Teshuvah for the Righteous
But we’re not going to talk now about such drastic changes, about people who are drowning in big sins and need to make that type of teshuvah. After all, when Moshe Rabbeinu was telling the Am Yisroel about the mitzvah of teshuvah, cajoling them and warning them about returning to Hashem, you have to picture the circumstances. It was in the Midbar. The people were all shomrei Shabbos. Everybody ate kosher, and everybody kept taharas hamishpacha. There was no question about anyone doing a sin in the Midbar that others could notice. That was out of the question.
Even a hundred years ago, in a small Jewish town or a big Jewish city—in Vilna, let’s say—it was impossible for a Jew to walk through the street without a hat. You’d have to be a very big gibor to be such a rebel—you wouldn’t survive. Every Jew went to the beis haknesses; there wasn’t a Jew who didn’t put on tefillin. It was the national practice for the Jewish people to keep kol haTorah kulah. And in the Midbar, certainly! Everybody kept everything! And so the question arises, what talk of teshuvah is there when everybody is perfect?
And the answer is that absolutely there is talk of teshuvah. There’s a lot of talk! Because teshuvah means something entirely different than you imagined. Doing mitzvos is the minimum that’s required of a Jew. It doesn’t make you special; it’s not your great achievement in life.
When comparing yourself to Jews who do nothing, certainly you might deceive yourself into thinking that you’re good, that everything is fine. But in those days, everybody did everything. And still, Moshe Rabbeinu was telling them that there was so much teshuvah to be done. Because just doing mitzvos is not everything. Actually, it’s just the beginning. You still need a big teshuvah.
Easy Teshuvah
And therefore, right now we are addressing an audience of Orthodox Jews, and everybody keeps everything. All of you are tzaddikim who should be םֹלוָׁ ̆¿לו יםƒבֹטו יםƒּיַח¿ל ר≈ּ ̇¿לַ‡¿ל יןƒמָּ ̇¿ח∆נ¿ו יןƒבָּ ̇¿כƒנ. You’re all good Orthodox Jews and so we’re not going to talk about sins that you hear about in the camp outside of the Orthodox. We won’t talk about anything that’s severe in the eyes of the hamon am, that even the multitude will agree is a sin, things that require the most drastic changes. No, we’ll talk about things that even the most Orthodox can do to come closer to Hashem, opportunities to fulfill v’shuvu el Hashem, to start walking on that path of greatness, of coming closer to Hashem.
Now, in the Torah it states that this type of teshuvah is not difficult: הָ ֹ̃ח¿ר ‡ֹל¿וָך¿ּמƒמ ‡יƒה ̇‡≈ל¿פƒנ ‡ֹל‡וƒה – It’s not far away from you. ‡וƒה םָּיַל ר∆ב≈ﬠ≈מ ‡ֹל¿ו – You won’t have to travel to Italy. You won’t have to give up your career or even change shuls. בֹרוָ ̃ יƒּכ„ֹ‡¿מ רָבָּ„ַהָיך∆ל≈‡ – This thing is very close to you (Devarim 30:14-15). Right where you are right now, whatever your situation, you can accomplish a tremendous amount in coming close to Hashem. And it’s not impossible! It’s not a matter of fasting or rolling around in the snow. The teshuvah we’re going to talk about is the easy road to teshuvah.
Easy Punishment
But before we talk about some details, it pays to make the following point about easy opportunities. When you consider how simple it is to take advantage of easy opportunities, you’ll begin to understand how guilty you really are. And I must take the time now to explain about this subject so you’ll understand how severe it really is to ignore the opportunities we’re going to discuss here — how guilty we are just because it is karov eilecha.
You know, tzitzis have two kinds of threads. There are threads of blue wool, which are expensive. In the days of old, when they wore tzitzis they had blue techeiles on their tzitzis. But it was very expensive. They also had threads of white wool, which were not as expensive.
Now, the Gemara in Mesichta Menachos (43b) says like this: Suppose a man neglected to put blue threads in his tzitzis. So naturally, he’s guilty; in the days when techeiles was available, it was a sin to neglect it. But let’s say he neglected to put in white threads; that, the Gemara says, is a much bigger sin, much more severe. ל∆ׁ ̆ ֹוׁ ̆¿נָﬠ≈מ ר≈ ֹ̇יו ןָבָל ל∆ׁ ̆ ֹוׁ ̆¿נָﬠ לֹו„ָּ‚ ̇∆ל≈כ¿ּ ̇ – The punishment for neglecting the white threads is bigger than the punishment for neglecting the blue threads.
Ignorance is not Bliss
Why is it much worse? Because white threads are easier to find and cheaper to purchase. And the punishment for neglecting something that’s easy to do is bigger than the punishment for neglecting something more difficult. Whatever is easier is a bigger obligation. So now we begin to understand how serious are the easy opportunities to become better. Those things that are easier to begin working on entail a much greater responsibility.
And that means that what we’re going to learn tonight will create big responsibilities. And it won’t help to walk out now, to decide not to listen. Oh, no! You’ll be held responsible for not learning what you must do! You’ll be considered very guilty! I’ll prove it to you.
You remember when Avraham Avinu came to Gerar? So the Torah relates that Avimelech asked him, “Who is this woman with you?” He saw a beautiful woman with Avraham and that was his first question. So Avraham said “‡וƒה יƒ ֹ̇חֲ‡ – She’s my sister” (Bereishis 20:2). And Avimelech didn’t hesitate; he took her and brought her to his palace. And that night he had a dream that he was going to be put to death for taking away a married woman.
In the morning he summoned Avraham and said, “Why did you deceive me?” And Avraham said, “Because when a stranger comes to town, people are supposed to be asking about one thing: ‘Do you have a place to eat? A place to sleep?’ But you didn’t ask me any of these questions. You asked me, ‘Who is this woman with you? Is she your sister or your wife?’ Oh, if that’s your question, then I know I have what to be careful from. And so immediately I said, ‘There’s no yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh, no fear of G-d in this place, and I have to protect myself.’” It was necessary for Avraham to deceive Avimelech for his own self-defense. Avraham couldn’t have answered, “She’s my wife,” because he was afraid that Avimelech would kill him in order to take Sarah.
Responsibility to Learn
Now, the question arises, why should Avimelech have been sentenced to death? After all, he was deceived by Avraham. It’s true that he didn’t ask the proper questions, but at the end of the day he was innocent. He thought he was taking an unmarried woman.
And the Gemara (Bava Kama 92a) answers that Avimelech is considered the guilty one because he never learned how to behave. Because he never took the time and energy to train himself in good manners, he forced Avraham to deceive him. And so, he was going to be killed shehayah lo lilmod v’lo lamad — because he should have learned correct behavior and he didn’t.
From here we learn, the Gemara says, that a ben Noach is put to death, „ַמָל ‡ֹל¿ו „ֹמו¿לƒל ֹלו הָיָה∆ׁ ̆ – because he should have learned and he didn’t. Had he gone to listen to Avraham—Avraham was speaking all the time, and he had thousands of talmidim—he would have learned how to behave when wayfarers pass through, how to put the right questions to them. And since Avimelech didn’t bother to learn and asked the wrong questions, he was guilty. He was sentenced to death because he should have learned.
Elul Exercises
So we’re learning here a big principle about all these easy things that a person could have fulfilled without any effort. He cannot say “I claim exemption because of ignorance.” Because it’s easy to learn! We’re not requiring him to study sugyos chamuros with Gemara and Tosfos. No, we’re talking about fundamentals of proper living, proper behavior, that are easy to learn. And because there are so many opportunities to learn the fundamentals, those who neglect these opportunities are held entirely guilty.
If there are lectures such as these where you could learn, and if there are sefarim you could study, then you will be held responsible. And so, let’s not waste the opportunity—we’re sitting here together and it’s almost Rosh Chodesh Elul, so let’s get busy learning and studying a few of the easy opportunities that will help us start traveling on the road of returning to Hashem.
If we’ll focus on four different uvdos (‘uvdah’ was the word the Rav used in his private vaadim to
