A Daily Regimen of Teshuvah
Sometimes, a tzaddik will bless a person with longevity. The person might come to the conclusion that since he is guaranteed a long life, there is no rush to do teshuvah. This is a fatal mistake. Hashem can take a person’s life whenever He sees fit. The tzaddik’s berachah is no promise that Hashem will grant a person a long life.
I once knew a Moroccan Jew who had received a blessing from the tzaddik, the Baba Sali, zy”a, for a long life. The man, indeed, lived long. At some point, he asked for an additional blessing for long life, which he was graciously given.
This man understood that the tzaddik’s blessing was effective as long as the tzaddik prayed for him. But as soon as the prayers would stop, his berachah, too, would cease.
The day the Baba Sali passed away, the Jew set to writing his own will. He truly felt this was his last day on earth. He called his children to him and took his leave of them amidst copious weeping, and said Kriyat Shema.
In the merit of the tzaddik this Jew did, indeed, live to a ripe old age.
- The Tzaddik, Rabbi Moshe Aharon Pinto, and the Baba Sali, zy”a
But at times, a tzaddik might bless a person with long life, and Hashem, Whose calculations we cannot understand, decrees otherwise. In spite of the tzaddik’s blessing, a person might die young.
The Gemara states (Shabbat 153a), “Rabbi Eliezer said, ‘Return one day before you die.’ His disciples asked him, ‘Does a person know which day he will die?’ He replied, ‘Therefore, he should constantly repent, in case he will die the next day.’”
We should always regard each day as our last upon this earth and constantly do teshuvah.
