Every Jew Can be Fixed
The Way of Emunah | September 08, 2024
Print This Article
View Original PDF

Every Jew Can be Fixed

The Way of Emunah | June 25, 2025

Every Jew Can be Fixed:
The Chasam Sofer learns this pasuk to be teaching us that Hashem opens the doors of teshuva for every Jew, even the lowliest person, allowing everyone to return to Him.
He explains it as follows: “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying and ignore them.” This can be understood to mean that one should not see a fellow Jew straying from the proper path and ignore him because he thinks there is no hope for the sinful individual to ever do teshuva. Even if the person has strayed extremely far, to the extent that “your brother is far from you and you don’t know him (ibid:2)” because he is so far gone, still and all: “You should gather him into your house” and draw him close.
This is what Rav Yochanon did for Reish Lakish (Bava Metziah 84A) and what Hillel did for the man who wished to convert (Shabbos 31A). And one should do this “until your brother seeks you out”, meaning until he comes to seek a way to do teshuva. And then “you shall return him” to the ways of Hashem.

Every Jew Can be Fixed:
The Chasam Sofer learns this pasuk to be teaching us that Hashem opens the doors of teshuva for every Jew, even the lowliest person, allowing everyone to return to Him.
He explains it as follows: “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying and ignore them.” This can be understood to mean that one should not see a fellow Jew straying from the proper path and ignore him because he thinks there is no hope for the sinful individual to ever do teshuva. Even if the person has strayed extremely far, to the extent that “your brother is far from you and you don’t know him (ibid:2)” because he is so far gone, still and all: “You should gather him into your house” and draw him close.
This is what Rav Yochanon did for Reish Lakish (Bava Metziah 84A) and what Hillel did for the man who wished to convert (Shabbos 31A). And one should do this “until your brother seeks you out”, meaning until he comes to seek a way to do teshuva. And then “you shall return him” to the ways of Hashem.

PDF Preview