By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
In Vayikra 5:23 the passuk teaches us that if one sins and wants to do Teshuva he should return the object that he stole. The Gemara in Chullin 141a says that one who steals does not receive malkus because it is a lav that is attached to an asseh. Since one has a mitzva to return it. The question arises that according to those shittos that hold that teshuva is a mitzvah. (based on Rambam Hilchos Teshuva, Ramban Devarim 30 and Rabbeinu Yona.) How could one ever get malkus since it is nitak to the asseh of teshuvah?
The first answer is from the Chida in the name of Nachlas Binyamin. Since teshuva is an asseh that is klali it covers many lavin so therefore we do not say it is a lav that is nitak to an asseh sh’bichlalos as we see that a lav sh’bichlalos is also a weaker lav not to get malkus.
The second reason is that Teshuva would have a problem that ein le’dayan ela ma sh’einav ro’os (a judge cannot judge only to the extent that he sees.) Teshuva is something which needs to be accepted in shomayim and the Dayan has no way of knowing that it was accepted. The Ben Ish Chai explains that teshuva is toluy in charata and a Dayan can’t ascertain that the charata was in full. Therefore, malkus can’t be avoided. But according to this tirutz if a Dayan would have ruach hakodesh and know that the person had proper charata and proper teshuva he would be able to patter him from malkus.
A third tirutz is that teshuva is not something that is bichlal connected with Bais Din it is something that in Shomayim in the world to come can help a person but down here in this world Teshuva does not come into play at all. According to this answer even if Bais Din knows one hundred percent the person did teshuva it would not help him against malkus.
A fourth tirutz is in the Birchas Shmuel vol 3 in the maamer of teshuva that teshuva does a nituk (a disconnect) from the sin but not on the actions of the sin. For example, if someone robbed someone and then was forced to return the object by Bais Din that is not considered teshuva. Since he did not have charata. We can elaborate even more so as we know that teshuva out of fear turns maizid into shogeg. Teshuva out of love turns into zechuyos. We see that the etzem aveirah still exists and just turns into something else that would not suffice for the malkus to fall off.
A fifth answer is based on Makkos 14b that says that if it is possible to do the asseh even before one did the lav that would not be considered nitak le’aaseh. Since every lav that one does he is also over on a bittul mitzvas asseh which requires teshuva so the din of teshuva can come before the lav hence not enough to be okeir the malkus.
A sixth answer is that since teshuva alone is not enough one needs also Yom Kippur therefore teshuva would not suffice to patter one from malkus.
We see the greatness of the inyan of Teshuva and how much we lack today that we can’t bring korbanos to forgive for us. Let us bring the geula and we will have all this back again. Amen!
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