[Avodah] [Areivim] Report to the Heavenly Court

[Joshua Meisner]

Back on March 7, a poem was posted on Areivim describing how a woman
who dressed in a non-tzanua fashion found that all of her z'chuyos had
"leaked out", leaving her with nothing.  The poem was roundly
condemned for various reasons.  One poster argued that it violated
fundamentals of Yiddishkeit including "Ein HKBH m'kapei'ach s'char kol
beryah" and the Mesillas Yesharim's statement that mitzvos and aveiros
don't cancel each other out.  Another poster cited the Chofetz Chaim's
statement that lashon hara can have a similar effect, although did not
know the source of this statement or whether it could be applied to
other sins.

A b'raissa on Sotah 21a states: Aveirah m'chabah mitzvah v'ein aveirah
m'chabah torah.  Rashi and Tosfos (DH V'hein) make it clear that this
clause of the b'raissa is dealing with s'char le-asid lavo (although
Tosfos wonders why the gemara later on seems to imply that it's
dealing with pur'anus in this world) .  Without sliding back into the
specifics of the poem, wouldn't this ma'amar appear to imply that it
would be possible for certain sins to erase one's mitzvos?

Joshua Meisner