Every evening the rabbi of Berditchev examined in his heart what he had done on that day, and repented every flaw he discovered. He said: "Levi Yitzhak will not do this again." Then he chided himself: "Levi Yitzhak said exactly the same thing yesterday!" And added: "Yesterday Levi Yitzhak did not speak the truth, but he does speak the truth today."
He used to say: "Like a woman who suffers overwhelming pain in child-birth, and swears she will never lie with her husband again, and yet forgets her oath, so on every Day of Atonement we confess our faults and promise to turn, and yet we go on sinning, and You go on forgiving us."
Excerpted from "Tales of the Hasidim", Martin Buber, foreward by Chaim Potok
No comments:
Post a Comment