The Mashpia’s Explanation Why Sin is Too Expensive

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

The crowd gathered around Rabbi Shmuel Gronem grew silent. One of the first mentors of the Lubavitch yeshivah in the town of Lubavitch, his presence alone was enough to bring conversation to a standstill. When he spoke, no one wanted to miss a word. His tone perfectly matching the content of his words, he delivered a Chasidic teaching, then a story, pausing just long enough to allow his listeners to internalize the message.

Now, he was talking about teshuvah, returning to G-d after a transgression. The sages outline two paths of return, Rabbi Gronem said. “If a person has money, he can redeem himself by giving charity. If he has strength, he can fast.

“But what if a person is too weak to fast and has no money?”

He stopped and scanned the crowd. Recognizing themselves in this description, the students waited with bated breath. The mentor began again.

In truth, neither charity nor fasting could guarantee G-d’s forgiveness, he said. It was necessary first to understand what a transgression actually accomplished: the severing of a bond with the Divine.

When a person understood that, Rabbi Gronem said, smiling, “and when he has no money and no strength, he simply cannot afford to sin.”

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