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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 Ariya Wolby of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. It's so wonderful to be here. We are going to resume our studies on the gate of repentance. And you're asking, I know what's going on in your mind, David. You're asking, you're saying, repentance, tonight is Hanukkah. We just lit the second menorah. What does Hanukkah have to do with repentance? So our sages tell us something very interesting.
Our sages tell us that Rosh Hashanah begins the era of Teshuvah. And that concludes with Yom Kippur. We know Yom Kippur, the end of Yom Kippur is called Neila. It's sealed, it's signed, it's sealed, it's done. But we all know that you can send something in the mail and it gets returned, returned to sender. So sometimes our judgment can be returned to sender. Where God says, you know what? So first is we have the very auspicious day of Rosh Hashanah.
That's the day it's dropped in the mail. So it was sealed already, that's the day it's dropped in the mail. Until it's dropped in the mail, you can always open up the envelope, change a few things, put it back in the, you know, put it back in the mailbox. So that's Rosh Hashanah, that's the last day of Sukkot. But then you have Hanukkah. And Hanukkah is the last opportunity for return to sender. And that's now, Hanukkah, this time.
So if our sages tell us a person after Rosh Hashanah, after Yom Kippur, after Sukkot, after the passing of Rachel, right? Rachel, our matriarch, which is the holiness of the month of Cheshvan. And now in the month of Kislev, you still weren't inspired. Finally, we get the light of the menorah and we're like, okay, now I need to repent. The repentance is still retroactively applicable and can help a person rectify all of his previous sins. Now, don't get me wrong.
A day after Hanukkah, a person can still repent. So there's no limit to a person's ability to connect to Hashem in a real way. Because after all, why does Hashem give us life? Hashem gives us life because He wants us to be close with Him. Hashem gives us opportunity. Hashem gives us so many rewards and gifts and so many happy occasions because Hashem wants to shower us with love. Hashem wants that closeness. And we have to find our own way.
Each and every one of us have to find our own way to bring ourselves closer to the Almighty. Okay, that's the goal. So previously we talked, and we're in the middle of the Treasure for Life edition of the Orchad Siddiq and the Ways of the Righteous in the Gate of Repentance, page number 887. Day number 167. So, tshuva samishkol ketzad. What happens if you have a store and you're a little bit tempted, instead of the weights, the weights that people weigh their groceries,
they weigh their, whether it be their vegetables or their fruit, you have it off a little bit. You put an extra pound, an extra two pounds, just like most people don't notice. Most people won't pay attention. So, cheating by weights. How do you rectify such a thing? If someone did such a thing. So, what is repentance of weighing? Kefi hanoa sheh ne'eneh min haavera yaaseh lo tsar betanis u'be miyot achila v'shtiya u'be inyon hamishkov u'be inyon kol hanos yimay.
So, he's saying here, it's not only those kinds. Any type of sin that a person does, it's a counterbalance. When you do something one way, now you have to do it the other way. So, if a person was indulgent in all foods, in drinking, in all types of physical pleasures, so now he has to reverse himself and go to the opposite direction and limit himself, and that would be the form of tshua. So, for example, Mark.
If a person has a big temptation with drinking, every time he's with his friends, they say, here, make a l'chaim, one l'chaim. It's good, it's fine, it's okay. This guy ends up getting drunk and doing silly things when he's drunk. He wants to do tshuva for that. So, now what does he have to learn to do? Go to the opposite direction to correct it. You have to weigh it back, put it back into a proper place
so that you can do proper tshuva for this. Tshuva sakosov keitzad. What is the repentance of scripture? So, there are sins that a person can do that are liable to a heavenly death penalty where God says, this is really, really bad. For example, if someone transgresses with a married woman, that's not his wife, obviously. So, in such a case, what would happen? There's a severe punishment for that. So, how does a person correct that sin or sins of that kind?
So, number one is that a person should feel the pain of the mistake that he did. And this, the verse tells us. And so, we find in the Talmud, which is regular in Tanis, even on a very easy sin, even in the speech of the people, as our wise people say, repent of your words in heaven. What happens? We see many times in the Talmud where the punishment our sages recommend was fasting. When a person fasts, what happens?
Their body is in pain. Their body is in pain. Sometimes you get a little migraine. Sometimes your stomach is hurting. You're not in your best element when you don't eat. That is a teshuva that a person can do for sins that they may have committed. I feel a bit deeper about it. Even if it's just words that you said that caused another person pain, you need to do teshuva for that as well. How do you do the teshuva for that?
