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Redeeming Sins

08/09/2019 02:11:28 PM

Aug9

Elisha ben Abuyah says: He who learns when a child, to what is he compared?
To ink written upon a fresh writing sheet. And he who learns when an old man,
to what is he compared? To ink written on a rubbed-out writing sheet/palimpsest.

    Mishnah, Avot/Fathers/Founders 4:20    

God willing, every child grows older, and in the process learns new things. Is Elisha ben Abuyah making the rather obvious observation that adult learners are never blank slates? Unlikely. His point is that when a child learns without the benefit of Jewish values, even when she studies Torah as an adult, she’ll be less than pristine. “What can you expect?  Look at her parents.” Or, “It’s no wonder given her past!”

Elisha ben Abuyah was a heretic. Like Voldemort, we shy away from even saying his name. The halakhah prohibits taunting anyone about their parents or past. Indeed, according to one Talmudic sage, where a ba’al teshuvah stands, not even a perfectly righteous person can. (A ba’al teshuvah is one who has reoriented her life towards Jewish values and practices.) The same sage encourages us to combine Torah study with worldly wisdom in order to maximize the Torah’s potential.

The patron saint of ba’alei teshuva (the plural of ba’al teshuvah) is Reish Lakish. Some say he was a highway man, others that he was a gladiator. All acknowledge that had he not been a palimpsest, Judaism would be the poorer. Never let a good sin
go to waste. Redeem it. Reish Lakish taught, “Teshuvah transforms intentional sins into merits.” How else will redemption dawn?

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784