Hello Everyone,
Today we saw three interpretations of a saying by Chazal:
תלמוד בבלי מסכת ברכות דף לד עמוד ב
מקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין – צדיקים גמורים אינם עומדין
Rabbeinu Bachya explains that this statement is not a description of the rewards due to בעלי תשובה as opposed to those owed to צדיקים גמורים (which is what appears to be the meaning of this statement in its context). According to Rabbeinu Bachya it is a description of the spiritual state of בעלי תשובה when compared to צדיקים גמורים. Penitents may[1] occupy a higher spiritual plane than totally righteous people. The reason for this is that penitents know failure. They have sinned and have no illusions about their self-worth. Honest penance demands honest self-examination and this leaves no room for arrogance. On the other hand totally righteous people can easily fall into the traps of vanity, self-aggrandizement and hypocrisy. Rabbeinu Bachya quotes a sage who told his students that now that they sinned he is less worried about their committing a far more serious sin. When they asked their teacher what he meant, he replied that now that they sinned he no longer needs to be worried about their becoming arrogant. In a similar vein he quotes a proverb which says that there are מצוות which lead to greater harm than עבירות.
The Rambam has a different interpretation of what Chazal said. He writes in Hilchot Teshuvah:
רמב”ם הלכות תשובה פרק ז הלכה ד
ואל ידמה אדם בעל תשובה שהוא מרוחק ממעלת הצדיקים מפני העונות והחטאות שעשה, אין הדבר כן אלא אהוב ונחמד הוא לפני הבורא כאילו לא חטא מעולם, ולא עוד אלא ששכרו הרבה שהרי טעם טעם החטא ופירש ממנו וכבש יצרו, אמרו חכמים מקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין אין צדיקים גמורין יכולין לעמוד בו, כלומר מעלתן גדולה ממעלת אלו שלא חטאו מעולם מפני שהן כובשים יצרם יותר מהם.
The Rambam explains that the “מקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין” is the place where they will be rewarded for overcoming their desire to sin. During the shiur today we studied the Rambam’s examination of two personality types (taken from his introduction to פרקי אבות known as שמונה פרקים ). The Rambam (based on both “the philosophers” and חז”ל ) writes that some people are “naturally” righteous and never feel tempted to sin while other people live deeply conflicted lives and continuously fight the urge to sin. “The philosophers” feel that the “naturally righteous” are superior to people who need to continuously struggle to remain righteous. The Rambam says that the issue is not so simple. The Rambam writes that nobody should feel tempted to commit crimes against another person. A person who is tempted to steal is not at a high level even if he never actually steals. On the other hand the Torah contains many commandments of a purely “dogmatic” character, e.g. the prohibition against eating pork. If a person is sorely tempted to eat pork but conquers that urge then he is superior to the person who never had to overcome such an urge. The Rambam’s appreciation for the successful בעל תשובה seems to me to be a natural extension of this analysis.
Finally we saw Rav Soloveitchik’s זצ”ל explanation (taken from the book על התשובה). Rav Soloveitchik זצ”ל said that the בעל תשובה is not superior to the צדיק גמור because of what he had accomplished. The בעל תשובה is superior because of what he is capable of achieving. Rav Soloveitchik זצ”לwrites that righteousness, as opposed to evil, is a “passive” quality. People motivated by hate or envy pursue their goals with more energy than people motivated by love or kindness. When an evil person does תשובה he must of course abandon his evil-deeds. But what about all of his ability to act? Should he transform himself into someone who is willing to be a passive bystander to life? The Rav explained that the בעל תשובה can take all of his abilities and apply them to new, worthy goals. This is the difference between “eliminating evil” and “elevating evil.” When the בעל תשובה can channel all of his talents to building a better future he will achieve greater things than the צדיק גמור who simply lacks the energy needed to build on a grand scale.
This is the essence of today’s shiur. Thanks to everyone who participated and aרפואה שלימה to our friend Joel Nowicki.Bye, Stuart Fischman
[1] Their actual spiritual level depends on the sins which they committed.