In perek gimel, we learned how Adam and Chava tried to hide from Hashem and, in a way, their sins. They did not want to face up to what they had done and repent. Because of this, Hashem kicked them out of the garden.
From this story we can learn many different lessons but there are 2 that I want to focus on. First is the most obvious Hashem is King and Ruler over all, and that if you don't follow his commandments you will be punished. As a side note to this lesson, we all know that this is most definitely true, yet we also have the ability to repent. This means fully accepting what we have done, and resolving to never do it again. By doing so, we can nullify our sins.
The second lesson is that no matter what you do, your sins will come back to haunt you. You cannot run from them or Hashem as Adam and Chava tried to do. This will inevitably make your situation worse. The first step towards moving on is always acceptance.
As a seperate idea, the day that Adam and Chava hide is almost like their own personal Yom Kippur. They had the ability to 'fess up to Hashem, but decided to hide instead. Thus, He declared their banishment from the garden.
the wording in the 2nd idea bothers me- your sins will come back to haunt you. this in truth sounds really frightening, but perhaps that is the best way for mankind to learn. after all, we know that gentle persuasion didn't work out so well for the first 2 generations on earth... However, thankfully teshuva gives us the opputunity to erase these sins, but nevertheless, if someone is a very moral person, what happens if their past sins still haunt them, even though they have repented for them? is this a good thing so they never do them again? or not?
ReplyDeleteI think what Alex meant to say (correct me if I'm wrong) is that there is nothing a person can do to hide from what they've done. There is no way to run from it and keep it away forever. We can't deny wrongdoing. We have to confess and TRY to never do it again (TRY being the key word). Obviously, doing תשובהdoesn't completely erase the sin, but it does not count against us if we acknowledge it, feel bad about it, and truly try to never do it again. I don't think there's nothing we can do. I think that if a person has repented for their sin, they should not focus as much on what they did as on working hard not to repeat the action and working hard to become better. No one is perfect. We all slip up sometimes, and once we do what we need to do about it, we need to be able to move on.
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