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.
