Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
My dear friends, welcome back. Welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. Tonight We are resuming the Gate of Repentance, day number 153 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orchos Tzadikim, The Ways of the Righteous. HaShnei Moshe, in the middle we were talking about the different Aspects of Teshuvah, of repentance, and now we're up to way number 12, the 12th path. Sheyach kor v'yeda godol ha'onesh lekol echad me'avonosav.
That a person needs to know as part of Teshuvah, they have to know what's the punishment for my sins. I have no idea. Is there a punishment? Am I punished if I do something wrong? We know as children, we know as children, it's an interesting side note, you know I'm in the middle of doing a couple of parenting classes, one in English, one in Hebrew, and one of the things I'm encouraging the parents as much as I can, is do whatever you can not to punish your children.
I grew up, not for my parents, but for my school, we grew up with the stick. You know, we grew up with the stick, with the ruler, drumstick, you know, we grew up with it, with the, there was this this fear, there was always a punishment if you did something wrong. It was never a reward. My daughter today I was sitting, when I did have that very brief dinner, my daughter is eight years old, and she's turning eight in November. I asked her, I said, how was your day today?
So she said, I said, today I had the worst P.E. ever. I said, do you know something? It's ironic that you say that, because I never had P.E. We never had P.E. You sat in classroom all day, and that was it. It was like, you know, you don't have P.E. You know, a class about calisthenics, or exercise, or things like that. I never had such a thing. I said, count your blessings, okay? You just enjoy, and don't ever make a day of P.E. to be a, you know, a
don't try to get mercy here. No, I was just kidding. But the idea again is that the, the concept of punishment is something that we're sometimes uncomfortable with. But there is a, there is a punishment. We know that there's punishment. The Almighty tells us that there's punishment. If we look in the Torah, we see that there's punishment. We look, last week's Torah portion was parashat Noach. What happened to the generation of the flood? They were punished.
Why? Because they went against the way of God. The way it works is that there is, and this is the fundamental principle of the Torah. Number one, page one, Genesis. The world was created with a balance. If we do good, we get good. We do no good, we get no good. All right? That's the way, the way it works. And we have free will. We can choose. And God's not gonna strike us like that.
That's not the way it works either. But we have to understand that there is reward and punishment. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. Okay. So now, for every sin, there is a punishment, potentially. And a person has to learn and understand what is, what does it mean, the punishment? Punishment doesn't mean that God's gonna hit me with a stick. That's not what it means. What it means is, is that we're taking away from ourselves opportunity. We're taking away from ourselves
potential for connection with the Almighty. The Almighty wants us, like, he's holding us like, like this. He's saying, come give me a hug. Give me a hug. Right? And we're like, turning our back towards God. God is wanting the relationship with us and God doesn't get offended or insulted, but we're causing, by our sins, we're causing distance from the Almighty. U'be'ezah averi yesh malchus, o mis'as bezden okares. And a person should know what sins that I do are warranting lashes or judicial death penalty or
which one are divine severance, which is courage, where God takes us out when he decides, deems it fit. U'keshi yeda'god l'achet, ye'morer libo b'vidu v'yosef hachnon. When a person knows how serious a sin is, so that when he makes a mistake or he does something intentionally without, I can bet there's nobody out there who wants to sin. There's nobody, nobody on planet Earth who wants to do bad. There's nobody who wants to. It's just sometimes we're, we're a little meshugah,
we're a little in our brain and we do things that are against the will of Hashem. Is there any husband who wants to be a bad husband? No, he just got carried away with himself. Any wife wants to be a bad wife? No, right? But so why are the divorces if there are so many people who want to do good? Because sometimes we get carried away with ourselves, we get carried away with different things and
so in our relationship with Hashem, it's no different. It's no different. Sometimes we get carried away. We get carried away. I was hungry. So I just ate something that God says I shouldn't eat. I was tempted. So I looked at something. I did something. I spoke something. I was tempted. I wanted to get attention. So I spoke lashonor about somebody so that everybody says, oh, wow. Wow. You hear that story? You hear that? So I want to, it's for my own personal benefit.
