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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'll resume with day number 169 on page 896 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orcha Tzadikim, The Ways of the Righteous, the Gate of Repentance. וִאִם אַחֹתֶב בָּל אַשֶׁס תְשוּבָה הוא אָדָם שֶׁעִינו יּכָל לִלמֹד אֹשֶׁהוּ מְתוּפָל אֹשֶׁהוּ אַמָאֹרֶץ אֹשֶׁהוּ לַמְדֹן אַחִהן עִינו יָכָל לָכָףֶה שַׁעִץְמו לשמור את כל דברי הַסְּ׃ַר הַזֶּה He says, what if the person who comes to do teshuvah is not very learned?
And he doesn't know everything that we just mentioned in the last 30 days of talking about teshuvah So now what's going to be? What's this person going to do? He says,… ha'od, ve'yeshu chalash, ha'lo be'hiyos be'izdin be'yushlayim be'lishkas ha'gazis, ve'ho'yu donin dinei nefashos o'malkios, ho'yu omdin be'malkios kefi koach ho'ish ha'nilke, ve'chein yei shlasos." Now he says, well, it goes every person according to his ability. You know, in the temple, when they used to give lashes, they used to evaluate the person's ability to withstand them.
That means it was very personal. This one was a strong guy so he can handle them. This guy was a weak guy. They wouldn't give him. They wouldn't give him. He was up to 39 lashes. They wouldn't give it to him because he wasn't able to withstand it, meaning tshuva is a very personal thing. Repentance is a very personal thing. Now obviously we're not going out and giving lashes. We're not living in Sharia law.
We're not dealing with all of this in our generation, but it's just for us to understand the concept of individualized repentance. Each person according to his ability. Ve'chein yei shlasos achshav. That's why we have to do that now as well. Ha'kol lafi inu no'ish, according to a person's ability, according to a person's skills, talents, capability. Yei shodom she'im achmir molav inu na'tsar ya'zov le'gam rev'lo ya'seh tshuva. There's some people who have a little bit of pain and they can't stand it. I'll give you an example.
I'm a real, real baby when it comes to cold weather. I'm a big baby. By me, it's under 60 degrees. It's winter. Bring out the winter coats. Bring out the boots. Bring out the gloves. Turn on the heat. I can't. It's like, it's winter. It's below 60 degrees. And then you have my friends who are like, it's not cold enough, right? Give me a 12 below zero. And I, you know, minus 12, I'm great. And you know, some people love that.
I don't know. Again, it's different strokes for different folks. Therefore, we see that everybody in their temperament, in the way they deal with things is also different. Ya'zov le'gam rev'lo ya'seh tshuva, le'khein tzorach ha'chokh ha'mlach kor inu no'ish, ve'lehorus lo lafi ru'us einov, ve'atu yesh lichtov inu na'atsar lafi kol avir ve'avir. See, he says it like this. He says, therefore, if someone comes to consult with you and ask you, how should I do teshuvah? How should I repent?
The answer, the correct answer is, it depends on the individual. Someone who is truly capable, someone who is wise, someone who is able to, you know, my son for several years when he was in high school, never showered inside the house. We have an outdoor shower by the pool and for three or four years, he did not shower indoors. He only showered outside. But you might ask, how's it possible? Because sometimes it does get really, really cold in Houston. Sometimes it can be like 30 degrees.
Well, he said it builds character and he'd go out there and jump into the pool and swim and then go into his shower outside because he, for him, this was a challenge that he wanted to strengthen himself in his ability to overcome his fears, right? Now, for me, I just smell cold. I told you before, I'm a baby when it comes to cold, right? I can't do that. And that's a, maybe I could, that's what my son would say. He says, you could, you just, you're limiting yourself.
You're saying you can't. So each one of us have our limitations. We have to know our limitations. So we have to know what we're capable of and try to do the best we can within the realm of reason. So he says, Ha ba'al goya, yis'an avi yilke, ve lo yor chabos, ve lo yishte yayin, lechol hapochas ha barayim yom. He says, for different sins, different things that a person should do, a person should limit
eating foods that gives them pleasure, whether it be meat or wine, again, to limit a person's self to cleanse. I want it, but I'm now limiting myself. O yis'an ha shlosh ha yom, am la'il avi yom, sholosh pa'amim, pam l'shono. He says, once a year, if a person can, again, this is all different ideas that he's bringing, the author is bringing about ways a person can do tshuva, because we wonder, what can I do? What can I do?