This is how you do it. As our wise people say, repent of your words in heaven. So what happened was, there was a story. A story in the Talmud. Rav Chizda once asked Rav Huna, his teacher, whether a disciple who is needed by his master must rise before him. And the latter answered, Chizda, Chizda, I don't need you. Whereupon they both undertook many fasts. Now, why did they undertake? As a result of the way they spoke
to one another with a lack of respect, they were both so ashamed to face each other that they separated for 40 years and fasted 40 fasts. So he says about King David, what happened with King David? King David sinned and the Shekhinah, the Holy Presence of G-d departed from him for 22 years. And every day he cried and only ate bread, he only ate bread with ashes. And he said, in Psalms he says, Psalms 102, it says,
This was his teshuva, his repentance. He said in front of G-d, Master of the Universe, accept me. Accept me with complete repentance before you. To make the wicked worthy of the world to come through repentance as it is written, So we see that also Adam, after he sinned and he saw that he brought death to the world by sinning, he was, he put himself 130 years, he put himself in separation from mankind. Adam, and he fasted
and he distanced himself from his wife for 130 years to repent, to repent for his sins. So what I'm trying to say here, and for those of you who are new to our class, don't be afraid, okay? The idea of repentance is, we mentioned this when we started this chapter, and that is, what is the greatest gift a person can have in life? It's a close relationship with G-d. The closest relationship you can possibly have with G-d is when you realize,
oh my goodness, G-d was right there the whole time. How did I not see Him? I'm afraid that my neighbor is going to see, I'm afraid that my children, my spouse, my friends, I don't want anyone to see when I do something wrong. I forgot that G-d was right there the whole time. When a person has that epiphany, when a person has that realization, that oh my goodness, G-d was there the whole time, then a person can do teshuva.
That's real teshuva. Real repentance is when someone realizes G-d was there the whole time. Now what do I have to do? I have to maintain that focus and that consciousness, know that G-d is there at all times, throughout our lifetimes. And a person should never ever say, look, I sinned. I'm a sinner and leave me alone. I'm not only a sinner, I made other people sin. Oh, I'm a lost cause. There's no chance for me to repent.
No chance for me to return. And a person can lift his arms and say, I'm done, I can't repent. He says, heaven forbid, don't ever say this. The Talmud says, Even Yerovam, who sinned and caused his entire generation to sin, G-d said, do teshuva. And he didn't want to. We see so many stories throughout our prophets of people who sinned, time after time after time, and all they needed to do was come back and say to G-d,
you know what, I made a mistake, I'm sorry. And G-d accepted their teshuva. And G-d didn't punish him because he accepted his teshuva. And again, what we're trying to do here, what the author is trying to do here is bring us proofs because we can say very nice things, right Mark? You know this rule, right? We can say very nice things all day. You got to prove it. And here he's bringing the proofs from the Talmud and Sanhedrin.
He's bringing it from one king's, he's bringing it from one king's He's bringing it from the Talmud in Yoma. He's bringing it from the Talmud Yerushalmi in Peah. He's bringing it from all of these different stories that happened in our history showing us the importance of just turning to G-d. And the most important thing, we talked about this recently, of talking to G-d is simplicity. G-d isn't a complicated creator. G-d created the world with a lot of detail,
with a lot of brilliance. But most of all, G-d created the world with simplicity because G-d wants us to communicate to Him in simplicity, in our simple words, not to overcomplicate things. And if one was accustomed to eating in the third hour, push it off and eat in the sixth. And if in the sixth, he was used to eating, he should eat in the ninth. Meaning, take something small. We see from Yeshua Ben Levi,
what did he do in order to do teshuvah? He walked barefoot. Why? Why did he walk barefoot? Because if I ran to do something which wasn't good, how do I correct that? How do I correct that with my feet? By the way, we mentioned in our previous seven episodes, we talked about the importance of teshuvah, that when a person, when a person, heaven forbid, sins, sometimes if G-d wants to cleanse that person because G-d doesn't think
they may do teshuvah quickly enough, so G-d sometimes gives them the little patch they need, the little spank they need to cleanse them here in this world so they don't come with an extra count in the world to come. We saw many stories of this in our Thinking Talmudist podcast where we talked about the incredible responsibility that we have to learn from experiences. That means if you bump your head on an open cabinet door, right, you can yell and scream
or you can say, you know something? What did I do with my head? What did I do? I wasn't thinking. I didn't think good thoughts. I didn't judge someone else positively. Whatever it may be, a person needs to look and introspect because it's an opportunity for teshuvah. It's an opportunity for repentance. G-d doesn't want to hurt us. G-d only wants love and closeness with us. So what do we see? Tse olam admi minashe ben chizkiah.
Look at the story from Minashe ben Chizkiah. She'ase kol te'evos ra'os she'ba olam v'kib lo akadosh boruchu b'tshuvah. He did all of the terrible, terrible sins of the world, anything you can possibly imagine. And what? G-d accepted his teshuvah. G-d accepted his repentance. D'itni tano kamei de rabbi Yochanan minashe os teshuvah shloshim v'sholosh shana v'kib lo akadosh boruchu. He did repentance for 33 years. For 33 years he repented and G-d accepted his teshuvah. So what we're seeing here
is that there's an extensive process of Hashem waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for a person to do teshuvah. You'd imagine if someone hurts you, Mark, someone hurts you, time and again and again, every day he hurts you. So how much patience are you going to have? Well, G-d has a lot of patience. It's erech hapayim. G-d waits and waits and waits and waits. Hoping that we'll repent. Does G-d turn off the power for any of us
after we commit a mistake? After we do something wrong? After we, quote, sin against G-d? No, G-d doesn't do that. He doesn't turn off the water. He doesn't turn off the electricity. He doesn't turn off the breathing mechanism, our lungs, G-d forbid, or our heart. So you know what? You sinned against me, power off. G-d doesn't do that. G-d doesn't do that. You know why G-d doesn't do that? Because G-d loves us. And He wants us to come closer.
And He wants us to be in a close relationship with Him. And that's the most important thing for the Almighty. And that, my dear friends, concludes day number 167.
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.