Story 1: Rav Yehuda Petaya and The
Elderly Ba’al Teshuva
In the book "Minchat Yehuda" (number
86), we find the following account:
In the year 5683 (1923), I was
approached by a certain older man who confessed to me that he had sinned with
his daughter in law while she was married to his son. He told me that he wanted
to make teshuva and atone for his sin. However, he did not possess the strength
anymore to perform many fasts or to do other difficult sigufim (self-mortifications)
for atonement.
I
asked him if he would at very least be able to fast for one full day, similar
to that of Yom Kippur? He said yes.
I told him to go and dip seven
times in the mikva, and then to accept upon himself a 24 hour fast for the
above mentioned sin.
I instructed him that on the day of
the fast he was to come to me with a pidyon (redemption money) for the 325 fasts
that were necessary to atone for the sin of being with a married woman, and
that I would assist him with his tikkun, and so it was.
On the day of the fast he came to
me and entered into my room. He took four steps barefoot (as a gesture of
repentance) and stood in front of me and confessed his above mentioned sin.
After his confession, he handed me the pidyon money and said, “Here is the
pidyon money for the 325 fasts which I am required to do as atonement for my
sin, please take it and distribute it as charity to whomever you wish.”
When I received the money from his
hand, I said, “Behold, I am receiving this money from so and so who has given
it as charity in order to redeem the remaining fasts which he is obligated to
do as atonement for the sin which he sinned with his daughter in law, etc. For
You hear the prayers of all mouths, blessed are You who hears prayers.
I then suspected that that this old
man was very poor and actually borrowed this money from others, so I returned
to him the whole amount as charity – keeping nothing but two small coins.
Two years later, this old man
passed away, and I saw him in a dream standing before the Heavenly Court. He
was received above as a Ba’al Teshuva, however, they found that he had only
repented for the sin of being with a married woman, and was still lacking
atonement for the sin of being with his daughter in law.
He was not spoken to, and he
removed himself to a side room and lowered himself down to his knees. The
Heavenly Court lifted their eyes upward, and three angels instantly descended
from the heavens above and performed a surgery on his organ – removing from it
the rust and blemish of the sin of being with his daughter in law. They then
healed him completely and exited.
This is all what I saw in my dream.
And from this account, one can see the great value and preciousness of teshuva,
for it saved this old man of hundreds of years of kaf hakele, painful reincarnations
and gehenom. Therefore our sages teach us, “Finer is one hour of repentance and
good deeds in this world; then is the value of the entire World to Come.”
(Until here were the words of Rav
Yehuda Petaya)
