Tales of Teshuva

(2) Ben Azzai says: ...one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, and one sin leads to another sin...

The Sages taught: An incident occurred involving Rabbi Eliezer, who decreed a complete cycle of thirteen fasts upon the congregation, but rain did not fall. At the end of the last fast, the congregation began to exit the synagogue. He said to them: Have you prepared graves for yourselves? If rain does not fall, we will all die of hunger. All the people burst into tears, and rain fell. There was another incident involving Rabbi Eliezer, who descended to serve as prayer leader before the ark on a fast day. And he recited twenty-four blessings, but he was not answered. Rabbi Akiva descended before the ark after him and said: Our Father, our King, we have no king other than You. Our Father, our King, for Your sake, have mercy on us. And rain immediately fell. The Sages were whispering among themselves that Rabbi Akiva was answered while his teacher, Rabbi Eliezer, was not. A Divine Voice emerged and said: It is not because this Sage, Rabbi Akiva, is greater than that one, Rabbi Eliezer, but that this one is forgiving, and that one is not forgiving. God responded to Rabbi Akiva’s forgiving nature in kind by sending rain.

There were these hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you pray for the death of these hooligans? Do you base yourself on the verse, as it is written: “Let sins cease from the land” (Psalms 104:35), which you interpret to mean that the world would be better if the wicked were destroyed? But is it written, let sinners cease?” Let sins cease, is written. One should pray for an end to their transgressions, not for the demise of the transgressors themselves. Moreover, go to the end of the verse, where it says: “And the wicked will be no more.” If, as you suggest, transgressions shall cease refers to the demise of the evildoers, how is it possible that the wicked will be no more, i.e., that they will no longer be evil? Rather, pray for God to have mercy on them, that they should repent, as if they repent, then the wicked will be no more, as they will have repented. Rabbi Meir saw that Berurya was correct and he prayed for God to have mercy on them, and they repented.

What about this Keti'ah b. Shalom? — There was once a Caesar who hated the Jews. One day he said to the prominent members of the government. 'If one has a wart¹³ on his foot, shall he cut it away and live [in comfort] or leave it on and suffer discomfort?' To which they replied: 'He should cut it away and live in comfort'. Then Keti'ah b. Shalom addressed them thus: 'In the first place, you cannot do away with all of them, for it is written, For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven.¹⁴ Now, what does this verse indicate? Were it to mean that [Israel] was to be scattered to the four corners of the world, then instead of saying, as the four winds, the verse would have said, to the four winds? It can only mean that just as the world cannot exist without winds, so the world cannot exist without Israel. And what is more, your kingdom will be called a crippled kingdom.' To this the king replied: 'You have spoken very well; however, he who contradicts the king is to be cast into a circular furnace'.¹⁵ On his being held and led away, a Roman matron said of him: 'Pity the ship that sails [towards the harbour] without paying the tax'.¹⁶ Then, throwing himself on his foreskin he cut it away exclaiming: 'Thou hast paid the tax thou wilt pass and enter [paradise]'. As he was being cast [into the furnace] he said: 'All my possessions [are to go to] R. Akiba and his friends'. This, R. Akiba interpreted according to the verse, And it shall be unto Aaron and his sons¹⁷ [which is taken to mean that] one half is Aaron's and one half his sons'. A bath-kol¹⁸ then exclaimed: 'Keti'ah b. Shalom is destined for [eternal] life in the world to come!' Rabbi [on hearing of it] wept saying: 'One may acquire eternity in a single hour, another may acquire it after many years!'

The Gemara relates: There were certain hooligans [biryonei] who were living in the neighborhood of Rabbi Zeira. He brought them close, i.e., treated them with friendship, in order to cause them to repent of their sins, but the other Sages disapproved of his actions. When Rabbi Zeira died, those hooligans said: Until now, there was the short one with singed legs, i.e., Rabbi Zeira, who would pray for compassion for us. Who will pray for compassion for us now? They thought about this in their hearts and repented.

Another explanation of “He smelled the fragrance of his garments and blessed him” – This refers to people like Yosef Meshita and Yakum of Tzrorot. Yosef Meshita: When the hated ones wanted to enter the Temple Mount they said, “Let one of them (one of the Jews) go first.” They said to him (Yosef Meshita), “Go in and what you take out is yours.” He entered and removed a gold menorah. They said to him, “That is not appropriate for a normal person’s use. Go in a second time and what you take out is yours.” But he did not agree. Rabbi Pinchas said: They offered him three years free of taxes and he still didn’t agree. He said, “Was it not enough that I angered my G-d once; need I anger Him a second time?” What did they do to him? They placed him on a carpenter’s work table and sawed into him. He screamed, saying, “Vay, oy, oy that I angered my Creator!”

We learned there in a Mishnah, Rebbe Eliezer says "Repent (do teshuva) one day before your death." The students of Rebbe Eliezer asked him, "But does a person know which day he will die?" He said to them, "All the more so, Let a person repent today, he may die tomorrow, and he will find all his days in penitence"

The elders went to the upper room in Yavneh, and an echo of a voice went out and said to them, "There is amongst you someone who is fit for prophecy, but the generation does not merit it." And they put their eyes on Shmuel HaKattan. And why was he called "Small"? Because he made himself small [in humility]. And some say because he was lesser than Shmuel HaRamti [the prophet Samuel]. When he died, they said about him, "'Alas! the pious man, alas! the humble man, the disciple of Hillel [is no more].'

(16) Rabbi Yaakov says: This world is like a hallway before the world to come. Fix yourself in the hallway so you may enter the drawing room.

(17) He would say: One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the time in the world to come. And one hour of pleasure in the world to come is better than all the time in this world.