[Avodah] mei marom

[Zev Sero]

Eli Turkel wrote:
> Yitzchok Adlerstein wrote:
>> I've been trying to introduce a friend of mine to Mei Marom. Someone
>> recently presented him with a few of the sefarim, and he came back to
>> me scratching his head. He found himself in perek 10 of Urie Veyishi,
>> and takes the mechaber to mean, in the words of my friend, that even
>> after "Tshuvah Me'Ahavah, a person still needs to be purged of his
>> sins in Gehenom.  The Baal Teshuavh will enjoy the pain however,
>> because of the realization of the ultimate benefit."

> In the story with R, Chananiah ben Tradyon his executor who helped
> him and then leaped into the fire was "muzman" to the next world.
> RYBS insists that in fact he received the same olam habah as R. Chananiah
> ben Tradyon.  Doesnt sound like he went to hell.

I don't see how this is relevant, though.  His Olam Haba was not the
result of teshuvah, but rather a reward from RChbT for helping him
("tzadik gozer, veHKBH mekayem").  IOW he got it despite his sins,
not because they had been wiped away.  The same applies to the miracles
performed for the goy who saved R Meir; it's not that he was some kind
of tzadik, but that R Meir gave him this gift despite his remaining a
rasha.   In our case, though, we're talking about the process by which
sins are wiped away, and a rasha becomes a tzadik who *deserves* OHB,
not as a gift but as his just desert; the question is whether teshuvah
me'ahava is capable of doing this all on its own, or only together with
yisurim.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher