Nitzavim-Vayeilech: The Inevitability of Teshuvah

When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which your God יהוה has banished you, and you return to your God יהוה, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, then your God יהוה will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. [God] will bring you together again from all the peoples where your God יהוה has scattered you. Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there your God יהוה will gather you, from there [God] will fetch you. And your God יהוה will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and [God] will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors. Then your God יהוה will open up your heart and the hearts of your offspring—to love your God יהוה with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live.

...We have learned from that which it states, "and cast them away to another land," that the exile will be in this manner of casting out only until they reach the other land; but in the lands of the nations, it was only in the manner of of driving away... And there is a difference between "casting away" and "driving away" in three things: A) In that one who casts [something] away and throws [it] makes the thing distant from him; B) that by being cast away, the thing spoils; and C) he shows that he does not want to know where it lays. But one who drives [something] away needs to be close to the thing the whole time he is driving it away; and by driving it away, the thing does not spoil; and he knows the place of that thing. So it is possible to explain, "and you shall take it to heart amidst the various nations" - when you dwell among the nations, you shall put into your heart, "that which the Lord your God has driven you out" - that He has driven you out to a special place. It is like someone who drives something from one place to another until he finds a place where it can rest properly. And this is a proof that the eyes of the Lord your God are upon you for the good.

הברכה והקללה, "the blessing or the curse, etc." There is no need for the Torah to tell us that G'd will welcome Israelites with open arms if they sin and return in penitence before G'd has withdrawn the blessings they have become used to. The message of our verse is that even if the Israelites sinned so much that G'd has brought the curses upon them, He will still assist them in their penitence though it is due only to the afflictions the people have experienced. We have to explain the need for the Torah to mention the blessing at this juncture altogether. It would have sufficed to write the word הקללה, "the curse," as this is the catalyst that sparks repentance. Perhaps the Torah describes some of the thought processes which preceded the penitence of the Israelites. As long as the Israelites had not sinned and had experienced blessings in abundance they had not attributed it to their lifestyle. They had taken such blessings for granted, considering them as their due. Only after being deprived of these blessings do the Israelites begin to perceive that the lifestyle they used to enjoy was due to G'd bestowing special blessings on them. והשבת אל לבבך, "and you will take it to heart, etc." The Torah uses this expression because sinners are misled by their hearts. The Torah refers to an additional error the exiled Jew makes before he becomes a penitent. Even when he considers for a moment that the troubles he finds himself in are due to his having disobeyed G'd, the evil urge will tell him that this is not so. He will try and convince the Jew that they are not the only people who have experienced exile from time to time. The Torah counters this argument by writing בכל הגוים, "amongst all the nations." When other nations are exiled they are exiled to one or two countries. No nation has ever been scattered to the four corners of the earth as have the Jews. ושבת עד ה׳ אלוקיך, "And you will return unto the Lord your G'd." The expression ושבת is stronger than והשבת אל ללבך, as I explained. The former does not refer to repentance but to a reinforcing of the faulty life-outlook of the sinning Jew who finds himself in exile. The Torah makes this plain by adding the words עד השם.

The Gemara answers: This is not difficult. This baraita is referring to our fire, and that baraita is referring to the fire of Gehenna. The Gemara explains: Our fire was created at the conclusion of Shabbat, but the fire of Gehenna was created on Shabbat eve. The Gemara proceeds to ask: Was the fire of Gehenna created on Shabbat eve? Wasn’t it taught in a baraita: Seven phenomena were created before the world was created, and they are: Torah, and repentance, and the Garden of Eden, and Gehenna, and the Throne of Glory, and the Temple, and the name of Messiah. The Gemara provides sources for the notion that each of these phenomena was created before the world was. Torah was created before the world was created, as it is written: “The Lord made me as the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old” (Proverbs 8:22), which, based on the subsequent verses, is referring to the Torah. Repentance was created before the world was created, as it is written: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God,” and it is written immediately afterward: “You return man to contrition; and You say: Repent, children of man” (Psalms 90:2–3).