Q&A: Repentance
Repentance
Question
Hello Rabbi, regarding the Rabbi’s lecture, Repentance: Its Meaning and Laws, lesson 3 part b, I didn’t really understand what is illogical about becoming repentant—where is the paradox?
I’m moving from point A to point B. I’m not pulling myself out of the pit by my own sidelocks. I’m just climbing out of the pit.
Answer
Hello,
I explained this in the lecture. What isn’t clear?
Suppose I have a value system X, and from within it I committed a sin. From weakness of will I showed that repentance is a change in the value system (say, to system Y). Now the question arises: how does this change happen? If I decided to change to system Y, that is a sign that it has already changed within me (since already now I believe in it and want to reach it). So how did this change happen? Seemingly, only on its own. But a change in a value system that happens on its own is valueless. That is not what is called repentance.
Discussion on Answer
That’s what the lecture is for. It’s hard for me to repeat the whole lecture here.
It seems to me that all the values are already hidden within me, except that sometimes I’m less aware of all the values within me.
More than that, sometimes I commit transgressions that give me pleasure, but they are not moral, and at the time I do them I am aware that they are not moral and that they contradict some of my values.
In practice, I don’t think I replace one value system—certainly not in such a dichotomous way—but rather that I am dealing with different systems of values simultaneously.
I addressed all of this in the last few lectures.
So what is the answer to the paradox?