So if a person knows what the price is for it, and it's a different calculation, meaning if I know that eating, you know, my Burger King, you know, sandwich is this kind of punishment, I might think twice before I do that. So it's worthwhile for a person to know what is the potential punishment. Now, Judaism isn't heavy on threatening, okay? We're not heavy on it. There are other religions that do that. The majority of the world, the majority of the religions of the world,
in one of them, even you're such a sinner that someone had to die for your sins. You know what I mean? Right? And then in another one, they just wage jihad on you. If you don't think the way they do, the way, act the way they do, or dress the way they do. So it's like, in Judaism, we don't have that. You ever see a Jew go to a non-Jew and say you better convert to Judaism or else,
or we're gonna put you on a stake in the middle of Rome? No, we don't have that. Either way, the thirteenth, the thirteenth aspect of teshuva, שִׁיִיִיּוּ אַעֲבֵּרֶס הַכָּלֹס בְּאִנֶב כְּכָּמֹרֶס is to know that even small sins should be in your eyes as if they're big sins. Because the truth is, the Mishnah already tells us, we don't know what is small and what is big. We think we know, we think we have an idea, but the truth is we really don't know. We don't know what is
a big sin and what is a small sin. We think, well, I didn't steal from anybody, I didn't like, I just did my own little thing in my room, what nobody knows. Right? And we convince ourselves it's a small sin or, you know, whatever it may be. Kigon, he brings a few examples, הִשְׁתָּכֹּלֹס בְּנָּשִׁם, looking at, gazing at women, אַלְהַרְבּוֹ שִׁמָּן דְּוֹרָם, or over engaging in conversation with them, אֹדְוֹרְם בְּתֵּלֶם, just general idle chatter, אֹלְהַרְבּוֹ שִׁמָּן דְּוֹרָם, or just being lazy and being idle,
אֹלְהַרְבּוֹ שִׁמָּן דְּוֹרָם, or saying G-d's name in vain, אֹלְהַרְבּוֹ שִׁמָּן דְּוֹרָם, כל אֵלו ועוד רבוֹ שְׁכָּהִנָּת. There are many sins of, like these, that we don't know what the, you know, בְּאִנֵי אָנָּשְׁם רָבִים, in the eyes of the majority of people, וַאַפִּילו בְּאִנִי גְּדוֹל לְהַעָדוֹרָה זֶה הִי נָּחְשָׁבוֹ שְׁכָּהִנָּת. There are many people who will look at those sins and say, that's small potatoes, that's not a big deal. כל אִלוּ יּוּ נֶחְשָׁבוֹ שְׁלוֹ חָמְוּרוֹשְׁמָּעוֹד,
but a person who's God-fearing should consider all sins to be serious and severe sins, and to not assume that, oh, this is not a big deal, this is a sin that I can handle. He says there are four reasons for this. The first is, שְׁאִן לְהַבֶּת לְכָּת־נוּ שָׁעַבֵּרו, אַלִי יַבֶּת לְגְדוּלָה שְׁמָשִׁי הִי זִרְלָה. He says, don't look at how small, don't consider the smallness of the transgression, but rather the greatness of the one who warned against it. Don't think about it.
It's like people say, in marriage, what's the big deal? Well, it's not a big deal to you, but to your spouse it is. Okay, and then people have to know this. In marriage, the reason why I bring marriage when I talk about our relationship with God, because it's supposed to parallel one with the other. I sat with a couple of guys recently, and they were telling me, she's overreacting, she's overreacting, what's such a big deal? I said, you don't understand, she's not overreacting.
To you it's not a big deal, to her it's a big deal. You understand, you'll never be able to unwire the way she's wired, right? The way she's wired, and it could be for another woman, it's not a big deal. But a person is married to their spouse. They have to take that into consideration, not into another person's spouse, not into another woman. My spouse, I have to be conscientious and concerned for her, not for any other woman. You understand?
So if in the relationship with our spouse is that, in the relationship with Hashem, it's no different. Meaning, while to myself, I'm thinking, ah, that's not such a big commandment. But G-d took ink out of His Torah to write this prohibition. So it must be that it is a serious thing. That's number one. A parable to this is a king who had two servants. One of them, he told him, I want a drink, I'm very thirsty. He was very thirsty.
He says, there's another one, he says, you know, something which is inconsequential. He tells him, you know, I want you to tend to the garden. I want you to, you know, reorganize the flowers, you know. And he told them, he says, guys, be careful. I'm giving you a command. Your life is on the line. It's a king. Anybody who goes against the will of the king is put to death. In the kingdom, it doesn't make a difference if you stole a dollar, if you stole a thousand.
It doesn't make a difference. It's the same death penalty. He says it doesn't make a difference now if this guy didn't delay in his drinking, bringing the drink for the king, which is a serious crime. And this one who delayed in tending the garden, which is not so serious a crime, it doesn't make a difference. Both of them are severe because you didn't listen to the king's command. So it's not, you see, sometimes we get into the thought of like,
well, this is not such a, it's not such a big deal. It's not such a big deal. It's okay. To God, it might not be okay. What do we know about how big this is in the eyes of God? And either way, it's the command of Hashem that's not being fulfilled. On all of the Torah, it says, the verse in Deuteronomy, watch and protect all of the mitzvahs, not just the mitzvahs, the important ones, all of them, because they're all important.
And the verse further states in Deuteronomy, Okay, so that's the first piece. You have to know that all mitzvahs are the most valuable mitzvahs. Every mitzvah. We shouldn't be the ones saying, this mitzvah I put up on the pedestal, but this one, I'm just like, this is a first tier mitzvah. No, no, no. Every mitzvah is a top tier mitzvah because it's a command of Hashem. The second thing, why a person should be very cautious, not to think of a mitzvah smaller and a mitzvah bigger.
So number one, we said the punishment. And a person should treat every mitzvah as if it's severe. He says the second thing is, He says if you do a small sin many times, then it becomes very serious. It means it's not a big deal. You know, there's a story in the Talmud of a great sage who mistakenly, when he was walking through someone's shortcut, there was a little fence, a picket fence, and he took a little, you know, a kessam, a toothpick.
He took a toothpick for his mouth. So the daughter of the household that he walked through in their shortcut, she said to him, you're a thief. He says, a thief? I took something which is so microscopic. It's not a big deal, right? It's not even worth a penny. Like you tell someone, how much is this one little piece of wood that I pulled off the wooden fence? How much is it worth? A penny? Not even. It's not even a penny.
So it's nothing. She said, yeah, but if every person who passes through this walkway takes a little bit, I'm not going to have a fence left. So yes, it's just a little toothpick. Think of the sin that a person does. If a person sins, even a little toothpick size, but one toothpick at another, and another, another, soon it's a gigantic sin. Ki tztorif onesh al kol pam v'pam, because it accumulates and becomes a big sin. Ha'shlishi, the third reason.
Ki kishuhu margil ba'aviruz, ve'hein lo keheter, ve'lo yishtamer me'hen. He says, you know what happens when a person does a sin many times? It becomes nothing to him. It becomes like, you know, the first time, oh my goodness, terrible, terrible. Can't believe I did this. The second time, third time, fourth time, soon it almost becomes a mitzvah. It becomes, yeah, the conscience is gone. The fear is gone. Everything is gone. It's all out. And a person is no longer going to be cautious.
