Can We Avoid Suffering? The Surprising Answer of Rabbeinu Yonah

According to the Rambam, even after a person sincerely regrets their actions, confesses, and commits not to repeat them, certain serious transgressions require an additional stage for complete atonement: suffering. The hardships and trials a person experiences can complete the process.

But does that mean a person must simply wait for suffering to arrive?

Rabbeinu Yonah, in Shaarei Teshuvah, explains that a person does not have to passively wait. There are mitzvot that can help protect a person from suffering and advance the process of atonement. In his words: “He should prepare his heart to perform mitzvot that protect from suffering.”

What are they?

1. Charity and Acts of Kindness

Rabbeinu Yonah gives several examples: visiting the sick, burying the dead, comforting mourners, and bringing joy to a bride and groom.

What these mitzvot have in common is that they require us to turn our attention toward other people. A person gives their time, energy, emotion, and sometimes money in order to help someone else.

Suffering, by its nature, can force a person outside their normal routine. It disrupts life and requires them to confront circumstances they would never have chosen.

Acts of kindness can also take us beyond ourselves, but through choice rather than pain. A person willingly steps outside their private world, gives of themselves, and focuses on the needs of another.

Referring to the Torah’s most serious categories of transgression, including those that historically carried karet or a court-imposed death penalty, Rabbeinu Yonah writes:

“If a person transgressed sins punishable by karet and by court-imposed death and repented, since the sin is not atoned for without suffering, for repentance suspends and suffering cleanses, he should prepare his heart to perform mitzvot that protect from suffering.”

2. Torah Study

Rabbeinu Yonah places Torah study at the top of his list of protective mitzvot, and his practical advice is remarkably straightforward: do more.

If a person is accustomed to studying one chapter a day, they should study two. If they usually study one portion, they should study two. In other words, spiritual growth does not necessarily require turning your entire routine upside down. It can begin by increasing something that is already part of your life.

Rabbeinu Yonah describes two ways Torah study can protect a person from suffering.

First, “Torah study is equal to them all.” The tremendous value of Torah study gives it a unique place among the mitzvot that can protect a person.

Second, there is value in the effort itself. The concentration, persistence, and sacrifice involved in serious Torah study can themselves contribute to the process of atonement. Rabbeinu Yonah even refers to the sleep a person gives up in order to devote themselves to learning.

He writes:

“And above them all is the mitzvah of Torah study for the sake of Heaven... If he was accustomed to reading one chapter a day, he should read two chapters; if he was accustomed to reading one portion, he should read two portions. Torah protects him from suffering in two ways: first, because our Sages said, ‘Torah study is equal to them all.’ Second, because he applies himself to Torah and labors in it, and the sleep that wanders from his eyes counts for him in place of suffering.”

Teshuvah Does Not Have to Be Passive

There is an encouraging message in Rabbeinu Yonah’s teaching. A person is not necessarily passive in the process of teshuvah, simply waiting to see what happens next.

There are meaningful actions a person can take. By increasing Torah study and devoting more of themselves to kindness and mitzvot, they can actively deepen their teshuvah and, as Rabbeinu Yonah teaches, protect themselves from suffering.

Instead of waiting for difficulty to push us toward growth, we can choose to make the effort ourselves.