An Inadvertent Sin Affects the Soul:
Sefer Shefa Chaim explains (Drashos 5642) that this pasuk is hinting to the severity of even an inadvertent sin, as such sins mar the soul and ultimately lead to deliberate transgressions. The Yismach Moshe (Parshas Mishpatim) says that one needs to bring a korban to atone for an inadvertent sin for this reason. He writes: If one accidentally drinks poison, will he not be affected? So too, if one sins accidentally, his soul is still affected and he needs to rectify the damage.
The Shefa Chaim quotes the Ropshitzer Rebbe zy”a as saying that accidentally eating forbidden foods severely affects a person. The Ropshitzer said that no one is immune for accidentally eating forbidden things and if any individual would be able to see everything he ate in his lifetime, it would equal “a small pig” of forbidden foods. Since it is impossible to avoid this, one is not punished for it. If, however, one has more than “one small pig” inside of him, he will be punished for it if he doesn’t do teshuva.
The extent of the matter can be seen from the following story: The Arizal was once walking with his holy students in a forest when they came across a stream of water, located quite a distance from any human settlement. They saw a large frog sitting in the water that was croaking loudly and continuously.
The Arizal took ahold of a cup and dipped it into the water. He was full of dveikus and his face was fiery as he drew a bit of water. After a few minutes, he made a bracha with much kavanah. Right after he drank the water, the students realized that the frog had died. They understood that they had witnessed something remarkable and they asked the Arizal to explain what had just occurred.
The Arizal told them, “Many years ago, there lived a man who was both a talmid chochom and a big tzadik. He once was very thirsty and, without thinking, drank some water without making a bracha. This created a big complaint against him in Shomayim and the damaging forces were given permission to harm him. The yeitzer hara began to seduce him and got him to forget to recite Birchas Hamazon one time after he ate. One bad thing led to another and he did one sin after the next until he fell to committing very serious sins and even left Yiddishkeit entirely.
“After his death, he was judged in Shomayim and the ruling was that he had to return to this world in the form of a frog. This was a measure-for-measure punishment. Since he originally sinned with water, he was punished by being placed in the water. It was decreed that he had to remain where he was until a Jew came along and made a bracha with kavanah on the water he was living in, thereby providing a tikkun for his soul. Since the frog was placed in a river far from civilization, no one made a bracha on the water for several hundred years, and the neshama was stuck there.”
The Arizal concluded, “Through the power of the bracha I made on the water, the neshama can finally leave the frog and go to Gan Eden.”
This idea is hinted to in the pasuk that says that if a man or woman does “any” sin. The word “kol” (any) indicates a small, seemingly insignificant aveirah. Thus, the pasuk is...
