Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 33:12: Derashot HaRan

And in being told "The remnant of Israel and the saved of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on their smiter, but they will lean on the L-rd, the Holy One of Israel, in truth," we are being told a wondrous thing indeed. And that is that, beyond a doubt, in respect to those forces operating against a man, the closer they are to the man himself, the weaker their power to rescue him and to attenuate his evil, and the proportionately farther away, the stronger. The analogy given is a man's being sentenced to be flogged. The injuring instrument closest to him is the whip, which has no power whatsoever to attenuate his injury. Least removed from the whip is the smiter, the representative of the official or the judge. He is more powerful in this regard than the closest cause, the whip, but he is still weak in the rescuing of the smitten one, being permitted only to reduce the force of the lashes a little, but not to suspend them, being, as he is, subject to the authority of the official or the judge. The official and the judge, similarly, though they be a more distant cause, cannot exert full jurisdiction, being answerable to the king. Yet this poor, smitten fool appeals to the smiter or to the judge and not to the official or to the king, who really wields the authority. Not so the wise man — he turns to the most distant cause, the king. This is reminiscent of our present state of affairs. We lean upon our smiters and all of our preoccupations are with the close causes, which have little power to save us. It is in this regard that Scripture indicted the Jews for soliciting the kings of Egypt. And it was, likewise, in this regard that it indicted Asa, viz. (II Chronicles 16:12): "Even in his illness he did not seek the L-rd, but the physicians." Similarly, those who fear foul air and make their entire goal the improvement of its quality, as others do in respect to foul foods — such as these turn to correct weak, close causes and lean upon their smiters. But he whose eyes have been opened by the L-rd leans upon Him. He improves his deeds and regrets his past evils and thereby obtains healing for both his soul and his body. As our sages of blessed memory have stated (Yoma 86a): "R. Chamma said: 'Great is repentance, for it brings healing to the world, as it is written (Hosea 14:5): "I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely."'" And R. Shmuel b. Nachman said in the name of R. Yonathan (Yoma 86b): "Great is repentance, for it lengthens a man's days and years, as it is written (Ezekiel 18:27-28): 'And when the evildoer turns away from his evil … he shall indeed live.'" And though one's repentance proceed from suffering and affliction it is accepted and valued by the Blessed One, this being one of His profound kindnesses. This is subsumed in the verses (Deuteronomy 4:29-31): "And you will seek from there the L-rd your G-d, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the end of days, and you return to the L-rd your G-d and heed His voice. For the L-rd your G-d is a merciful G-d; He will not forsake you and he will not destroy you. And He will not forget the covenant of your fathers — what He swore to them."Indeed, there is somethinG-demanding explanation here, for our sages stated (Yoma 86b): "Who is regarded as a penitent? R. Yehudah answered: 'One who was confronted with the transgression once, twice, and three times, and desisted from it.' R. Yehudah qualified the statement: 'With the same woman, at the same age period, and in the same place.'" If this be so, how can one who has passed the days of his youth ever perform a complete repentance? And if you would say that this is, indeed, the case, that his repentance can never be perfect and complete, this is not so. For it is stated by our sages (Kiddushin 40b): "Even if one was completely wicked all of his days and he repents at the end, no [former] wickedness is to be held up to him, as it is written (Ezekiel 33:12): 'And the wickedness of the wicked one will not be a stumbling block to him in the day that he repents of his evil.'" Now "at the end" he is not in the same age period! And, similarly, our sages have said (Yerushalmi Chagigah 2:1): "'You return a man until dust' (Psalms 90:3) — [You return him with repentance] until his life is crumbling into the dust [at death]." The matter, however, is to be understood as follows: