Guest Writer Special: Teshuvah

In last week’s Parasha, Parashat Veyerah, we read about Hagar and Yishmael. Our Sages teach us that Yishmael at the end of his life did Teshuvah (repented for all his bad deeds). Hashem judges by people’s current situation and always accepts our Teshuvah. The way Teshuvah works is that Hashem, being all merciful, judges by the present state of a person. He does not judge us on our past or future. He erases the past if a person wants the past to be erased. If you want goodness and you do Teshuvah then all your Aveirot (sins) become Mitzvot (good deeds).

                                                    The Stages of Teshuvah:

1. Look at the past and regret it; and reflect on it.

2.  I no longer see the sin to be for my benefit.

3. You accept you had to get to that low situation in order to reach where you are now.

We have to judge people on where they are and look at them positively. The Zohar says “The blood thirst of Yishmael is like the rage of a slave to a master.” In the zechut that Yishmael had a Berit (circumcision) at the age of thirteen Hashem gave Yishmael 1,300 years to rule Eretz Yisrael. So from 610 C.E. the Yishmaelites ruled Israel for 1300 years (until 1910). The Vilna Gaon said that the Jewish people will be going to Israel at the end of days and that there will be a bloody battle with the Arabs over the land of Israel, but this will be the last battle. Now the Arabs are losing the land because it is going back to its rightful owners. The prophesy that Hashem gave to Hagar is coming true: when Hagar left (the first time) Hashem promised Hagar that He will make Yishmael into a great nation. Yishmael did do Teshuvah and followed in the ways of his father at the end of days even though he did go off the derech for most of his life.

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