The Tzaddik's Teshuvah: Opening the Gate for All

1“Then Yehudah approached him and said, ‘Please, my lord.’”¹ The sefer Beis Yaakov examines the wording of this verse. First, why does it say vayigash, “he approached”? Yehudah was already standing near Yosef and had been speaking with him until now, so he had no need to approach. Second, why does the verse add the word eilav, “to him,” which speaks of Yosef in the third person? And third, what did Yehudah mean by bi adoni, “Please, my lord”?

2aThe Beis Yaakov resolves all these points along the lines of a teaching of the Zohar on the verse “And he passed before them, and bowed to the ground seven times, until he drew near to his brother.”² The Zohar asks how Yaakov Avinu, the choicest of the Avos, could bow down to the wicked Esav. Its answer is that Yaakov meant to bow to the Holy One, blessed be He, Who was passing before him, for “the whole earth is full of His glory.”³ That is the meaning of “And He passed before them”: “He” is the Shechinah, which passed before Yaakov, and it was to the Shechinah that he bowed. Only to the eyes of onlookers did it look as if he were bowing to Esav. The same happened here: Yehudah spoke words that seemed to be addressed to Yosef, but he really meant to speak with Hashem. In these words he confessed the sin of selling Yosef and repented of it, as he had already begun to do a little earlier, when the verse says: “And Yehudah said, ‘What shall we say, and what shall we speak … God has found the iniquity of your servants.’”⁴

2bBy opening with teshuvah, Yehudah moved the other tribes to repent as well. We find something similar with the holy Rebbe R' Yitzchak of Vorka, zt"l. Once, when R' Yitzchak was with the holy Rebbe of Ruzhin, zt"l, he told the Rebbe of Ruzhin that whenever a sinner came to him, he himself would do teshuvah. When the tzaddik does teshuvah, he opens a gate for those who knock in teshuvah.⁵ Now the verse becomes clear. Vayigash, “he approached,” means approaching in prayer, as the Midrash teaches.⁶ Eilav, “to him,” means to the Holy One, blessed be He. And “he said, bi Adoni,” “Please, my Lord,” means that through his teshuvah Yehudah took upon himself the yoke of the kingship of Heaven and the lordship of Hashem. As a result, the other tribes, too, repented of the sale of Yosef. That is the gist of the Beis Yaakov's words.

3aThe Beis Yaakov's approach also lets us explain the verse “And Moshe returned to Hashem and said, ‘Hashem, why have You done evil to this people? Why is it that You sent me?’”⁷ This raises several questions. First, what does “And Moshe returned to Hashem” mean? It would have been enough to say “And Moshe said to Hashem,” as everywhere else. Second, what was Moshe's complaint in “Why is it that You sent me?” Third, and harder still, there is the answer the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him: “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them from his land.”⁸ How does this answer the complaint “Why have You done evil to this people?” The explanation rests on a well-known teaching of Chazal: Israel is redeemed only through teshuvah. That is how the Maharsha explains their words, and the Rambam writes the same.⁹ So when Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to bring salvation to Israel and lead it out of the exile, he himself did teshuvah. He intended his teshuvah to arouse all of Klal Yisrael to teshuvah, for, as we saw with Yehudah and the brothers, when the tzaddik repents he awakens teshuvah in all Israel, and through that the redemption will come.

3bThis is the meaning of “And Moshe returned to Hashem.” Vayashav, “he returned,” is the language of teshuvah: Moshe returned in teshuvah before Hashem. Then “he said, ‘Hashem, why have You done evil to this people?’” Moshe Rabbeinu was saying to the Holy One, blessed be He: “I see that even after I repent, my teshuvah still lacks the power to redeem the people of Israel. If so, ‘Why is it that You sent me,’ when I am not fit to stand between Israel and Hashem and redeem Israel?” Hashem answered him: “You are indeed worthy and fit for the mission on which I sent you. The redemption is delayed because Heaven has decreed how long Bnei Yisrael must remain in the Egyptian exile. But once the appointed end arrives, at once ‘with a strong hand he will drive them from his land.’” This is what Hashem told him: “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them from his land.” So both Moshe Rabbeinu's complaint and Hashem's answer are fully explained.

4aIn the same way we can explain the verse about the golden calf: “And Moshe returned to Hashem and said, ‘Please …’”¹⁰ Here again we find the words “And Moshe returned.” After the making of the calf, too, Moshe Rabbeinu did teshuvah himself, and through it he wanted to instill teshuvah in Bnei Yisrael and awaken it in them. When he saw that the Holy One, blessed be He, was not appeased, he said, “And if not, erase me, please, from Your book.”¹¹ He meant that he was not fit to stand between Hashem and Israel. Hashem answered him that this was not so. “On your part,” He said, “you made your effort properly, but Bnei Yisrael are making no effort at all toward teshuvah.” A tzaddik can bring Israel to teshuvah only with help and support from Israel itself.

4bThis is like what my holy ancestor, the Yid HaKadosh, zt"l, taught on the verse “You shall surely help along with him,” said of helping with a donkey that has fallen under its load.¹² Chazal explained that it must be “with him” specifically: if the owner says, “Since the mitzvah is upon you, load it yourself,” the passerby is exempt.¹³ The same holds, my holy ancestor said, for a disciple and his Rebbe. The disciple must not rely on the tzaddik alone; he too must help him through his own service of Hashem.

5May the Holy One, blessed be He, grant that we be privileged to return to Him in complete teshuvah. Amen, may it be His will.