How is it that on Yom Kippur we can do Teshuva pretty much
knowing that afterwords we will very likely go back to our old sinful ways? Isn’t
that a bit dishonest of us? Is saying you’re sorry to God that we have sinned
in essence lying about it to God if we keep doing it anyway?
Obviously one of the things Teshuva is all about is
changing our ways. And yet rare is the individual that can do that. Once Yom
Kippur passes we tend to go back to the same pattern of behavior that led us to
ask God to forgive us for. Every year.
Shouldn’t sincere teshuva require us to actually change in order to be forgiven?
And yet every year we do the same thing asking God to forgive all over again
for the same sins we do year after year.
Imagine if you wronged a loved one every year and at the end
of the yea you ask for forgiveness only to keep wronging them after they have forgiven
you. Is there any possible way that they would continue to forgive you after
reverting to that behavior year after year? No sane person would do that.
Does this mean we should just throw our hands in the air and
say trying to do Teshuva for recurring sinful behavior is futile? That God
shouldn’t trust our pleas for mercy that are accompanied by promise that
will surely be broken because of a track
record?
I believe it was Rav Shlomo Wolbe that addressed this very
question when he was asked about it by someone.
What he said is the following. If someone truly regrets his
sins and wants to stop his sinful behavior –even knowing that he will likely revert to
his old ways, that is enough for God to grant forgiveness for past sins.
This is the Midah of kindness and mercy in God that does not exist in man. Of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to change our ways. It just means that God is very
forgiving if sincere regret is there.
At this time I would like to wish all of my readers a G’mar
Chasima Tova and and easy fast.
