Mishneh Torah, Repentance 6

Sugya Map: The Mechanics of Divine Hardening

• Core Issue: Reconciling Bechirah Chofshit (Free Will) with biblical accounts of God hardening hearts (e.g., Pharaoh, Sichon).
• Nafka Mina: Is Teshuvah an absolute right, or a privilege that can be revoked by Divine Justice?
• Primary Sources: Hilkhot Teshuvah 6:1–3; Sifrei Ki Teitzei (on Deut. 24:16); Isaiah 6:10.

Text Snapshot

"כשיחטא אדם... והדין נותן שיפרע מזה החוטא על חטאו... שתמנע ממנו התשובה... כדי שימות ברשעו שחטא" (6:3).

• Nuance: Rambam shifts the paradigm from God forcing sin to God withholding the opportunity for repentance. The dikduk of "ימנע ממנו התשובה" (withheld from him) implies that the sinner’s own prior, unrepentant choices created the din (legal obligation) to block the path back.

Readings

• Seder Mishnah: Explains that the punishment of children for parents' sins (6:1) is not "punishment" in the retributive sense, but an extension of the parent's kinyan (property). He bridges this to Ir HaNidachat, arguing that God’s justice treats the sinner’s possessions (including children) as collateral.
• Ohr Sameach: Cites Midrash Rabbah (Bo 13) to address the "heretics' opening" (pithon peh l'minim). He clarifies that God first warns the sinner; only after repeated, willful rejection does God "lock" the heart. The hardening is not the cause of the sin, but the consequence of a pattern of rebellion.

Friction

• Kushya: If God blocks Teshuvah, hasn't He effectively removed the sinner's Bechirah (free will)?
• Terutz: Rambam (6:3) argues that the sinner already exercised their Bechirah to commit the sin. The withholding of Teshuvah is the judgment for the past act, not a decree against the future. The path to truth was open; the sinner chose the path of "fatness of heart."

Intertext

• Sifrei (Ki Teitzei): "אבות מתים בעון עצמם ובנים מתים בעון אבותם"—this is the mekor for Rambam’s ruling on children.
• Psak/Practice: This informs the meta-halachic heuristic of Middah K’neged Middah. In pastoral or judicial counseling, we recognize that habitual sinning creates a "hardened" psychological state that mimics the metaphysical state described here.

Takeaway

• Teshuvah is not merely a psychological reset; it is a grace that can be forfeited.
• The ultimate danger of sin is not the act itself, but the potential to lose the capacity to return.