inflation, maybe now the value is higher, what do I return? I don't know what to do. And now, he doesn't know who the people are, he doesn't know who I stole from. Somebody had pickpocketed them, I have no idea who they are.
Threw their wallet aside, took the cash and goodbye. I have no idea who they are. How am I supposed to pay them back? Hashem will bring it to your fortune that you're able to then give to the community. Hashem will give you the opportunity to build a bridge or to dig a bayou. Hashem will give you the good fortune that you'll be able to sponsor a synagogue or a mikvah and now who's going to benefit from it?
That person that you stole money from. So now that's a form of giving it back to them. And that even the person you stole from is going to benefit from it. And if the person that you stole from died, you should return it to his ears. If you spoke negatively about someone or if you physically damaged someone, you punched them, broke his arm. The person passed away now. Not from your injury. But years later, now you feel bad.
You punched him in the face. He was black and blue for a month. He was embarrassed. And now what? How are you going to ask him forgiveness? He's dead. He died already. Now suddenly you had this awakening. So what do you do? You go to his grave. You go to the person's grave. You go with ten people. And ask forgiveness. From Hashem, Hashem, please forgive me. And I'm asking you. I'm asking forgiveness in front of ten people here.
I want you to please forgive me. And when you make such a great effort to do so, Hashem will ensure that you are forgiven. Our sages told us The only thing that blocks repentance from being accepted is if a person doesn't do repentance with their heart. It's like, yeah, I'm sorry. That's not wholehearted. Yeah, it's too bad. They should just grow up. This is the reality of life. If someone isn't wholehearted about their repentance,
then it's not. That's the only time it's not accepted. But someone who wants closeness with God, The gates of repentance are never closed. Never closed. In front of a person who wants to repent. But someone who wants to repent, the gates are wide open waiting. Hashem is good and just. Therefore, He guides sinners in His path. The path of repentance. The verses. Three verses. And you will seek Hashem, your God, from there, and you will find Him
if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. For this thing is very close to you. In your mouth and in your heart to accomplish. Hashem is close to all who call upon Him. To all who call upon Him in truth. Anybody who wants to be close to Hashem and is sincere and is genuine, Hashem says the door is wide open. There's no such thing as someone cannot do teshuvah.
There's no such thing that a person cannot repent. Every person has the opportunity, if they want to, to clean up their whole file. All they need to do is ask. All they need to do is desire. Beficha, you just have to ask. U'bevavcha, you have to desire it in your heart. La'soso, it's easy. It's a verse in the Torah. All you got to do is desire it and ask for it. I'll just tell you it's very interesting
that every evening we have an evening shema. An evening shema. And in this evening shema we have the most incredible little prayer. We spoke about the bedtime shema at the end of last Torah cycle. In Ha'azinu we spoke about the evening shema, the bedtime shema. And what's really amazing about the bedtime shema is that as we begin we say the following. Ribbonu shel olam. Master of the universe. Hareini moch halachol mi shehichis vehiknet osi. I hereby forgive
anyone who angered or antagonized me or who sinned against me. This is what we declare. Imagine that other person who's now getting forgiveness from us for free. Imagine that. Hashem says, wow, you're forgiving? I'm going to make sure you get your forgiveness as well. You're showing your kindness to someone else for free. You're not saying, come get on your knees and tell me what you did. They didn't come to you before bedtime and say, please forgive me. On your own
you're saying, hareini moch hal. I'm forgiving. I hereby forgive. Whether against my body, my property, my honor, or against anything of mine. Whether it's my children, whether it's my home, whether it's my car, whether it's my honor. Whatever it may be. Whether he did so accidentally, willfully, carelessly or purposely. Whether through speech, deed, thought or notion. Whether in this transmigration or another transmigration. I forgive every Jew. I forgive every person. May no man be punished because
of me. May it be your will, Hashem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that I may sin no more. Whatever sins I have done before you, may you blot out in your abundant mercies. But not through suffering and difficult illnesses. May the expressions of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart find favor before you, Hashem I rock and my Redeemer. You understand? We didn't even say the Shema yet. But this is the evening repentance. Our sages
tell us that every single night is a micro Yom Kippur. A micro Yom Kippur. Every single night is a micro Yom Kippur. You're about to go to sleep. We're going to give our soul to the Almighty. The Almighty will take it and refresh it. He'll buff it. He'll spray it. He'll clean it. He'll make sure we get it back. It's all crystal clean. Clear. It's ready to go for a whole new day. Refreshed. You had a
rough day yesterday. But look what I did. I forgave everyone. I need forgiveness as well. This is the path the Torah guides us. My dear friends, this concludes day number 158. I look forward to resuming, God willing, next week. Have a magnificent evening, everybody. Thank you so much.
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.