Does God accept bribes? A further comment

On 18 August I posted a piece called “Does God accept bribes?” (weblog here; Facebook here). This piece considered, among other things, whether a person might “pay” God for the performance of wrongful actions, offsetting their punishment through the performance of good deeds; it also took note of the early Christian practice of purchasing indulgences.

Rabbi Akiva teaches, at Avot 3:22:

הַכֹּל נָתוּן בָּעֵרָבוֹן, וּמְצוּדָה פְרוּסָה עַל כָּל הַחַיִּים, הֶחָנוּת פְּתוּחָה, וְהַחֶנְוָנִי מַקִּיף, וְהַפִּנְקָס פָּתֽוּחַ, וְהַיָּד כּוֹתֶֽבֶת, וְכָל הָרוֹצֶה לִלְווֹת יָבֹא וְיִלְוֶה, וְהַגַּבָּאִין מַחֲזִירִין תָּדִיר בְּכָל יוֹם, וְנִפְרָעִין מִן הָאָדָם מִדַּעְתּוֹ וְשֶׁלֹּא מִדַּעְתּוֹ, וְיֵשׁ לָהֶם עַל מַה שֶּׁיִּסְמֽוֹכוּ, וְהַדִּין דִּין אֱמֶת, וְהַכֹּל מְתֻקָּן לִסְעוּדָה

In English: “Everything is given on collateral, and a net is spread over all the living. The shop is open, the shopkeeper extends credit; the account-book lies open, the hand writes, and all who wish to borrow may come and borrow. The [debt] collectors make their rounds every day and exact payment from man, with his knowledge and without his knowledge. They have that upon which they rely, the judgement is a judgement of truth, and everything is prepared for the banquet”.

I now quote from Rabbi Yehudah Bulman’s excellent translation of the Meiri’s commentary on Avot in his Bet HaBechirah on the bold text above:

“Even if the person has long wallowed in his evil ways, nevertheless he has support to lean on in the form of repentance. [The Tanna] promises him that repentance is never precluded, even if he has sinned excessively. It is possible to lighten his punishments or even purge them altogether if his repentance is extensive enough. This is ‘counsel after the fact’”.

Rav Bulman, citing the Mishnat Reuven, notes that Meiri’s explanation diverges from that of other early commentators, who take the word “they” to refer to the debt collectors rather than, as Meiri does, to the sinners from whose assets the cost of sin is to be paid. He therefore points to the use of those resources for the purpose of lightening punishments or even purging sins completely.

Is this the same as bribery? Arguably it is not. A bribe is usually offered ahead of time, so that the person offering it will be confident that he has calculated the cost of the sin that he is about to commit and that his repentance for it will certainly be accepted. But there is more.

While both the lightening of punishment and the purging of sin are clearly objectives that a sinner desires, they cannot be bought by repentance since discretion to accept repentance remains in God’s hands alone and it is for Him to determine its adequacy, its sincerity and its acceptability.  The more egregious the sin, the greater the sinner’s enjoyment of it and the more premeditated its execution, the more intensive and heartfelt the repentance is likely to be before it reaches the level of acceptability—and even if it does, there is no guarantee that it will satisfy an all-wise and omniscient deity who understands us better than we understand ourselves.