DEUT1427 That which our Sages, z"l, said (Yoma 86a) concerning one who has committed a desecration of Hashem's Name, that repentance together with Yom Kippur suspend [the atonement] in death purges--this is because death purges any sin, after full repentance [Lit., "excellent repentance." Without repentance, even death cannot atone.] If one is killed and confesses his sins before death [I.e., including the sin of desecrating Hashem's Name (Sha'arei Teshuvah Hameforash)], from the moment that the fear of death falls upon him he is atoned for [It would appear that according to Rabbeinu Yonah, it is the fear of death that atones, even before death itself (Zeh Hasha'ar). Thus, the murderer has killed a pious person] and his murderer is regarded as having spilled the blood of an innocent and pious person, as the pasuk says (Tehillim 79:2), "[They have given...] the flesh of Your pious ones to the beasts of the earth." [This chapter in Tehillim refers to the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash by the Babylonians]. Our Sages, z"l, explained (Midrash Tehillim 79) that ["pious ones"] refers also to the wicked among them, on whom the pasuk says (Yirmeyahu 5:8), "They were well-fed horses, arising early." [The rest of the verse reads, "each one neighing to his neighbor's wife," I.e., they were adulterers. Even so, the verse calls them pious, lamenting what the Babylonians did to them.] They were regarded as pious because they received the justice due them, as the pasuk says [this verse], "[Lest he beat him more than these…] And your brother [will thus] be degraded in your eyes"--once lashes have been administered, he is like your brother. [The Torah prohibits giving the sinner even one lash more than required by law. Once he has received his lashes, he is no longer a sinner, but "your brother." Here too, once the wicked adulterers repented and were faced with eminent death, they were considered "pious ones."]
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