Hello Everyone,
I apologize for rescheduling today’s shiur but I had an important appointment that I needed to keep.
Today we saw the demands of teshuvah. Rabbeinu Bachya contrasted the teshuvah process for the two broad categories of mitzvoth; בין אדם למקום and בין אדם לחברו .
When a person sins only against Hashem (בין אדם למקום) then teshuvah is solely dependent on the person’s will. It can be very difficult to change ingrained habits but a person can make such a decision and put it into effect.
The situation is different when a person sins against another person (בין אדם לחברו). The efficacy of the penance depends not only upon the penitent’s sincerity but upon making restitution to the sinner’s victim(s) and being forgiven by him/them. If a person steals from a community how does he find all of those victims and make restitution to all of them? If a person slanders someone how does he go about restoring his reputation?
Rabbeinu Bachya, at the end of the ninth chapter concludes on the somewhat ominous note that teshuvah can be very difficult (and perhaps Rabbeinu Bachya is writing to warn us against these pitfalls and obstacles). But he opens the tenth chapter of the section on teshuvah with the promise that Hashem will help us to succeed in our quest for forgiveness. If a person tries honestly to find the victims of his depredations Hashem will help to track them down. If a criminal does not have the resources to repay those victims then Hashem will supply him with the needed funds. Hashem wants us to succeed.
We closed with a ruling by Rav Zilberstein שליט”א . He was asked by a smoker how to תשובה for smoking. Rav Zilberstein notes that smokers do harm by tempting other people to smoke and by raising the chances of people in their environment will contract lung cancer ר”ל by inhaling their “second-hand smoke.” Therefore the smoker’s תשובה needs to address those two sins. First, the ex-smoker needs to transform himself into a positive role model. Instead of tempting people to adopt bad habits he will inspire them to do good things. Second, to atone for the cancer that he may have caused he needs to contribute funds to clinics which treat lung cancer victims in order to alleviate their suffering.
Thanks to everyone who attended today’s shiur. May the zechut of our learning be accepted by Hashem and aid in the speedy release of the kidnapped young people.