03 Feb YISRO: STARTING OVER AGAIN

A person came to the
Yismach Yisrael zt’l and
cried, “Holy Rebbe! I
owe money to the entire
world! To all my
friends and banks! My
business is collapsing.
What will be with
me?”
The Yismach Yisrael
replied, “What are you
planning to do?”
The man said, “I
thought to do what
everyone else in my
situation would do. I
will declare
bankruptcy.”
The Rebbe replied, “But how will that help
you? You need parnassah!”
The man replied, “I will open a new company.
It will have another name. The new company
didn’t do anything wrong to anyone; it doesn’t
owe money to anyone. It doesn’t have a past
that is positive or negative. I will take on new
loans from the bank and build from the
beginning again.”
The Rebbe smiled, “You just helped me
understand something I wondered about for a
long time. Yisro had seven daughters (see
Shemos 2:16), and Yisro had seven names (see
Shemos 4:18, Rashi). I always wondered why
the Torah tells us this… but now I understand.
Each time Yisro made a chasunah for one of his
daughters, he took it upon himself to give a
large dowry. To pay for the dowry, he had to
borrow money from many people. The day
after the chasunah, he didn’t have money to
pay back the debts. So he declared bankruptcy
and called himself a new name, and this new
“person” didn’t owe money to anyone.”
In our context, the yetzer hara comes to a
person and says, “You are so deeply in debt (in
a spiritual sense). You committed this aveirah
and that aveirah… There is no more hope for
you.”
A wise person will reply, “It isn’t as you say. I
have just declared bankruptcy! I’m finished
with my past. I am a new person.” As the
Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah (ch.2),
“From the paths of teshuvah is that a person…
should change his name.”
Therefore, it is often taught that when one does
teshuvah, he is like a newborn child, without
any connection to the past.
It states (19:1) “On this day, they arrived in the
desert of Sinai.” These words hint at the first
step for receiving the Torah. It is to focus on
this day. Don’t allow what happened in the past
to prevent you from doing good today. The
meforshim write that this concept is an
introduction to kabbolas haTorah.
The Avodas Yisrael in this week’s parashah
writes, “The Midrash says that v’atah, “and
now”, is an expression of teshuvah. We can
explain that Hakadosh Baruch Hu hints to
those who come close to Hashem that they
shouldn’t lose hope or be afraid to come close

to Him due to the aveiros of their past. The
main thing is to come close to Hashem from
today onward and not sin anymore. This is a
great chesed. Hashem wants to bring close the
people who do teshuvah and not look at their
deeds of the past…”
A bachur came to the Sar Shalom of Belz zt’l

and cried over the aveiros he had committed in
the past. The Sar Shalom showed him that on
the words “On this day, they arrived in the
desert of Sinai”, Rashi writes “This tells us that
Torah should be new in your eyes as if the
Torah was given just today.” The Sar Shalom
explained to the bachur that he should think the

Torah was given just today and not dwell on
the faults and aveiros of the past.