[Avodah] mei marom

[Zev Sero]

Eli Turkel wrote:
>> How does teshuvah earn OHB?  What did he *do* to earn it?  Where is
>> his life of torah and mitzvos?  Teshuva to get out of gehenom I
>> understand, but how does it earn OHB?  And yet for Rabbi Eliezer ben
>> Durdaia it worked, so much that he gets the title "Rabbi".

> With proper teshuva teshuva zedonot become zechiot. The whole point of
> the two stories of  Rabbi Eliezer ben Durdaia and the executioner of
> R Chanah be Tradyon is that one can indeed get a complete olam habah
> in one moment

Three stories.  Three *different* ways to get an instant "Go Directly
To Heaven" pass.

 
>>  He saw his opportunity and offered RChbT a deal.
> 
> How does RChbT have the power to make such deals?

He has more than enough credit to get someone in.  Tzadik gozer vHKBH
mekayem.


> I find it clear that the olam habah was earned by jumping into the
> fire and not just by removing the wool from RChbT

RChbT *promised* him OHB *before* he jumped in, and without any
inkling that he would do so.  So how can jumping in have changed
matters?  Suppose he hadn't, and had somehow managed not to be
executed for his "crime", and had lived a long life of wine,
women, song, and killing Jews.  When he died and showed up at
BD shel Maalah, clutching his "Get Out of Hell Free" card, what
choice would they have had but to honour it?  Could they leave
RChbT forsworn?


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