Repentance, Atonement and Nails

A Bag of Nails … a “deadly” reminder

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A mother once gave her daughter a bag of nails
and told her that every time she lost her
temper or insulted somebody she must hammer
a nail into the back of their fence.

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When Temper is Lost; a Nail is nailed to the Fence

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The first day the girl hit 14 nails into the fence.

Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control
her anger, the number of nails hammered daily
gradually dwindled.
She discovered it was easier to hold her temper
than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally, the day came when the girl didn’t
lose her temper at all. She told her mother
about it and the mother suggested that the girl
now pull out one nail for each day that
she was able to hold her temper.
The days passed.
Finally, she told her mother that all the
nails were gone.
The mother took her daughter by the hand
and led her to the fence.
She said, “You have done well, my daughter,
but look at all the holes in the fence.
The fence will never be the same.
When you say things in anger, they leave
a scar just like these.”

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Holes represent the Spiritual, Emotional and Physical “Wounds”

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You can put a knife in a person and draw it out.
It does not matter how many times you say I’m sorry;
the WOUND is still there.

A verbal wound is almost as bad as a physical one.

 “How can I repair the fence?” asked the girl.

“Will it have to remain damaged forever?”

“Yes and no” said the mother.
“Our Rabbis say that if the fence is alive and responds to the way
you have changed, it too can change and heal itself.
If the fence is dead to the possibility of your repentance it will
carry its scars onward. The fence will never be as it was before,
but it doesn’t have to become like new to be a good fence.
If you do your part and change, and the fence does its part in response,
God will do something wonderful. God will promote a healing that will
make you and the fence better.

This process is called Atonement.

It means that the changes that come about from repentance
and forgiveness lead people to higher levels of relationship
than was the case before.”
 

“What happens if the fence doesn’t respond?” asked the girl.
“Can I ever make it whole?”
“You should try on three different occasions,” said the mother,
“but if the fence remains dead even after you have changed,
YOU can’t force it to become whole.
In that case you should fix another fence somewhere else.

There are always lots of fences that need fixing, and whenever
you fix a fence God will make something wonderful happen.

That is the miracle of Atonement.

God always responds to our attempts to change by helping
us change and always responds to our change by giving us
new and wonderful opportunities for Atonement.
This is why we have a Day of Atonement ten days
after the beginning of every new Year;
so the New Year will be a better one than the last one.”

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as retold by Rabbi Allen S. Maller

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Moral :

Wars and Quarrels are mostly started by humans,
who are sinful by nature, they do not think deeply
about ramifications nor consequences of their verbal
or physical outburst that is spilled or acted out
in the moment of anger or jealousy.

In Proverbs 19:19,

King Solomon in his God given wisdom,
exemplified that
“A hot-tempered man MUST pay the penalty;
if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.”

That hot-headed man must realize and admit and change
his ways because nobody, not even God, can help him
if he does not TRULY AND HONESTLY REPENT of his ways!

 

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Her mother once gave her a bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper or insulted somebody she must hammer a nail into the back of their fence.The first day the girl hit 14 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence.