Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily.
Once again, we're going to show how spirituality helps with our emotional wellness. Many people suffer from guilt, especially at this time of year. They look back at things they might have done and feel very guilty. How do you get out of the guilt? If someone did something wrong, how do they shake themselves? The following story is told about Rav Boruch Ber Leobowitz, one of the great Gedolim and Roshei Yeshiva of yesteryear. He passed away in the 1930s.
He was caring for his elderly father, at his bedside constantly, to the point that people were concerned he needed to rest, to sleep himself. But he remained by his father's bed. After much pressure, he finally went home to sleep one night. That night, his father died. RAV Baruch Ber felt that he was responsible for his father's death, that if he had been there, he might've done something.
He was tremendously disturbed by this, to the point that he couldn't give his shiurim/classes. Word got out that the Rav Baruch Ber, one of the greatest Roshei Yeshiva of that time had stopped giving his shiurim. When the Chafetz Chaim heard this, he sent a messenger to Rav Baruch Ber and requested that he speak to him.
The Chafetz Chaim spoke to Rav Baruch Ber for half an hour, about the power of Teshuva. He said many times that Teshuva is not just an atonement for a sin, but rather, that Teshuva turns the person into a different person. It's actually a Rambam. He explains that one of the reasons you change somebody's name when there's a bad decree on them is because they have to change into a new person.
When Rav Baruch Ber heard this, he walked out and was healed, so to say. He said, “I'm now a different person. I'm a new person.”
From then on, Rav Baruch Ber would say that Chafetz Chaim brought him back to life when he couldn't continue.
Rav Schwab, quoting this story, says that we have to appreciate this power of teshuva, especially at this time of year. This will cause a person not to despair, not to become depressed- because we can truly renew ourselves. Like the Rambam describes, a person before he did teshuva vs after he did teshuva, is a whole different person. That's one of the reasons why, after Yom Kippur, we take out the arba minim / four species which symbolize major organs in the body (The Lulav is the spine, the Etrog is the heart, the Hadassim are the eyes and the Aravot are the lips), to show nice, fresh organs, that here we are, a new creation.
The Midrash quotes a pasuk, Am Nivrah , a renewed nation. We’re considered a totally new creation, through teshuva, and that's important. I've had people come to me crying over something that they did. I ask them if they regret it? Absolutely. They regret it. They're crying. I say, “Well, if you really regret it, and it's quite obvious you do, then that's teshuva.” You have to believe that teshuva makes you new, and whatever you did in the past, it’s like it didn't happen. You're a new person.”
Just like it says that someone who converts, it’s like he's newly born, so too someone who does teshuva is newly bornI heard Rav Uri Zohar z’sl once ask, “How old am I?” At the time, he was 40 or 50. But he said, “I'm 12 years old now.”
What do you mean you're 12? You're you're 40. But he said, “No. When I was Chozer B’ Teshuva, I was born again. I don't know the old me, I'm a new person.”
That's how we have to look at teshuva, and that attitude will help us overcome our guilt and despair.
We have to thank our Emunah and our religious beliefs for this opportunity, which is not out there in the secular world. People get consumed with guilt and there really is no way out.
Teshuva is a wonderful gift that makes us guilt-free and born again.
Have a wonderful day. Shabbat shalom and Tizku Leshanim Rabot
This is the last class before Yom Kippur. Please take it in.