treatment, are among the blemishes in this otherwise interesting and very able posthumous work.] of the saying which conjoined the Law and repentance, and represented them as preceding the Creation, [c Pes. 54 a; Ber. R. 1.] Another would seem derived from a kind of Manichaean view of sin. According to it, God Himself was really the author of the Yetser haRa, or evil impulse [2 So in too many
passagesfor enumeration.] ('the law in our members'), for which, indeed, there was an absolute necessity, if the world was to continue, [d Yoma 69 b; Ber. R. 9, and in many places.] [3 Some of these points have already been stated. But it was necessary to repeat them so as to give a connected view.] Hence, 'the penitent' was really 'the great one,' since his strong nature had more in it of the 'evil impulse,' and the conquest of it by the penitent was really of greater merit than abstinence from sin. [e Sanh. 99 a; Maimon. Hil. Tesh. Per. 7.] Thus it came, that the true penitent really occupied a higher place, 'stood where the perfectly righteous could not stand.' [f Sanh. 99 a; Ber. 34 b.] There is then both work and merit in penitence; and we can understand, how 'the gate of penitence is open, even when that of prayer is shut,' [g Yalkut on Ps. xxxii. p. 101 b.] and that these two sentences are not only consistent, but almost cover each other, that the Messianic deliverance would come, if all Israel did righteousness, [h Sanh. 98 a.] and, again, if all Israel repented for only one day; [i Sanh. 98 a; Jer. Taan. 64 a.] or, to put it otherwise, if Israel were all saints, or all sinners, [k Sanh. 98 a.]
We have already touched the point where, as regards repentance, as formerly in regard to forgiveness, the teaching of Christ is in absolute and fundamental contrariety to that of the Rabbis. According to Jesus Christ, when we have done all, we are to feel that we are but unprofitable servants, [m St. Luke xvii. 10.] According to the Rabbis, as St. Paul puts it, 'righteousness cometh by the Law;' and, when it is lost, the Law alone can restore life; [1 So, according to Rabbinism, both in the Sepher Iqqar. and in Menor. Hammaor.] while, according to Christian teaching, it only bringeth death. Thus there was, at the very foundation of religious life, absolute contrariety between Jesus and His contemporaries. Whence, if not from heaven, came a doctrine so novel as that which Jesus made the basis of His Kingdom?
In one respect, indeed, the Rabbinic view was in some measure derived from the Old Testament, though by an external and, therefore, false interpretation of its teaching. In the Old Testament, also, 'repentance' was Teshubhah (), 'return;' while, in the New Testament, it is 'change of mind' ( ). It would not be fair here to argue, that the common expression for repenting was 'to do penitence' (), since by its side we frequently meet that other: 'to return in penitence' (). Indeed, other terms for repentance also occur. Thus Tohu () means repentance in the sense of regret; Charatah, perhaps, more in that of a change of mind; while Teyubha or Teshubhah is the return of repentance. Yet, according to the very common Rabbinic expression, there is a 'gate of repentance' ( ) through which a man must enter, and, even if Charatah be the sorrowing change of mind, it is at most only that gate. Thus, after all, there is more in the 'doing of penitence' than appears at first sight. In point of fact, the full meaning of repentance as Teshubhah, or 'return,' is only realised, when a man has returned from dereliction to observance of the Law. Then, sins of purpose are looked upon as if they had been unintentional, nay, they become even virtuous actions, [a Yoma 86.]
We are not now speaking of the forgiveness of sins. In truth, Rabbinism knew nothing of a forgiveness of sin, free and unconditional, unless in the case of those who had not the power of doing anything for their atonement. Even in the passage which extols most the freeness and the benefits of repentance (the last pages of the Tractate on the Day of Atonement), there is the most painful discussion about sins great and small, about repentance from fear or from love, about sins against commands or against prohibitions; and, in what cases repentance averted, or else only deferred, judgment, leaving final expiation to be wrought by other means. These were: personal
sufferings, [b Ber. 5 a, b; Kidd. 81 b.] death, [c Yoma u. s.] or the Day of Atonement, [d Yoma u. s., and many passages.] Besides these, there were always the 'merits of the fathers;' [e In almost innumerable passages.] or, perhaps, some one good work done; [f Ab. Zar. 5 a.] or, at any rate, the brief period of purgatorial pain, which might open the gate of mercy. These are the so-called 'advocates' (Peraqlitin,) of the penitent sinner. In a classical passage on the subject, [a Mechilta, 76 a.] repentance is viewed in its bearing on four different spiritual [1 In Menorath Hammaor (Ner v. 1. 1,2) seven kinds of repentance in regard to seven different conditions are mentioned. They are repentance immediately after the commission of sin; after a course of sin, but while there is still the power of sinning; where there is no longer the occasion for sinning; where it is caused by admonition, or fear of danger; where it is caused by actual affliction; where a man is old, and unable to sin; and, lastly, repentance in prospect of death.] conditions, which are supposed to be respectively referred to in Jer. iii. 22; Lev. xvi. 30; Is. xxii. 14; and Ps. lxxxix. 32. The first of these refers to a breach of a command, with immediate and persistent cry for forgiveness, which is at once granted. The second is that of a breach of a prohibition, when, besides repentance, the Day of Atonement is required. The third is that of purposed sin, on which death or cutting off had been threatened, when, besides repentance and the Day of Atonement, sufferings are required; while in open profanation of the Name of God, only death can make final atonement, [b See also Yoma 86 and following.]
