Halacha Date: 18 Elul 5776 September 21 2016
In the previous Halacha we have mentioned the teaching of our Sages in Pirkei Avot, “Anyone who causes the public to sin shall not be afforded the opportunity to do Teshuva.” (We have also written that if he nevertheless repents fully, his Teshuva shall be accepted.) Let us now discuss a related incident which Maran zt”l would usually mention in this context.
Once, a respected woman came before Hagaon Harav Binyamin Diskin, Chief Rabbi of Horodna in Belarus, and with tear-filled eyes asked if she could pour her heart out to the rabbi. She related that she had recently arrived from Prussia where she had lived a proper Jewish lifestyle with her family. Unfortunately, her father was the heretical author of the book “Netivot Olam” which was a thorn in the Jewish people’s side. Her father had abandoned her when she was very young and left her with her destitute mother. He travelled to far away England where he befriended the Satan and translated a book against the Jewish religion into Hebrew. Thanks to the religious education she received in her mother’s home, this woman remained loyal to the Torah and eventually married a religious and G-d-fearing man.
Many years passed and she tried to forget any memory of her father who was a disgrace to the family. One day, she received a letter from her father detailing his remorse for his deeds and his crooked ways. Additionally, he asked his daughter to pity him and allow him to stay in her home due to his advanced age.
The woman was in a major dilemma and almost decided not to reply to the letter. However, after consulting with her good-hearted husband, she decided to allow her father to enter her home. He indeed repented and returned to Hashem with all his heart and his feelings of remorse gave him no peace. His somber mood caused his health to deteriorate and eventually, he lay in his death bed. Before his death, he called over his daughter and son-in-law and told them over the following story:
“I was born in Altoona. My father was one of the instigators who strongly supported Hagaon Ya’abetz in his battle against Hagaon Rabbeinu Yehonatan Eibeschitz of Altoona (it is well-known that after the period of Shabbtai Tzvi, the false Messiah, may his name be blotted out, Hagaon Ya’abetz suspected Hagaon Harav Yehonatan Eibeschitz of belonging to Shabbtai Tzvi’s followers. He proceeded to battle so furiously against him that even he had doubts about if he was correct in opposing Rabbeinu Yehonatan.) Many of the treatises written against Harav Yehonatan were authored by my father who was blessed with the skill of writing. Even the book “The Scorpion’s Sting,” which is full of strong language and curses against Rabbeinu Yehonatan which many attribute to Hagaon Ya’abetz was actually authored by my father. He concluded writing this book on the day my Berit Milah was held.
All those who participated in my Berit Milah believed this to be a good omen and predicted a bright future for me. The blessing which Hagaon Ya’abetz blessed me and my father at my Berit (as my father told me himself) went as follows: “May it be Hashem’s will that your young child should be educated in the spirit of your books and like you, may he oppose the opinions, views, and teachings of ‘that man’ (referring to Rabbeinu Yehonatan) who calls himself the ‘Rabbi of Altoona’.” May father answered ‘Amen’ with all his strength. When this blessing was told over to Rabbeinu Yehonatan, he exclaimed, “I will also answer ‘Amen’ to this blessing and I hope and pray that this will indeed be the outcome of this child.”
Now you see clearly that the blessing of Hagaon Ya’abetz and Rabbeinu Yehonatan came to fruition and through my opposition to the rabbi of Altoona, I proceeded to stray from the path of the Torah and became a heretic and informant to the enemies of the Jewish nation. Because of the sin of my father who placed himself in the middle of a disagreement between two great sages of Israel, I had strayed from the path of Hashem like Yarov’am ben Nevat.” The man turned to his daughter and with muffled cries told her, “Please, do one last kindness for me and after I die, find one of the righteous luminaries of the Jewish nation, recount to him all that I have told you, and request that he speak well on my behalf of my sinful soul.” This is the story the woman told over to the rabbi of Horodna.
This story teaches us how much one must be careful regarding the honor of our sages and Torah scholars, for if one insults them, he shall not be cleansed.
