This is a brief synopsis of the chiddush of my Shabbos Shuvah Drosho. The Drosho was given at Cong. Anshei Palisades on Shabbos Shuvah 5785 and the synopsis was given at the Mesivta of Clifton today. I am posting it on 6 Tishrei, the 50th yahrzeit of my grandfather, HoRav Dov Yehuda Schochet zt"l, and it should be l'illui nishmoso.
It is on Reb Elchonon's question. My brother, Reb Yochanan Meir shlit"a, addresses the question briefly at
There’s a famous question attributed to Rav Elchanan Wasserman ZT”L HY”D: Teshuva is considered to be a tremendous KINDNESS from Hashem. What is the major kindness when in Jewish law there is a simple equivalent: If a person is “Toheh al harishonos”-regrets doing a Mitzvah he loses the reward of that mitzvah. It should follow that if a person regrets wrongdoing he should ‘lose’ the punishment of that wrongdoing. That’s Torah law, so what’s the kindness? One of the several answers to this question is: Teshuva is not about escaping penalty alone, it’s about getting past the sin so that it’s no longer in you or in the world! Rav Tzadok HaCohen of Lublin points out that seemingly goyim have Teshuva also as per the story of Ninveh in the book of Yona. He differentiates by saying that goyim’s Teshuva only helps them escape penalty, it doesn’t expunge the sin and the contamination it caused! Their Teshuva is truly nothing more than regretting one’s actions. If it works to lose reward, it works to ‘lose’ punishment. Jewish teshuva actually expunges the evil! why is there this difference? Because we have Shabbos and they don’t! Just like Shabbos shuts down the profane so as we can get beyond so also Jewish Teshuva has the power of Shabbos to expunge all evil, because Shabbos was gifted to us.
You can find more material, which I used in the actual drosho, but not in the synopsis at:
(the author's answer in the name of Rabbi Ezra Bick is essentially the Pachad Yitzchok's answer which you can find in English in Rabbi Ahron Rapp's section at
and in Hebrew at
and
I give two answers. I think the first one is not bad, but the second one is really good, BH, and I feel מן שמיא קא זכו לי and I hope to write it up here at some point.
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