But the nature of repentance has yet to be more fully explained. Its gate is sorrow and shame, [c Ber. 12 b; Chag. 5 a.] In that sense repentance may be the work of a moment, 'as in the twinkling of an eye,' [d Pesiqta ed. Bub. p. 163 b.] and a life's sins may obtain mercy by the tears and prayers of a few minutes' repentance.' [2 This is illustrated, among other things, by the history of a Rabbi who, at the close of a dissolute life, became a convert by repentance. The story of the occasion of his repentance is not at all nice in its realistic details, and the tears with which a self-righteous colleague saw the beatification of the penitent are painfully illustrative of the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Ab. Z. 17 a).] To this also refers the beautiful saying, that all which rendered a sacrifice unfit for the altar, such as that it was broken, fitted the penitent for acceptance, since 'the sacrifices of God were a broken and contrite heart.' [f Vayyik. R. 7.] By the side of what may be called contrition, Jewish theology places confession (Viddui,). This was deemed so integral a part of repentance, that those about to be executed, [g Sanh. vi. 2.]or to die, [h Shabb. 32 a.] were admonished to it. Achan of old had thus obtained pardon, [i Sanh. u. s.] But in the case of the living all this could only be regarded as repentance in the sense of being its preparation or beginning. Even if it were Charatah, or regret at the past, it would not yet be Teshubhah, or return to God; and even if it changed purposed into unintentional sin, arrested judgment, and stayed or banished its Angel, it would still leave a man without those works which are not only his real destiny and merit heaven, but constitute true repentance. For, as sin is ultimately dereliction of the Law, beginning within, so repentance is ultimately return to the Law. In this sense there is a higher and meritorious confession, which not only owns sin but God, and is therefore an inward return to Him. So Adam, when he saw the penitence of Cain, burst into this Psalm, [a Ps. xcii.] 'It is a good thing to confess [1 So it would need to be rendered in this context.] unto the Lord.' [b Ber. R. 22.] [2 Another beautiful allegory is that, in the fear of Adam, as the night closed in upon his guilt, God gave him two stones to rub against each other, which produced the spark of light, the rubbing of these two stones being emblematic of repentance (Pes. 54 a; Ber. R. 11, 12).] Manasseh, when in trouble, called upon God and was heard, [c 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13.] although it is added, that this was only done in order to prove that the door of repentance was open
to all. Indeed, the Angels had closed the windows of Heaven against his prayers, but God opened a place for their entrance beneath His throne of glory, [d Debar. R. 2; ed. Warsh. p. 7 a; comp. Sanh. 102 b, last lines, and 103 a.] Similarly, even Pharaoh, who, according to Jewish tradition, made in the Red Sea confession of God, [e Ex. xv. 11.] was preserved, became king of Nineveh, and so brought the Ninevites to true repentance, which verily consisted not merely in sackcloth and fasting, but in restitution, so that every one who had stolen a beam pulled down his whole palace to restore it. [f Taan. 16 a.]
But, after all, inward repentance only arrested the decrees of justice, [g Rosh haSh. 17 b.] That which really put the penitent into right relationship with God was good deeds. The term must here be taken in its widest sense. Fasting is meritorious in a threefold sense: as the expression of humiliation, [h Baba. Mez. 85 a.] as an offering to God, similar to, but better than the fat of sacrifices on the altar, [i Ber. 17 a.] and as preventing further sins by chastening and keeping under the body, [k u. s.] A similar view must be taken of self-inflicted penances, [m Baba Mez. 85 a.] [3 Baba Mez. 84 b (quoted by Weber) is scarcely an instance. The whole of that part of the Talmud is specially repugnant, from its unsavory character and grossly absurd stories. In one of the stories in Baba Mez. 85, a Rabbi tries by sitting over the fire in an oven, whether he has become impervious to the fire of Gehinnom. For thirty days he was successful, but after that it was noticed his thighs were singed, whence he was called 'the little one with the singed thighs.'] On the other hand, there was restitution to those who had been wronged, as a woman once put it to her husband, to the surrender of one's 'girdle.' [n Tanch. Noach 4.] [4 But such restitution was sometimes not insisted on, for the sake of encouraging penitents.] Nay, it must be of even more than was due in strict law. [o See the discussion in B. Mez. 37 a.] To this must be added public acknowledgment of public sins. If a
