However, the Chovos Halevavos goes on. He says that there are even higher madreigos of teshuvah; there are still better ways. Because who needs to suffer? Your own suffering, the suffering of others – even if it’s far away, it’s the people in the Congo – who needs it? We don’t want anybody to suffer.
And so the Chovos Halevavos goes on and says that we shouldn’t wait for those messages that come by means of suffering; instead we should listen to the messages that come by means of words.
Imagine you’re sitting this week, Shabbos, in the synagogue and the baal korei is reading the tochachah and you hear how Hakadosh Baruch Hu foretells what will happen when the Torah is transgressed. But instead of listening to the words just to be yotzei krias haTorah, you take the words to heart. It’s talking to you; it’s talking about you.
How fortunate is the man who puts the Torah on his heart! You know why he’s so fortunate? Because he’s choosing a higher path, a better path – he’s listening to the words of rebuke and he does teshuvah just because of that.
I’m Talking to You!
“How fortunate is the man who listens to Me,” Hashem said (Mishlei 8:34).
“Oh,” you say, “Certainly if Hashem spoke to me, I’d listen to Him.”
No, that’s not what it means. “I’m speaking all the time to you,” Hashem says, “I speak to you from the siddur every day. I’m speaking to you from the Chumash and from Mishlei and from all the seforim.”
“But not only from seforim I’m speaking to you,” Hashem says. “I speak to you from the mouths of the gedolim too, the great men of the generation. I speak and speak constantly.”
Words of Gedolim
So if you read in a Jewish newspaper that this-and-this rosh yeshivah made a statement, by no means should you make the fatal error of thinking it’s too extreme. If you read this-and-this chassidishe rebbe made a statement, beware of thinking that you know better. There are many fools who in their overweening arrogance and ignorance believe they understand more than these old rabbis from Europe. Anything that comes from Europe, they know, is nothing.
And so an old European rabbi, the Satmerer Rav, for years and years while he was still healthy, he warned – now he is nebach sick; Hashem should be maarich yomim him. He’s sick now but when he was healthy he used to issue warnings, valuable words of tochachah. And oyy, there were so many ‘wise’ people who ridiculed what he said. He's against Medinas Yisroel? That already sentenced him to being canceled out.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, zol zein gezunt, is speaking. All the roshei yeshivah, they’re speaking. The rov of your shul is speaking. Beware! Listen up! It’s sent from Heaven for your benefit.
Messengers Galore
And even ‘lesser’ messengers who come to us should be heeded. Your rebbe in the cheder and mother and your father are excellent messengers. When your mother scolds you or when your father tells you off, pay attention. When your rebbe points out something to you or when some old person says, “Don’t do that,” they’re all messengers from Heaven.
That’s a much wiser person. He’s not interested in yissurim. And so he makes himself interested in rebuke. If a person can get better from what his rebbe tells him, from what the gedolei hador and his mother and father and neighbor say; if he can get better from the tochachah when the baal korei reads it, that’s a much better way.
And so he doesn’t merely let it pass over his head; he tries to absorb it and it goes into his bones. Even if it’s only one thing; even if one time he refrains from making a derogatory remark about a fellow Jew. One leitzanus less or even one maariv that he davens better, one brachah that he says better, then it wasn’t in vain. It has accomplished its purpose.
How fortunate is the one who learns how to do teshuvah by means of listening to Hashem because he has chosen the higher road, the better road to teshuvah than suffering.
