A Thought On Parshas Re'eh

A Thought On Parshas Re'eh

"...ha'keh takeh es yoshvei ha'ir ha'hi..."

"...you shall smite the dwellers of that city..." (13:16)

The abomination of those who resided in an Ir HaNidachas, a city whose population had scorned HaShem and who regressed to pagan practices, was a grievous one. Perhaps the most despicable of man's theological crimes, avoda zara en masse contravenes the Jew's role and the world's purpose. The city and all of its inhabitants, after being duly forewarned and admonished, are destroyed lest their influence permeate the land and the nation.

There is a principle associated with the Laws of Repentance that when a person undertakes full and sincere teshuva, he or she can honestly declare to HaShem "I am a different person now." One can become, spiritually, "a new man" or woman by virtue of a full change of lifestyle and conduct. That change can be instrumental, we are taught, in bringing about complete forgiveness, as if HaShem does view the changed person as a reborn or reconstituted being.

A puzzle, however, is in understanding just why this is an actual principle in Hilchos Teshuva. Our sages assert this principle yet a Torah scholar seeks to identify a source for such a powerful assertion: where do we see evidence that one who dissociates himself from past misdeeds is also disassociated from his own history from a Heavenly viewpoint?

The Ralbag finds a source for this in our verse. He notes that HaShem commands us, after our having warned the idolaters to cease their pagan practice, to annihilate them and raze their dwellings. Our verse declares, "you shall smite the dwellers of that city." It is those closing words, "dwellers of that city" which connote to the Ralbag that this commandment only holds if the pagans continue to regard themselves as "dwellers of that city." In the event, however, that they give up those forbidden practices and return to the Path of Torah, they are no longer associated with that place. They are changed people, and they are not consigned to the fate of their erstwhile companions.

Change is a challenge, and thorough change is an absolute challenge. Yet, absolute change brings about absolution, because teshuva changes the person from within.

Good Shabbos. D Fox