But as high as it is, it’s not yet the highest. Because now we come finally to the grand finale, to the highest and best incentive to do teshuvah. You know what it is? Happiness and a good heart because of all the good that he has (Ki Savo 28:47)! Because it’s only when you don’t do teshuvah in the midst of your happiness, that’s when the tochachah comes. But the best method of all is happiness!
It’s the Chovos Halevavos but I will put it in my words instead of his words: The best type of teshuvah is teshuvah over watermelon. You are eating watermelon – isn't it good? It’s delicious! It’s red and sweet and refreshing and cold. You’re enjoying it, aren’t you? So you say, “Just because of that, just because You gave me this tasty watermelon I will do teshuvah.”
I’m very serious right now. You can try it when you get home tonight. Go to the refrigerator and practice doing teshuvah on a slice of watermelon. “You’re so good to me Hashem! How could I sin against you with lashon hora or by saying brachos without kavanah, or whatever it is.”
Chicken Chiding
And so when a man is sitting at his table and his wife puts out a miniature banquet for him; he has good bread and he has salt and he has a piece of chicken and he has some more things to garnish the plate and as he sits there and he’s ready to dive in, he should think, “Now is the time to repent.”
That’s the best repentance, to repent in the midst of a good meal! Of course if you repent on your deathbed when you’re wracked by pain and you know the grave is only one day off, it’s also repentance. But there’s no comparison to the repentance that a man can accomplish when he’s sitting down at the supper table!
Isn’t that a good way to do teshuvah? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sending messages but He’s not sending suffering or even someone to criticize him; instead He’s sending chicken. Sometimes He sends ice cream and chocolate cake too. Whatever good taste the messages have, they are all urging us to awake from our slumber, to stir ourselves from our lethargy and to dedicate ourselves to the great task of our lives of getting better.
Teshuvah at the Bank
Isn’t that a good chiddush? Isn’t it worth coming to hear that? To repent when you’re eating a good piece of meat! It tastes good! And your saliva is flowing and you have all your teeth and you’re chewing and your stomach is still operating. Everything is working, purring smoothly. And then you think, “Now is the time.”
Not only eating. When you’re standing in line in the bank and you have a fat wad you’re going to deposit, that’s the time to think about rectifying your misdeeds.
When you’re happy because everything is going well; you have no headaches and your business is making money – you’re able to pay the rent – and your children are all good, you’re marrying off your daughter to a big talmid chochom, making simchahs, that’s the time to decide, “I am going to do teshuvah just because of that. Because Hashem is so good to me I am going to repent and improve my ways.” That’s the highest teshuvah there is.
Teshuvah on Ocean Parkway
Try that tomorrow. You’re walking down Ocean Parkway and you have two feet. You’re healthy. You have clothing. You even have in your pocket a few nickels — you’re rich! And as you walk down the street and you breathe this wonderful Brooklyn air and you think, “Look what I’m getting! Look how lucky I am! Ay, chasdei Hashem!”
What can I repay Hashem, for all that He bestowed upon me? “What can I do for you, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, after all You are doing for me?” And he does teshuvah on Ocean Parkway – teshuvah in happiness, teshuvah in pleasure. He decides to get better as a result.
That is the best teshuvah there is. We see the blue sky, the sun is shining and the weather is nice, and you feel well, you do teshuvah just because of that, in gratitude to Hashem, that is the highest madreigah of teshuva.
Teshuvah in the Home
Try it out! Do it tomorrow. Even when you’re sitting in your house and you consider that you have a roof over your house; it’s not raining in or it’s not raining in much – if it rains in only a little, still it’s a great blessing. And it’s warm inside; there’s no snow on the carpets.
You look through the window, you see a homeless dog running through the snow sniffing at garbage cans, maybe he can find a stray morsel, and here you are snug in your home, with a full stomach. And you’re going to sleep in a place with a roof. You’re in Brooklyn. You’re an American citizen. That’s the time to think of repentance. That’s the time to do teshuvah.
After a while you’ll to get into the habit of saying, “Hashem, I am so happy with what you are giving me, I am going to do teshuvah right way” and it becomes a stereotype, a form of living, that you learn to repeat again and again.
The Best Program
Now, of course this requires a certain level of emunah; besides for developing your middah of gratitude a person also has to know that everything he has is from Hashem. Because if a man thinks that his happiness is to be attributed to his own ability or to be attributed to some extraneous material cause, then he’s not going to be spurred on to repent because of his happiness. It’s only when he understands that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Gomel chassodim tovim and whatever good fortune accrues to him is only the yad Hashem, then he’ll understand it’s a message. Only that instead of a message of suffering, instead of a message of vicissitude, of misfortune, exile, poverty, illness and rebuke, it’s a message of happiness.
Because all the other messages – rebuke and suffering of others and chas v’shalom suffering himself, all those are substitutes; they’re just tachas, they’re instead. Instead of not having served Hashem in happiness I have to bring the substitute, the tochachah. And the substitute is never as good as the original article. The original and the best teshuvah is to repent when you’re healthy and happy.
That’s the best way! That’s the genuine teshuvah! The one who wants to be the best baal teshuvah he makes use of this message of happiness and bestirs his mind and he becomes better. He uses that feeling of gratitude to spur him to make amends for what he has done wrong in the past and to serve Hashem with more zeal and purity of heart in the future. This is a teshuvah that is me’ahavah. You repent out of love, out of gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that’s the best teshuvah program for everybody.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
