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ACHREI MOT KEDOSHIM

04/22/2021 04:38:20 PM

Apr22

"And Aharon shall bring near the hall the bull of the expiation offering… and effect atonement for himself and for his household." (16,6)

Before Whom will you have judgment and reckoning in the future?

According to what we learned in the Mishnah (Avot) "Akiva the son of Mihalelel says, look at three things and you will not come to sin – Know from where you come and where you are going, and before Whom you will have judgment and reckoning in the future – The holy Gaon of Vilna o'm expounded on the seemingly repetition in the words "judgment and reckoning" written in the Mishnah and he said: It would seemingly have sufficed to say " Before Whom will you have judgment". Why did the Mishnah add also "reckoning"?

He explained that every time a person, G-d forbid, sins, he is actually causing himself two bad things: A) One is the actual deed of the sin which is a rebellion against G-d Who warned him not to commit this sin; he did not listen to G-d and sinned.

B) The second thing is that in the time that he sinned, he could have performed a mitzvah – and for this he also needs a remedy.

This is the intention of the Mishnah in the words "Before Whom will you have judgment and reckoning in the future". In Heaven Judgment is done with the sinner on the sin itself but in addition, Reckoning is done that in the time he committed the sin he could have performed a mitzvah.

This seems to be what the Prophet Yirmiyahu meant when he said: "For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters and have hewn them out … broken cisterns that can hold no water". The explanation is that G-d complained that the Children of Israel committed two evils: A) One that they could have performed G-d's mitzvahs whose purpose is for us to cleave to Him, and for this it says "they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters" – that they did not perform G-d's mitzvahs; and B) that not only did they not perform His mitzvahs; in that time they succumbed to the Evil Inclination and committed sins and on this it says, "have hewn them out … broken cisterns that can hold no water".

SHABBAT SHALOM!!

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784