q&a: Forgiving vs. Fixing - Part I
Q. onionsoupmix asked, "The child produced from an adulterous union has to die before teshuva is fully accepted. Why isn't G-d more flexible?"
A. Hi! Welcome aboard, and thanks for the tough questions. They're always the
best.
You ask why G-d cannot be more forgiving in the instance where a child is born illegitimate.
For starters, here's an important point:
I assume you were referring to the Talmud's statement, "What is a deviation that cannot be corrected? It is giving birth to a child through incest or adultery." The Teshuva is not complete as long as the child is alive.
But notice, the Talmud is not speaking of sin. The Talmud uses the word "Meuves", which is a deviation, something crooked that needs straightening. And the question is not whether Teshuva brings forgiveness. The question is how we erase the consequences of the sin after being forgiven.
In other words, the question is Tikkun. You break someone's arm and he forgives you. Yet as long as his arm is in a cast you cannot forgive yourself.
So G-d is forgiving even for sins of adultery or incest. The problem is cleaning up the mess.
Keep me posted with your thoughts.
A. Hi! Welcome aboard, and thanks for the tough questions. They're always the
best.
You ask why G-d cannot be more forgiving in the instance where a child is born illegitimate.
For starters, here's an important point:
I assume you were referring to the Talmud's statement, "What is a deviation that cannot be corrected? It is giving birth to a child through incest or adultery." The Teshuva is not complete as long as the child is alive.
But notice, the Talmud is not speaking of sin. The Talmud uses the word "Meuves", which is a deviation, something crooked that needs straightening. And the question is not whether Teshuva brings forgiveness. The question is how we erase the consequences of the sin after being forgiven.
In other words, the question is Tikkun. You break someone's arm and he forgives you. Yet as long as his arm is in a cast you cannot forgive yourself.
So G-d is forgiving even for sins of adultery or incest. The problem is cleaning up the mess.
Keep me posted with your thoughts.
posted by Scruz | 2:52 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for responding. I am actually referring to Lessons in Tanya, Volume One p. 124 : " Even repentance of great love cannot rectify this. Still, it is explained elsewhere that if the repentance is powerful enough it can actually effect the death of the bastard; and once it ceases to be a body of flesh and blood its vitality can ascend to holiness."
From this, it would seem that teshuva is incomplete until the child ceases to exist. Tikkun is not mentioned here. I am still not clear on why the child needs to die. Why can't G-d just change the nature of the child or some other transformation that does not involve an actual death ?
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