Letters of Thought: Lil Slichos Thoughts

Farbrengin in 770 'upstairs' -Captured on a Treo 700p

I'm in Crown Heights now, but I'll be on the move again before Rosh Hashana.

A story as told by R' Mendel Marazow:

There once was a Russian gentile who, despite relative success as an innkeeper, wanted above everything else to have a child . . .

Finally after many years, he was blessed with a son. The child grew to become an exceedingly intelligent young man; so smart, indeed, that he soon outgrew the small school in the town, and was sent off to university in England. In England the young man, prospered; marring into the British elite.

Years passed, and the father yearning once more see his son, sent him a letter asking him to come home.The son agreed, but decided to surprise his father.He sent a letter to a friend in the town, telling him that he would arrive on a certain day incognito to visit his parents. After a few days staying as their guest, he would reveal himself as their child.

As planned, he arrived on the said day, and went to his father's inn for rest. Telling him that he was a wealthy man, traveling from London to Moscow, he wished to spend a few days in the inn in order to rest before finishing the final leg of the journey. In order to further impress his father, the son began to take out and count large sums of money. The father, not recognizing his son, was more then impressed by the flagrant display of wealth. Soon, the piles of rubles, of gold and silver, became a temptation that he could not stand.

'Here is a man,' he thought. 'That nobody knows. He is traveling with out any companion from one distant land to the next . . . If I were to kill him, and take his money, who would notice?'

As planned, that night the father made his way to the son's room, and carried out his horrible plan -ignorant as to the true identity of whom he was killing.The money away, and the body disposed of, the innkeeper proceeded to go about life as if nothing had happened.

When the towns people, in on the son's plan from his letter, noticed that the son failed to reveal himself, they decided to pay a visit to the innkeeper.
Soon the heinous deed was uncovered; non the more horrified then the innkeeper.Driven to the brink of insanity by his own actions, he was taken by the townspeople to the judge.

Looking sternly into the eyes of the broken man who stood before him, the judge asked,

"What do you think we should do to you?"

"Kill me! Chop my body to pieces and feed it to the dogs, burn whatever is left . . . How can I bear to live with my deeds? Please take me from this world!"

The judge thought quietly for several moments, then told the crowd that he was ready to announce his verdict.

"The innkeeper can go free. He has already passed judgment on himself, and no action that this court can carryout will be as harsh as the fate that he must now live with. His actions themselves will be his punishment."

So too, the soul is shown a list of it's actions above, and the very deed itself is the punishment. This is what it means that every Jew is destined to give a 'din v'chesbon', a judgment and recounting of his deeds before G-d; for seemingly how can one pass judgment on himself? A Judge is needed to do such. Rather then, his deed itself is the judgment which he passes upon himself. For S'char aveira, aveira -the punishment of a sin, is the sin itself.