Parashat Nitvavim-Vayelech

Easy Repentance?

Is repentance an easy or difficult mitzvah to accomplish? If we look in Nitzavim, one of this week’s parashiot, the verses say:

“Surely, this commandment that I enjoin upon you on this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond your reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say ‘who among us can go up to heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it? Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say “who among us can cross the other side and get it for us, that we may observe it? No the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.” (Devarim 30:11-14)

What is “this commandment” that the above excerpt is talking about?

The Ramban says that it is either all of the mitzvot or it is just talking about the mitzvah of Teshuva, repentance. However it seems from the pasukim that the Torah is saying that “this commandment” is an easy one because it uses the phrases, “it is not in the sky,” “it is not across the sea” and “this thing is very close to you.”

How can the Ramban really suggest that repentance is so easy?!

This may be a difficult concept to grapple with, but if we use a fantastic metaphor from the Ba’al Shem Tov, we can begin to understand what the Ramban is talking about. Picture a far away palace that hundreds of people try to gain admission into. There are high walls and ramparts surrounding this palace, and many obstacles and booby traps preventing any unwelcome visitors. If anyone manages to breach a wall, they then have to face lions, bears and other beasts. Many people withdraw and turn back from this endeavor. Though whoever continues, and succeeds in  passing to the next wall faces even deadlier wild animals and an even higher wall. Only once a person finally reaches the palace does he look back and realize that the high walls and lions were all a mirage; that these seemingly fatal obstacles were actually gardens and orchards.

The meaning of this metaphor is that a person is afraid to change, to repent and distance himself from his bad habits. Repentance doesn’t seem to be tangible. However, when a person succeeds in climbing the high walls and obstacles, he suddenly realizes that this new state of being is so much more conducive for him. He suddenly realizes that all the obstacles along the way were really nothing but “mirages”.   At first glance it seems that the needed behavioral change is as distant as the “sky” and “across the ocean.” We tell ourselves that it is impossible: not to gossip, to really concentrate during davening, to be strong in keeping kashrut and tzniut, not to get angry etc.

The Torah guarantees that all people have the ability to keep all mitzvot. It will be hard work to change and fix, but after a person succeeds in doing so, he realizes that this way is how he should have always been living his life. In other words, the palace that seemed so distant is actually close.

We should all try to enter into this palace, and to get closer to G-d and his mitzvot.

May you all have a happy and good year and may G-d write and sign you all in the Book of Life!

Shabbat Shalom and Shanna Tova!