Q&A: I Will Sin and Repent
I Will Sin and Repent
Question
If possible, could the Rabbi explain what exactly defines “I will sin and repent”? How is that different from any ordinary sin?
Seemingly, when a normal person commits a sin, he is aware of God; he just says, “It’s hard for me,” or gives some other excuse, and “with God’s help this will be a one-time thing and I’ll return to the right path.”
Why is that not called “I will sin and repent”?
Answer
“I will sin and repent” means committing a sin while giving oneself permission on the basis of a prior plan to repent afterward (and not merely to stop sinning). Repentance is supposed to repair the sin that was committed, and therefore to that person it appears to justify doing it. By contrast, a plan to sin only once is not similar, because there the sin remains a sin.
“I will sin and repent” is not more severe than a one-time sin, but actually less severe. On the contrary, some explained that the plan of “I will sin and repent” is based on the idea that repentance turns intentional sins into merits, and that a penitent is preferable to a completely righteous person. That is to say, the whole plan is for the sake of Heaven. Note that what they tell him is not that such a sin is different from or more severe than any other sin, but simply that he will not be given the opportunity to repent, so he should not count on that. The plan will not come to fruition.
Discussion on Answer
I understand it differently. Someone who sins and afterward plans to stop is not comparable to “I will sin and repent.” Repentance repairs the sin, and simply not sinning is not a repair. By the way, that’s what I explained above. I didn’t link here from the last column, unless a wrong link got inserted somehow.
Do you mean that “I will sin and repent” is preferable?! Because I don’t think I understood why. The question was about the difference between an ordinary sinner and one who plans in advance to repent, since seemingly they are equal.
As for the link, it really does seem to be a mistake, because there is also a reference there to the question about “You came out righteous,” which also does not seem connected to that column.
Actually, another possible direction just occurred to me.
Every sinner is basically afraid of the sin and of the punishment, except that the desire to sin reduces his fear of punishment and of the sin, because he is biased; and after he has satisfied his desire, he genuinely regrets not having controlled his impulse, because the payoff of the transgression, compared to the consequence of not fulfilling God’s will together with the fear of punishment—without the bias—does not equal the momentary pleasure he experienced while committing the transgression. Therefore his repentance is genuine, even though on a subconscious level from the outset he managed to calm his conscience by telling himself that he would repent.
That is different from one who says, “I will sin and repent,” who in a clear state of mind recognizes the severity of the punishment and knows it is not worth the fleeting pleasure, but through the power of repentance he supposedly gives up in advance the option of punishment and of disobeying God’s will, since he will repent afterward. Therefore he is not given the opportunity, because to repent one needs to retract the sin one committed, somewhat like finding an opening to annul a vow, and here he already factored that in from the start, so he has no opening for repentance.
With God’s help, 6 Elul 5780
To Tom—many greetings,
On the matter of “I will sin and repent,” see column 187, “On Spiritual Judgment in Time,” and the material I cited in my comments there.
Best regards, S. Tz.
I’d be happy for more detail.
The plain meaning is that his repentance will not be accepted.
Homiletically, they explain that he will never get there, because he will always push repentance off until tomorrow, until eventually he dies.
In my opinion, the intent is that a transgression committed deliberately in order to later repent for it shows that he has not truly repented, since he committed the transgression with that in mind from the outset, and the beginning proves the end—that he is not really repenting.
What Shalom Cohen asked was this: how is this different from any sinner who is not like a child taken captive among gentiles? He is aware of the prohibition, and he is a religious person, and apparently the inner self-justification that gives him the strength to overcome his conscience is the plan to repent afterward. It turns out that every sinner is basically in the category of someone planning to sin and repent.
So however we explain the definition of “I will sin and repent,” in the end we still need to explain how it differs from any sinner whatsoever.
It seems to me that the Rabbi did not address this point, and I’d appreciate a broader explanation, unless the Rabbi did in fact address it in passing above.
(P.S. I’d also be glad to know how this is connected to the post about The Jews Are Coming that the Rabbi linked here…)
Thanks in advance.