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Megilah 027: Achav's Teshuvah
David asks:
I have difficulty understanding what Achav's great teshuva was, including
fasting and accepting malkos from King Yehoshafat when it had no effect on
the reality of his wife Izevel, or the fact that he did not destroy Dan and
Beis El, remove the checkpoints, and go to Yerushalayim himself, whereby so
many bnai yisroel were oyver issur kares eating korban..... pesach outside
Yerushalayim.. Thus he was still causing Jews to sin....!!. How could this
be considered a sincere repentance when people were punished for much less
severe sins??! What kind of teshuva is that, especially for someone of his
madrega??!
Plus....if an idolator is considered a mumar it is inconceivable that a
tsaddik would allow his son to marry that person's daughter, if the person
was an idolator be-fo'al, and someone who lived with a shiksa, or a
convert whose devotion to idolatry made her geyrus questionable.
I refer to the interesting point made in Vayoel Moshe, siman 135 of Maamar
Shalosh Shvuas about Menashe.
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The Kollel replies:
1) I will start from the end, namely the reference to the Sefer, va'Yo'el
Moshe. I looked this up and found it in Shalosh Shevu'as #131. However, he
stresses there that we cannot change the verses in Nach from their simple
meaning. In DH AK'P, he writes that Menasheh was a great man, apart from
the sin of Avodah Zarah. The Aveirah of Avodah Zarah which he committed and
caused the people to commit was very grave. The Satmer Rebbe zt'l adds that
we lack understanding on this matter as to how such a great person could do
such a terrible crime of Avodah Zarah.
I think this is quite similar to the comparison I have cited from the
Chazon Ish about explaining colors to a color-blind man. We are lacking the
tools to understand this properly.
2) In DH v'Amar, he writes that certainly Achav and Menasheh sinned greatly
by doing the Aveirah of Avodah Zarah and by causing the public to sin.
3) Then, the va'Yo'el Moshe cites the idea that you have mentioned. He
cites this in the name of the holy Tzadik from Radzal zt'l, who said that
when it was stated that Menasheh erected an idol in the Heichal it means
that he possessed foreign thoughts in the middle of Tefilah.
The Satmer Rebbe then adds that certainly Menasheh also literally
worshipped Avodah Zarah, as is clear at any rate from the passages in Nach
and from the words of Chazal.
In other words, the va'Yo'el Moshe is stressing that we cannot change the
words of Nach and Chazal from their simple meaning. I understand that he is
saying that while the Kadosh from Radzal zt'l says that Menasheh thought
bad things in the middle of Tefilah, he also is not attempting to suggest
that Menasheh and Achav did not do Avodah Zarah as well. However, the
Kadosh of Radzal is teaching us that bad thoughts in the middle of Tefilah
can be just as serious an Aveirah as Avodah Zarah. He is not saying that
Achav and Menasheh did not worship Avodah Zarah at all.
4) Now I will go back to the first question about the Teshuvah of Achav.
The answer is that if a person does Teshuvah for one Aveirah but does not
do Teshuvah for his other Aveiros, this is also considered as Teshuvah. We
do not say that a person is considered to have done Teshuvah only if he did
Teshuvah on all of his crimes.
We see this in the Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah, chapter 2. The Rambam relates
to doing Teshuvah for a specific Aveirah, not for all of one's Aveiros at
once. Therefore, since Achav did Teshuvah for the actual sin of Avodah
Zarah, this is also considered as Teshuvah.
5) Again, I am not going to be able to answer everything now but I will
just mention one more thought. You ask, how can this be considered Teshuvah
for someone of such a high Madreigah?
Well, the Gemara in Sukah (end of 52a) says that the greater a person is,
the greater his Yetzer ha'Ra is.
In addition, we see that despite Achav's greatness in Torah, he had this
terrible inclination for Avodah Zarah which not only destroyed him but
destroyed the entire people as well. So it must have involved an incredible
effort for him to admit that what he had being perpetrating all of these
years to Klal Yisrael was simply a terrible mistake.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
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