DEUT122 See [[NUM180]] Numbers 15:39 follow SINAI3 274-5

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT119 A Jew is permitted to lie to avoid paying a tax that discriminates against Jews. (By implication, a person from any group would be permitted to lie to avoid paying a discriminatory tax directed against the group from which she comes.) Thus, during the reign of Shapur II (309-379 C.E.), a form of fire worship became the national and state-supported religion in Persia. To win converts to the faith, the Persian government exempted fire worshipers from the poll tax. In a Jewish version of the concept of "mental reservation," (see the footnote on page 428), the rabbinic scholar Rava ruled that it was permitted to avoid paying the tax by appearing before Persian officials and declaring oneself to be "a servant of fire." While the officials regarded such a statement as an acknowledgment that one was a follower of their religion, the Jew making the statement was instructed to think to himself that he was a worshiper of the one God, whom the Torah designates as a "consuming fire" [see this verse and Nedarim 62b). [In the Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 157:2, the Ramah (Rabbi Moses Isserles) rules that, in cases of danger, it is permitted to use ambiguous language to mislead idolaters into believing that you share their faith. However, at the beginning of this passage, Rabbi Joseph Karo rules that even when a Jew's life is at stake, it is forbidden to identify oneself explicitly as a believer in idolatrous religion.]

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT123 Our Sages of blessed memory have said that repentance fails a sinner only because of the evil of his heart. Hashem will not close the gates of repentance to the one who desires to come close to Him, but He will open them to him and show him the just path, as it is written (Tehillim 25:8): "Hashem is good and just; therefore, He guides sinners in the path"; and [this verse]: "And you will seek Hashem your God from there, and you will find Him if you seek him with all your heart and all your soul"; and (ibid.30:14): " For this thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it"; and (Tehillim 145:18): "Hashem is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth." The Holy One Blessed be He has wrought a great good for mankind by preparing the way for offenders and sinners to flee from darkness to light; and He has not shut the doors of repentance to them even if they have multiplied offense, as it is written (Yirmeyahu 3:22): "Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings." Penance is accepted even when the sinner repents because of his many troubles, and much more so when his repentance proceeds from the fear [and love God, as it is written (Devarim 4:30): "In your distress, when all these things come upon you, in the end of days, you will return to Hashem your God and listen to His voice." The Holy One Blessed be He assists the penitent to repent and to attain even what is not within man's power, and he forms within the penitents a spirit of purity to attain the components of repentance [and the qualities of his love] as it is written (ibid.30:2) And in this context it is written (ibid. :6) -- that is, even with respect to what you lack the power to attain, the Holy One Blessed Be He will circumcise your heart and give you the power to attain it.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT124 All that keeps a sinner from repentance is his own corrupt inner life and deceitful heart. But if he sincerely wishes to draw closer to God, the gate of repentance is not closed to him and no obstacle will prevent him from reaching it. On the contrary, God opens the gate of refinement for him and, in His grace and beneficence, guides him on the right path. As it says: “God is good and upright; He therefore guides sinners on the way” (Tehillim 25:8); “But from there you will search for Hashem your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Devarim 4:29); “It is a thing very close to you...that you can do” (ibid. 30:14); “God is close to all who call Him, to all who call Him in truth” (Tehillim 145:18).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT125 In my life, I am in danger of getting lost, deflected, and confused in the complex web of demands, responsibilities, and desires I carry with me. Shabbat is when and how I check the map. You would be right to see the honoring of Shabbat as an act of faith, since the source of its observance is God. "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because He abstained from all His work that God created to make," (Genesis/Bereshit 2:4) and "It will be a sign between me and the people of Israel forever, for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day God abstained from work and rested" (Exodus/Sh'mot 31:17). To me, though, Shabbat observance is more the opposite, actually a pathway to faith. Although doing can arise out of faith, faith can also arise as a result of the doing. If I waited until God was more of a presence in my life to be convinced to observe the Sabbath, I would likely not get there. Because I observe shabbat, my faith grows. Although I am focusing here only on the spiritual hindrance that is busyness and its antidote, which is Shabbat, you need to ask yourself what it is that stands in the way of your opening to faith, and what you can do about it. There are many sorts of actions that can be undertaken as a result of faith, and that in the doing can also become a source of faith. This is true of the classic acts of love and kindness, like giving charity, visiting the sick, clothing the naked, and burying the dead. The same is true of prayer. It is logical to think that living a life by the Commandments would demand that faith be in place first; my experience is that living by the Commandments fosters and nurtures faith as well. In the end, what is important about faith is that you seek. The psalm says, "When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You,' I will seek Your face, Hashem'" (Psalms/Tehillim 27:8). And the Torah reassures: "From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him," though there are conditions: "If you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul" [this verse]. Rabbi Zev Brodie, who was the son of Rabbi Simcha Zissel, the Alter of Kelm, asked before his death that he be eulogized by only one person, and that the eulogy consist of only one tribute -- that "he had the desire to advance toward faith" ("Haya lo h'ratzon l'hitkarev l'emuah" -- Rabbi Dov Katz, Tenuat ha/Mussar (The Mussar Movement), vol. 2 (Tel Aviv: Avraham Tsiyoni, 1967), 106.). We learn from this to emphasize the search for faith over the fruits of that search, yearning over finding. "The body needs air. What is the air of the soul? Faith."--Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian, Lev Eliyahu, 3.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT126 See [[DEUT513]] Deuteronomy 11:14 grain AMEMEI 167

