Right and left and tshuva

Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 6:24 am Post subject: Right and left and tshuva

If something happens to your right side, then kabbala would state that, you didn't do something that you should have done. And if you have something happen to your left side, it was because you 'did' an aveira.

So, for instance, if a married man looks where he shouldn't, and in the near future he gets an infection in his eye, he could come to the conclusion that his eye pain is from doing an aveira with his eyes.

If he gets an infection in his right eye, he would need to do a cheshbon hanefesh to decide if there was something that he should've seen, noticed, or even, that he withheld an eyin tova.

Another example is a stubbed toe. Depending on which foot, I would be guided in my tshuva. If I stubbed my right toe, it was because I didn't do something that I should've done. If I stubbed my left toe, I probably did an aveira, and one that required my feet.

Has anyone ever heard about this? Do you apply it to your life?

Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 8:21 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

No I have never heard of this, and I do not apply this to my life.

Perhaps I am the resident apikoros, but this does not sound like Judaism to me. It sounds like superstition.

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Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 9:11 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

??translate: yefashfeish b'maasav

Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 9:13 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

Chani where in the world did you get this...stuff? Did you ever learn Kabbalah? Do you understand it? Kabbalah ma'asit?

There is no "cause and effect" like that in Judaism that we know of. Not our religion. There is kabbalah ma'asit which is so incredibly difficult to understand that maybe two people in a generation of lamdanim actually begin to understand some of it, and in our generation, have been told never to use it. The last two that we know of are R. Yitzchak Kadouri (zt"l) and yibadel lechayim arukim, R. Ovadia who was taught never to use any knowledge of his kabbalah ma'asit and does not use it.

So what in the world is your source for this stuff?
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Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 9:22 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

This is stuff I picked up somewhere years ago throughout my learning. I know it comes from kabala, somewhere, somehow. I can't source it. But I know it is legit, as legit as any kabala.

I was very into this for many years, and used to be able to see cause and effect to some degree, at least in my limited mind. This is of course to be applied only to one's self and not to others. You cannot make a cheshbon hanefesh for someone else.

And further, I learned, believed, that there is a big zchus to making cheshbon hanefesh and tshuva. And even if, as a result of cheshbon hanefesh, you make tshuva on something, and it wasn't specifically what you were getting the onesh about, it may very well fix the problem. Because, it is the cheshbon hanefesh and tshuva that grant one the zchus, not the actual accuracy of your deduction.

I am just curious, now that I slacked off on this, if I should work on myself again, or is it not something that most people even do...

Now that I learn how much diversity there is in halacha, I seem to have lost my desire to make tshuva on anything, because I'm not sure anymore what is or isn't an aveira. And further, it seems some cultures dont even think in terms of tshuva they way I was taught to.

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Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 10:12 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

There is most certainly a cause and effect in Judaism and I have heard this as well. It's just that most of us are not really on a level that we can understand things that happen to us based on our spiritual situation.

Everything in the physical world is a manifestation of something in the spiritual world.

I am not going to get into an argument with FS but these are things that are not alien to Yiddishkeit and it wouldn't hurt any of us to "look into our actions" when things happen on a physical level.

(As an aside, my kids informed me on Shabbos that a sore on the tongue is called a "Lashon Hara sore". I don't see this as superstition. I see this as being more connected).
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Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 10:20 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

Thank you C.M., this is exactly what I am talking about...

But I wouldn't consider it being on any kind of level to think like this, more just a personality or hashkafa thing.

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Awareness is the first step Wink

I must add that I really admire your previous approach. While I don't apply them to specific aveiros, I do think its praiseworthy to note all yesurim, even the small ones. And teshuva certainly isn't reserved for elul only.

Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 10:23 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

But apparently it is a charedi thing to constantly be making tshuva.

Posted: Mon, Aug 06 2012, 10:38 am Post subject: re: Right and left and tshuva

Yes. The sefer we learned was Derech Hachaim by the Maharal - a perush on Masechet Avot.

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Rabbi Eliezer says a man should do teshuvah one day before his death. Question his talmidim, how does a man know when he is going to die? Answers the rabbi, therefore he should do teshuva every day, because one can never know which will be the day of his death.

Like cleaning house or maintaining a garden, it's better to tackle a little bit every day than to leave it all for a marathon panic session at the eleventh hour. Applause to those who stay on top of things.