cheit hameraglim and the limits of teshuva

first, mazel tov to anyone graduating!  we should all continue to be successful in all our endeavors.

i also want to wish myself a refuah sheleimah in advance as im getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow morning.  (i was wondering for a while if its muttar to go for an elective procedure that will cause you pain on shabbos on erev shabbos, but i think it is.  presumably its at least as much of a dvar mitzvah as parnassa.)

we've mentioned before the idea that there must be some limit to teshuva. this is a little depressing but i want to talk about this.

we know that bnei yisrael sinned pretty badly by the cheit hameraglim. this sin lead hashem to punish bnei yisrael to die in the midbar.  bnei yisrael, hearing hashem's wrath, realized that they sinned, and do teshuva.  they admit to their sin, and want to rectify it by going to eretz yisrael right away.  but its too late. "al taalu", moshe tells the people from G-d, "ki ein hashem bikirbechem" - G-d is no longer with you.

it is true that by cheit ha-egel we also see signs of teshuva not being completely effective.  but it is not nearly to the same extent.  if teshuvah really works, why couldnt hashem "find it in his heart" to forgive and allow bnei yisrael to enter eretz yisrael?

this question is already hinted at in the parshios following the sippur hameraglim.  the torah immediately follows up with the the halachos of nesachim for karbanos, writing, דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל־אֶרֶץ מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם:.  the ramban explains that hashem is promising bnei yisrael that they will eventually get to eretz yisrael.  bnei yisrael needed this promise because they almost lost faith - who's to say we'll go in after forty years - have we really been forgiven?

similarly, shortly thereafter we are given the halachos of the special karbanos for an individual or community who sin in avodah zarah.  the ramban explains: ונכנסה כאן בעבור שהם מרו דבר השם ואמרו נתנה ראש ונשובה מצרימה (לעיל יד ד), להיות שם במצרים כאשר היו בראשונה בלא תורה ובלא מצות. והנה באה הפרשה, להודיעם כי אפילו בע"ז יכפר על השוגגים  - this parsha is here to teach bnei yisrael that teshuva works - hashem forgives even avodah zarah.  (the ramban here focuses on shogeg, but later quotes rashi who writes explicitly that even bimeizid, teshuvah is mechaper.)  this begs the question.  hashem follows up the story of cheit hameraglim teaching bnei yisrael the koach of teshuva - so put your money where your mouth is - forgive bnei yisrael and erase the 40 year decree!

the meshech chochma addresses this question.  he explains that since bnei yisrael only did teshuva after hashem's wrath was revealed and the meraglim were killed, it was not a complete teshuva.  chazal discuss a similar idea - a person who does teshuva when he's old and frail, half-dead and now has no taavos isnt a complete baal teshuvah.  its not so hard to have charata when the taavah to sin is no longer bothering you.  similarly, after an open display of yad hashem, teshuva/charata was cheap - it wasnt 100% real.

i dont have any disproofs of this meshech chochma (and i have nothing but respect for r meir simcha).  but as a limmud zchus for klal yisrael, lets assume bnei yisrael's teshuva was real.  then why were they still punished?

this comes down to a question i heard r twersky address in the rambam.  in the seventh perek of hilchos teshuva, the rambam writes:  ואל ידמה אדם בעל תשובה שהוא מרוחק ממעלת הצדיקים מפני העונות והחטאות שעשה. אין הדבר כן אלא אהוב ונחמד הוא לפני הבורא כאילו לא חטא מעולם.  - ki-ilu lo chata me-olam = doing teshuva "undoes" your aveirah - its as if it were never done.

similarly the rambam writes: אמש היה זה שנאוי לפני המקום משוקץ ומרוחק ותועבה. והיום הוא אהוב ונחמד קרוב וידיד - yesterday the guy was a rasha, and today he's a tzaddik gammur.

but can you really do teshuva for anything in an instant / between yesterday and today, and make it as if you never sinned? earlier in hilchos teshuva (end of perek 1), the rambam brings down the famous daled chilukei kapparah:  אף על פי שהתשובה מכפרת על הכל ועצמו של יום הכפורים מכפר. יש עבירות שהן מתכפרים לשעתן ויש עבירות שאין מתכפרים אלא לאחר זמן. כיצד...  המחלל את השם אע"פ שעשה תשובה והגיע יום הכפורים והוא עומד בתשובתו ובאו עליו יסורין אינו מתכפר לו כפרה גמורה עד שימות. אלא תשובה יום הכפורים ויסורין שלשתן תולין ומיתה מכפרת שנאמר ונגלה באזני ה' צבאות וגו' אם יכופר העון הזה לכם עד תמותון:

r twersky explained that the rambam in perek aleph was referring to a lower level of teshuvah, a teshuvah miyirah, while in the seventh perek the rambam is discussing someone who does teshuvah me-ahavah.  i do not believe that this is correct.  the chiluk has no basis in the rambam - the rambam does not limit the daled chilukei kaaparah to lower levels of teshuvah, and the pesukim make no distinctions: אם יכופר העון הזה לכם עד תמותון - no ifs, ands, or buts.

but if we read the rambam again, the answer is clear.  אהוב ונחמד הוא לפני הבורא כאילו לא חטא מעולם - its not as if he never sinned - rather, g-d loves him as much as he loves somebody who never sinned.  the koach of teshuva isnt to undo your sins - your sins are done, and whats done may sometimes have consequences that last throughout the entire rest of one's life until the moment of death.  the chiddush of teshuvah is that yesterday, g-d hated you for your evil actions.  through teshuva, g-d loves us again, and if he still punishes us for our sins, it is out of love. (this is against everything we've discussed comparing teshuvah to hataras nedarim- umitzvah liyashev.)

there is an idea that is not exactly the same, but perhaps even stronger. (thinking about it, this might help us better understand the meshech chochma.)  there is another stirah in the rambam that bothered many acharonim.  in perek 3 of hilchos teshuva, the rambam writes that a person can do teshuva for any aveirah, no matter how severe. this includes avodah zarah, and fits with the rashi/ramban we saw earlier that one can do teshuvah for avodah zarah even bimeizid.  and yet, in hilchos avodah zarah perek 2, the rambam, disucssing ovdei avodah zarah and apikorsim, writes: אין מקבלים אותם בתשובה לעולם שנאמר כל באיה לא ישובון ולא ישיגו ארחות חיים - so can they or cant they do teshuva?

the answer can be found in the gemara avodah zara 17a.  the gemara tells a sequence of stories of people attempting to do teshuvah for aveiros chamuros such as avodah zarah and giluy arayos.  a woman came to r chisda, asking how to do teshuvah.  r chisda responded, "bring shrouds" - his point was that to properly do teshuvah for some very serious sins, a person has to die from the pain/ remorse they feel because they committed this sin.  so you can do teshuva for anything.  but sometimes teshuvah involves dying.

getting back to the meraglim, perhaps these ideas help us understand why the gezeirah of death in the midbar remained in place even after teshuvah.  focusing in on the first suggestion, if we assume for a second that the ikkar cheit of the meraglim was "vayimasu bi-eretz chemdah",  we readily understand how the punishment could remain in place even after hashem forgave us.  we kicked and rejected hashem's gift to us - we needed  to spend 40 yrs in the desert to learn to appreciate eretz yisrael.  g-d should grant, hashiveinu hashem eilecha vinashuva, to see the fully rebuilt eretz yisrael and yerushalayim speedily in our days.

good shabbos.