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT128 It is part of Hashem's kindness to His creatures that He prepared for them the way [already from Adam HaRishon, the path towards repentance was a universal one given to the whole of mankind (See Bereishis Rabbah 22:28); in fact, it preceded the creation of the world (Pesachim 54a)] to rise above the lowliness of their deeds and flee the ensnarement of their sins ["One sin leads to another sin" (Avos 4:2)] -- to save their souls from perdition [I.e., in the World to Come (Zeh Hasha'ar)] and turn His anger away from them [I.e., in this world (ibid)]. Out of His great goodness [from the perspective of pure justice, there is no place for repentance. See Yerushalmi Makos 2:6; Mesillas Yesharim, chapter 4.] and uprightness Hashem taught His creatures and admonished them to return to Him when they sin [The Hebrew word teshuvah (repentance) comes from the root shuv (return)] -- for He knows their inclination [to go astray]--as the pasuk says (Tehillim 25:8), "Good and upright is Hashem; therefore He shows sinners the way." Even if they have greatly sinned rebelled, and acted unfaithfully, Hashem does not close the doors of repentance before them, as the pesukim say (Yeshayahu 31:6), "Return to the One from Whom you have profoundly turned away," and (Yirmeyahu 3;22), "Return, rebellious sons, and I will heal your rebelliousness." We have been admonished regarding repentance in various places in the Torah. It is clear that teshuvah that is acceptable even if the sinner repents under great distress, and surely if he repents through his fear of Hashem and his love for Him, as the pasuk says [this verse]. The Torah informs us that Hashem helps those who repent, [even] when their natural tendencies do not permit its attainment; He renews within them a spirit of purity, that they may attain the lofty level of love for Him, as the pasuk (ibid., 30:2), "You will return to Hashem, your God, with your whole heart and your entire being, and heed His voice according to everything that I command you and your children today." [See Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Teshuvah 7:6]. In the same context, the pasuk then says (ibid., 6), "Hashem, your God will remove [the layer over] your heart and the hearts of your descendants," [See Ramban, ad loc: "This is as Chazal [an acronym for Ḥakhameinu Zikhronam Liv'rakhah, "Our Sages, may their memory be blessed" -- AJL] said: 'One who desires to purify himself will be assisted' (Shabbos 104a). This pasuk assures that you will repent with your whole heart and Hashem will assist you."] In order to attain a love for Him. [Similarly,] the Nevi'im and Kesuvim speak constantly of teshuvah, so that all the principles of repentance are elucidated in their words, as will be explained.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT127 Freedom As The Ground For The Call To Repentance. While, as we have seen, the concept of free will is a "great principle and pillar of the Torah and the mitzvah," its most dramatic expression in Judaism is undoubtedly to be found in the concept of repentance, called teshuvah, or "return." This is the call that issues forth repeatedly from the Torah: "Return, O Israel, unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity. Take with you words and return unto the Lord" (Hosea 14:2-3). No matter how far Israel may stray, he will ultimately return [this and following verses]. And speaking of repentance, the Torah assures us: (Deuteronomy 30:11-14]. In innumerable teachings, and a variety of ways, the rabbis reinforced and elaborated this basic teaching of the Torah and the prophets that the gates of repentance are always open, that God is anxious for man to repent, and that it is never too late (Deuteronomy Rabbah 11,12; Ezekiel 33:11; Kiddushin 40b). Clearly, it is one thing to believe that man has freedom of will and, in an open field of alternatives, can respond to moral imperatives. It is quite another, however, to believe that man who has sinned, who has soiled his soul, and who has beclouded his reason by succumbing to the temptations of lust and pride, can ever extricate himself from the clutches of entrenched sin that has become habit. Does not the sinner cease to be called a "child of God"? The answer of the Torah is a thundering no! The sinner can return (Isaiah 55:7).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT129 See [[DEUT123]] Deuteronomy 4:29 guides TZADIK 513

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT130 If you find yourself worrying that some wrong you have done has permanently alienated you from God, remember the Torah's promise that God is always near [this and previous verse]. Maimonides teaches that repentance can even effect a total reconciliation with God: "Yesterday this person was hated before God, defamed, castaway, and abominable; today, he is beloved, desirable, a favorite and a friend" ("Laws of Repentance" 7:6).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT