Reuven's Teshuvah Over the Root of Sin

1The Midrash on our parshah (Bereishis Rabbah 84:19) comments on “Reuven returned to the pit” [Bereishis 37:29]. Where had he been? R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua disagree. R' Eliezer says: he had been busy with his sackcloth and his fasting, and once he was free, he went and looked into that pit. That is why it says, “Reuven returned to the pit.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: “Never has a person sinned before Me and done teshuvah, and you are the first to open with teshuvah. By your life, your descendant will stand and open with teshuvah first.” Who is that? Hoshea, as it says, “Return, O Israel, to Hashem your God” [Hoshea 14:2].

2aAll the early commentators were puzzled by this Midrash. Surely Adam HaRishon and Kayin did teshuvah before Reuven! And did Hoshea open the mitzvah of teshuvah? It is a positive commandment in the Torah, and all the prophets warned the people about it. My father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, said in his holy way that Reuven did complete teshuvah from the depth of his heart right after his sin, without any delay. The Torah goes straight on after the sin, with no break but a pause in the cantillation: “And the sons of Yaakov were twelve” [Bereishis 35:22]. He was counted at once among the holy tribes. So it appears that he immediately did complete teshuvah from the depth of his heart, with regret, abandoning the sin and resolving for the future, as is proper. Before Hashem, Who searches hearts and minds [cf. Yirmiyahu 11:20], Reuven's regret and resolve counted as full teshuvah, and he was immediately considered a complete tzaddik, like one of the tribes.

2bBut Reuven was not satisfied with this alone. He took up sackcloth and fasting, following the prescribed ways of repair through teshuvah. In truth, before Hashem everything had already been atoned, and from the moment of his regret not even a trace of his sin remained. But Reuven paid no attention to this, and did another complete teshuvah through sackcloth and fasting. This is what the Midrash means. Never before had there been such a thing: a person whose sin no longer counts as a sin “before Me,” with no trace of it left before Me, who still does more teshuvah. Reuven was the first to open this kind of teshuvah. Adam HaRishon did teshuvah while his sin still counted as a sin before Hashem; even now it has not been fully atoned, and will not be until the Redemption, speedily in our days. Kayin did teshuvah at the time of his sin, but not after it had already been atoned, for his sin too was only half atoned (Devarim Rabbah, Nitzavim)¹. And Hoshea stands and warns about this kind of teshuvah, which is the essential one: regret immediately after the sin.

2cThis is the meaning of “Return, O Israel, to Hashem your God” (Hoshea 14:2). Rashi brings from the Pesikta: “Return before the defense turns into prosecution,” before mercy turns into judgment, Heaven save us. The essence of teshuvah is to return from the depth of the heart immediately, until He Who searches hearts and knows all secrets testifies about you that you will not return to folly [cf. Tehillim 85:9]. If you do not, and instead begin to return slowly, step by step, through the ways of repair, the sins you committed stay with you. Destructive forces are created from them, Heaven save us, and they become a stumbling block and an obstacle that will not let you return. That is the meaning of “for you have stumbled in your iniquity” [Hoshea 14:2]: destructive forces and a separating screen were created from your sins, and they will not let you reach complete teshuvah with all its details.

2dTherefore, “Take words with you and return to Hashem” [Hoshea 14:3], precisely to Hashem: only from the depth of the heart, with true resolve and regret alone. “Say to Him: Forgive all iniquity”: I accept upon myself whatever You will say, only forgive the iniquity, and afterward I will set before You the whole order of teshuvah, as You have taught us. This will count in Hashem's eyes as complete teshuvah. Thus far his holy words.

3aFollowing our own approach, we can say this. The Mishnah teaches that “a mitzvah draws another mitzvah after it, and a sin draws another sin” (Avos 4:2). The nature of sin is to make a person coarse and distant. Through the sin a separating screen forms, with “the afflictions of men” [cf. Shmuel II 7:14], until “his iniquities overtake him and he cannot see” [cf. Tehillim 40:13]. As a result he falls again and again and comes to further sins, Heaven save us. The Sefer HaYashar of Rabbeinu Tam explains that a faithful doctor must clean a wound from within and pull it out by its root, so that it does not, Heaven forbid, grow back. If he treats it with medicines only from outside, it will soon grow back, because its root remains. This is what we mean when we pray for a “complete healing.” So too, a ba'al teshuvah must cleanse the root. It follows that one who returns from his sins must examine very carefully the root, the first sin, which caused all the others. That is called complete teshuvah.

3bThis also bears out the words of the Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah 2:2), that a penitent must return until the Knower of secrets testifies about him that he will not return to his folly again. All the commentators wondered at this: is not everything in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven (Berachos 33b)? According to our approach, the Rambam means that he must do complete teshuvah over the first sin, “a root that bears gall and wormwood” [Devarim 29:17], until he uproots everything that grew from it. Then it no longer leaves its mark, drawing further sins after it as its nature is, Heaven forbid, as explained above. This is what the Knower of secrets testifies about him: that no trace or mark of that sin remains at all, and no further sins will branch out of it, Heaven save us. (He might still sin again, but that would be a new beginning, not caused by the root of this sin, for it “will no longer be remembered or recalled” [cf. Yirmiyahu 3:16].)

4aThis is the meaning of the Midrash, “Never has a person sinned before Me and done teshuvah.” When Reuven came back from his sackcloth and fasting, it seemed to him that he had already repaired everything, and so it truly was. That is the meaning of “once he was free (nifnah), he went and looked into that pit.” He had already slain all the destructive and harmful forces and had cleared (pinah) the way for all his deeds to rise to Hashem with no separating screen. When he came back to the pit and saw that Yosef was gone, he imagined that his first sin, not yet fully erased, had drawn this further sin, the sale of Yosef, after it. As the Midrash says on “And I, where shall I go?” [Bereishis 37:30]: with the incident of Bilhah [cf. Bereishis Rabbah 84:19]. So he began once more to return anew over the root of his first sin, the incident of Bilhah, though in truth no trace of his sin remained. This is “never has a person sinned before Me”: doing teshuvah over a sin that will no longer bring him to sin, a sin already repaired. Such a ba'al teshuvah had never yet existed. Adam HaRishon and Kayin did teshuvah only over the sin in which they stood; it had no further root.

4bBut Reuven “opened with teshuvah first (techilah)”: over the first sin, the root of his sinning. Hashem said to him, “By your life, your descendant will stand and open with teshuvah first. Who is that? Hoshea, as it says, ‘Return, O Israel, to Hashem your God.’” That is, always do teshuvah over the first sin, until Hashem your God testifies about you. “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”: the first sin may well have been deliberate. But afterward a person grows coarse, as it says, “My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see” (Tehillim 40:13)², and he can no longer see “the light of the King's face, which is life” [Mishlei 16:15]. Then one can no longer say of him that he should have looked more carefully, so his later sins count only as stumbling, as unintentional sins. In other words, if you do not do outstanding teshuvah over the root, you will, Heaven forbid, come to more sins because of it, unintentionally and without awareness. Therefore, “Say to Him: Forgive all iniquity” [Hoshea 14:3]: may He forgive all the iniquity, and may you be among those who return before Him in complete teshuvah. May Hashem grant us to be among those who return to Him in complete teshuvah. Through this may we merit “his heart will understand, and he will return and be healed” [Yeshayahu 6:10], and may we arouse and draw down for ourselves and all Israel a complete healing, of soul and of body, amen, selah. (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)