He says, perhaps fasting three days and three nights, once a year, once a year, not more than that. V'imacher tshuva yachzol suri, he says, what happens if a person does tshuva and then goes right back to it? Yachmir olav, Yachmir yosalav, imagine someone who steals money, runs to Vegas, gambles it, and then he does tshuva, uh-uh, I'm doing tshuva, I paid it back, I paid it back, and then he steals money again, does the same thing again. What are you going to do?
What are you going to say about such a person? So, right, so a person, Yachmir yosalav, such a person has to protect himself even more because he knows he can fall right back into the trap. V'imosach hamei yelech b'mokam n'molem harbe, v'yeshev b'nei em'orum, v'vimei achorev yishbor akerach, v'yeshev v'mayim ad achotem, v'im od yachzol suro, yachmir olav yosev yosev. He says over here, actually, one of the things a person can do is throw himself into cold, cold water, a cold plunge, right?
Cold plunge is really painful for some. Okay, and over here he brings a few more different ideas here that a person who is experiencing certain sins, there are ways for a person to cleanse themselves from those sins. A person should never, we know the famous story, we're going to end today's, meaning day number 169, with this, the Talmud says that there was a rabbi. He wasn't a rabbi at the time. He was a cold rabbi. You'll see the story in a second.
The Talmud says there was someone who was so promiscuous in his lifestyle that he would go to every prostitute far and near and he would pay enormous sums of money. He heard that there was one prostitute who was really far away that he wasn't with. So he saved up a whole bunch of money and he traveled to go see her and then she blurted out that you're such a low life, even the heavens won't take you back. Nobody will take you back.
And he stopped what they were doing and he ran, as the Talmud says, he ran between two mountains and he put his head between his knees and he started crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and then he turns to the mountains, he says, can you ask God to forgive me? And the mountain says, before we ask for you, we need to ask for ourselves. He goes to the valley, he says, can you pray for me?
And they said, before we pray for you, we need to pray for ourselves. He turns to the heavens, he says, can you, stars and the moon, can you pray for my forgiveness in the heavenly realms? And they said, before we ask for you, we need to ask for ourselves. So he cried and cried more and he says, I guess it's only dependent to me. And he just couldn't get over himself and the sins that he's done until he died.
Right there, a heavenly voice came out and said, Rabbi Eliezer ben Durdia, you're welcome to the world to come. And the Talmud asks, what? This guy, his whole life was a sinner. Literally his whole life was a sinner. And now what? A heavenly voice comes out and says, Rabbi Eliezer, he got a rank of Rabbi as a rabbi? The guy was not a scholar. The guy didn't learn any Torah. He didn't fulfill any mitzvah. All he did was run after women.
And you're calling this guy Rabbi and you have a portion of the world to come? And when one of the great sages heard this, he started crying. He says, my whole life I'm trying to get an invitation like that to heaven. I don't get it. And I'm righteous. And this guy gets it. Our sages explain that a moment of clarity like that, a moment, an epiphany that he had of suddenly, oh my goodness, look how wrong I've been. Look, he wanted to just turn everything around.
Heaven said such purity, such holiness. We want him right now. We want him in the world to come. This is what we all pray for. This is what we all hope for, that we become a person who is a Ben Olam Abba, someone who has a portion of the world to come. It's such a special, pure, and we think to ourselves, oh, that guy's a lowlife. Who's going to want to sit next to him in the world to come?
Everybody, because he's a person who by that clarity that he had with the Almighty, removed all of his sins. Everything was erased. Everything is gone. That's how forgiving God is. By the way, the uniqueness of Judaism is that we don't go to a confessional and we don't talk to anybody. I told you, I once had a woman sitting here in the class. She says to me, Rabbi, I need to confess. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop there. Wrong religion. Okay?
We don't confess to anyone. We talk directly to God. You make a mistake, you don't have to announce it and you don't have to talk about it with anyone. You talk to God directly. God wants to hear you. God wants that closeness with you. We don't have intermediaries. We don't have conduits. We don't have confessionals. You talk directly to God because there's nothing more powerful than a direct relationship with the Almighty. And that includes day number 169.
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.