ELI Talks: Mark Borovitz

(1) What is complete teshuvah? When a person has the opportunity to commit the same sin, and he possess the ability to do it, but he separates and does not do it because of teshuvah and not out of fear or lack of strength. What is an example? A person who had illicit sex with a woman, and after some time he is alone with her, and he still loves her and possesses his physical power and is in the same country where he committed the sin, but he separates and does not sin – that person is a complete ba’al teshuvah, about whom [King] Solomon said, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1). And if a person only does teshuvah in the days of old age, when it is not possible to do what he once did, even though this is not the highest teshuvah, it is effective and that person is a ba’al teshuvah. Even if a person sinned all his days and did teshuvah on the day of his death and died in his teshuvah, all his sins are forgiven, as it says, Before the sun is darkened, and the light of the moon and the stars, and the clouds return after the rain (Ecclesiastes 12:2), which is the day of death. This implies that if he remembers his Creator and does teshuvah before he dies, he is forgiven.

(2) What is teshuvah? It is when a person abandons the sin that he sinned and removes it from his thoughts and commits in his heart that he will not do it again, as it says, The wicked should abandon his path etc. (Isaiah 55:7). And also that he regrets sinning, as it says, After I returned I regretted (Jeremiah 31:18). And the One Who Knows Hidden Things testifies about him that he will never return to this sin, as it says, And we will no longer call the work of our hands “god” etc. (Hosea 14:4). And he must confess verbally and say these things that he has committed in his heart.

(1) Each and every person has merits and sins. A person whose merits are greater than their sins is righteous; and a person whose sins are greater than their merits is wicked; half and half, in-between. And the same is true of a country, if the merits of all its citizens are greater than their sins, that nation is righteous, and if their sins are greater than their merits they are wicked; and also for the whole world.

(1) Free will is granted to all people: If one wanted to turn oneself to a good path and to be righteous he has free will, and if one wanted to turn oneself to an evil path and be wicked he has free will, as it is written in the Torah, Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil (Genesis 3:22), that is, this species of human is unique in the world and there is no other species like it in this matter, that it of its own initiative and will and thought knows Good and Evil and will do whatever it pleases, and there is no one to prevent its hand from doing Good or Evil, and since that is so Lest he send his hand (Gen. 3:22).

(3) And this is a major principle, and it is a pillar of the Torah and the Mitzvah, as it says, See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil (Deuteronomy 30:15), and it is written, Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse (Deuteronomy 11:26), which is to say that you have free will, and whatever a person wants to do, of all the deeds of humanity, he can do, whether good or bad. And based on this concept it says, Oh that they had such a heart as this [always, to revere Me, and keep all My commandments] (Deuteronomy 5:26), which is to say that the Creator neither forces humans nor decrees for them to do Good or Evil; everything is turned over to them.

(2) Do not let this thing that the simpletons of the Nations of the World and most of the fools of Israel say cross your mind, that the Holy Blessed One decrees for a person to be righteous or wicked from the beginning of his creation. The matter is not so; rather, every person is capable of being righteous like Moses our Teacher or wicked like [King] Jeroboam, wise or foolish, compassionate or cruel, stingy or wasteful, and so on for all of the attributes. And there is no one that forces him or decrees for him, nor anyone who pulls him toward one of the two paths; rather, that person, of his own will and awareness, leans toward whichever path he wants, as Jeremiah said, Does not Good and Evil come out of the mouth of the Most High? (Lamentations 3:38). And since that is how it is, it seems that this sinner injures himself. Therefore it is appropriate for him to cry and wail over his sins and over what he did to his soul and how he caused evil to it, as is written afterward, How can a living man complain etc. (Lamentations 3:39). And he returns to say, since we have free will, and by our own awareness we did all of the evil, it is appropriate for us to return in teshuvah and abandon our wickedness, since we now have free will, as is written afterward, Let us search and try our ways, and return [to the Lord] (Lamentations 3:40).