Another Small Package of Aveiros:
Rav Chaim Eliyahu Sternberg zt”l (Sefer Kol Eliyahu, Bais Chernobyl, Ois 48) relates that the Meor Einayim zy”a had an irreligious neighbor who transgressed all the prohibitions of the Torah. It was known that the Meor Einayim could look at a person and see all their sins, so this neighbor made sure to stay away from him. However, he once unwittingly bumped into the Rebbe, who immediately told him all the aveiros he had committed. This caused the man to faint.
When the neighbor awoke, he went into the Meor Einayim’s home, but the only one there at the time was the Rebbe’s son, Rav Mottele of Chernobyl zy”a. He told Rav Mottele everything that had just happened and cried that he wanted to do teshuva. He said that he was willing to receive whatever afflictions were necessary for his teshuva to be accepted.
Rav Mottele told him, “I am not going to afflict you at all. I only ask that you fully commit to be an upright Yid from now on and never to return to your previous ways.” The man asked, “But what about all my sins? How will be rid of them?” Rav Mottele told him, “If you commit not to do any more aveiros, I will take your old sins upon myself.” The neighbor said that he wanted this in writing. Rav Mottele agreed and they wrote up a contract, which they both signed.
Right after the neighbor left, the Meor Einayim entered the house and saw the contract sitting on the table. He screamed at his son, “What have you done?” Rav Mottele answered, “I said to Hashem: It says in the Torah that you are ‘noseh avon.’ (You ‘carry the sins’ of Klal Yisroel.) If You carry so many huge packages of aveiros, what difference will it make if I add on another small bundle so that a Jew will do teshuva?”