Nechshav im porke ol v'mumar l'dovar echod. It's really not a good thing for a person to make any type of sin become a habit in their life. Ha'revi, what's the fourth? Ki derach ha'yetzer. Kishuhu nitzer b'dovar kal, oz yinatzer b'dovar chamor. He says that the tendency of the yetzer hara is that when he wins you with something small, then he's ready to feed you something big. It's about to happen, right? He starts with something small. It's like the way it works with the diet.
Why do people stop the diet? No, no, no. They start losing weight and they're like, it's going well, right? The cheat day, exactly. It's not a big deal. You know what? Yesterday I didn't really cheat on my cheat day really enough. So today I can do more cheating. Today it's like a little, it's OK. It's not a big deal. I'll just have an extra cracker. I'll just have another cookie. I'll eat another candy. I'll have another ice cream cone.
And that becomes another one, that becomes another one before you know it. It's a full-blown no more diet. That's the way it works. And that is the concern, is that now it becomes, the yetzer hara gets you with something really, really small. And that really small becomes a big, big giant problem. As it says in Ethics of Our Fathers, our sages tell us, be cautious with a small mitzvah, like a great mitzvah. V'amru od, she mitzvah goreros mitzvah, vavero goreros havero.
Our sages told us, if you want to know the rule of motivation, a mitzvah brings a mitzvah, a sin brings a sin. When you start the engine, you start your day, you start making those fonkols, one fonkol leads to another fonkol, one success leads to another success, one thing leads to another. If you do, you got to break it. You got to break the habit. You start the good habit. Suddenly one after another, after another blessing will come your way.
And the 14th step of, so those were the four things in step number 13. Now the 14th thing, 14th part of repentance. What's vidui? Vidui is confession. As the verse states, this is referring to one who brings a sin offering. What would he do? He'd put his hand on the offering, on the head of the animal. And what would he do? He would say, Hashem, make this offering, accept this offering instead of me. I should be slaughtered,
but instead you're taking this animal, this animal is being slaughtered in my stead. What is the sin? And the person would have to, And he shall confess what he has sinned. So we see this concept of confession is part of the tshuva process. And it is an obligation for a person to, to verbalize his sins and the sins of his ancestors. So why is, I understand my sins. Okay, I mentioned my sins. I know, I know the mistakes I made,
but I'm asking for the sins of my ancestors, my father, my grandfather, my great grandfather. Because sometimes we continue the habits that we got in our home. Sometimes we continue the deeds. This is what my dad did. This is what my mom did. So we are included in that as a unit. And therefore by us confessing, we're doing tshuva for them as well. It's an added bonus. As the verse states over there in Leviticus 26, that they confess the sins of their own
and the sins of their parents. And a person while they're repeating these sins, he has to accept in his heart that he's going to distance himself from these actions moving forward. There's a concept, there's an animal, a dead animal is considered impure, okay? A dead rat is the example that's brought. Imagine you have a dead rat. You touched a dead rat. Now you have to dip yourself in your tummy. You're spiritually impure. And now you have to cleanse yourself.
You also physically, right? You have to cleanse yourself after the period of cleanliness. You have to dip yourself in the mikvah. Imagine you go into the mikvah while you're still holding the dead rat. It doesn't help. What does it help that you go into the mikvah if you're still holding on to it? Our sages say that that's like someone who confesses a sin but doesn't change their way. They continue to sin the same way they did till now. That's problematic.
The confession is like immersing yourself in that water. Just like you would from the sin of touching an impure animal, a defiled animal, so too would be someone who says, it's a cleansing. And the sin is like the dead rat. And this is something very, very, very clear. She'en tvilam mo'eles le'oches sheretz. And we all know that if you're still holding it in your hand, it's not going to help you in any way. So what the author here is telling us,
confession is essential in our teshuvah process. And by speaking out, Hashem, please forgive me. I did this wrong. I made this mistake. In that process, what happens? It's like you just went to the mikvah. You purified yourself. You accept upon yourself that for the future, you're not going to go back to this sin. That's the holiest state a person can ever be in. So that concludes day number 153, my dear friends.
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.