Teshuvah And Forgiveness
By: R’ Mordechai Young
By R’ Mordechai Young
In a mesivta, a group of boys got in trouble. One of them went totally overboard and the others thought he was going to be kicked out, but to their surprise, he was barely punished. The others, who had not done as much mischief, were suspended. One of them had the nerve to ask the mashgiach why the other boy was not suspended and he responded by saying that the boy had come to him of his own volition, cried with regret, and said that he had learned his lesson and was ready to improve. And from then on, he was a model talmid.
In this week’s parashah, Tzav, Hashem says, “Command Aharon and his sons about the Korban Olah.” The Midrash makes a fascinating observation that Hashem gave the command directly to Aharon as opposed to in Parashas Vayikra, when Hashem addressed only the sons of Aharon. Why didn’t Hashem address Aharon directly in last week’s parashah? The Midrash says Hashem was upset at Aharon for his involvement in the sin of the Eigel. What changed? Moshe Rabbeinu advocated for his older brother, saying that if the water is good, so is the well. The “well” being the parent (Aharon), and the “water” being the children (his sons). Moshe davenedand Aharon was forgiven, hence Hashem commanded Aharon and his sons. Aharon was mentioned first and was directly commanded. I was wondering: Aharon did not intend to do anything wrong. Rashi explains that Aharon HaKohen (who had his heart to Shamayim) was stalling them, so Moshe Rabbeinu can return and avoid the whole thing. It is quoted that Aharon saw them kill his nephew Chur when he arose against them and tried to stop them and Aharon reasoned that if he would try to stop them as well, they would kill him (and Hashem would never forgive the killing of the Kohen Gadol), so why would Hashem not speak to Aharon?
In the sefer Shalal Rav on Torah, there is a beautiful dvar Torah quoting Rav Shlomo Kluger, zt’l, that sheds light on this. There is a different question to start this week’s parashah: Why did the Torah start with the Korban Olah? It should have started with a Korban Chatat, which takes precedence. To answer that question, he discusses the Midrash we quoted above. Hashem spoke to Aharon as opposed to Parashas Vayikra. Aharon was wondering why the Bnei Yisrael were forgiven for the eigel when those who were involved had a much greater sin than he. He was not forgiven and they were. How can that be? There was forgiveness by the eigel and Rashi teaches that it states: “Mishkan Ha’Eidut” (Eidut = testimony). When Hashem brought his Shechinah to the Mishkan, it showed that he forgave the nation. The fact that the Korban Olah was taught before the Korban Chatat hints at the answer to Aharon’s question. The olah is a korban that was totally burned on the Mizbeach; no one ate from it. As its name implies, the olah went straight up to Shamayim; no one ate from it. The olah was brought for a relatively minor offense, like improper thoughts or missing out on doing a mitzvah. In contrast, achatat was brought for a sin of an action, albeit not on purpose. Yet the sin was much worse than that of a Korban Olah. The chatat does have a portion that was eaten, no one could think it was the opposite. The olahrepresents something light, so it was okay to eat. The chatat represents a worse sin, so it should not be eaten. Here is a great yesod, since the person who brought the chatat realized he messed up, he felt deep regret. So, he was totally forgiven and it was fine to eat from the korban. He doesn’t need a big atonement by having a korbanbrought that was not eaten; a great part of his atonement lay in the degree of his regret. The person who brings the olah felt like he was involved in something minor, such as an improper thought or a failure to act (missing out on doing a positive mitzvah), so he needn’t feel bad. This led to the person needing a bigger atonement by having his korban not eaten. So, a korban that was eaten brought less forgiveness than the korban that was not eaten, since he had some pleasure from the eating. This is the answer to Aharon’s question. He had a “light” sin, so he didn’t have a big regret. Naturally, he didn’t feel so bad, so he didn’t need Hashem’s full forgiveness. In contrast, Bnei Yisrael felt the weight of their action and had a big regret, so they got full forgiveness. This is a brilliant answer that touches on the human psyche, explaining the differences in korbanos and answering Aharon’s question. He was forgiven by this parashah, which was unique to start with. It makes one wonder why they started with the olah, showing that he was like the olah, representing a minor offense and therefore needing more of a kapparah because he lacked the important stage of regret. This is a great life lesson too. Sometimes a person feels sad due to their regret. They should see the value of their charata, and realize the regret itself brought a lot of the forgiveness from Hashem, mitigating the teshuvah process.
We might be able to say that Hashem did not speak to Aharon, so he could not give him a real punishment because he didn’t do anything really wrong. It appears that by assisting somewhat in the eigel, many were caused to be distant from Hashem, so Aharon was made distant from Hashem. How did Moshe Rabbeinusave Aharon if he needed his own process to return to Hashem? Here again, since Aharon did not think his action warranted such a huge response, he could not do it on his own. It could be his lack of regret was made up by the pain of Hashem not speaking to him, so he received that atonement through Hashem’s distance.
We see the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu. He lost the position of Kohen Gadol at the burning bush when he argued that he should not be the leader. Hashem was going to make Moshe the Kohen Gadol, but after arguing, he lost the position to Aharon. Here was an opportunity to grab back the position by rationalizing that Aharon was involved in the sin of the eigel so he lost it. Instead, he davened for his brother and achieved forgiveness for him.
We learn here that when a person does something terrible, the regret they feel afterwards is a big part of their forgiveness.
Have a great Shabbos!
R’ Mordechai Young can be reached for comments at [email protected].
