The Rambam says there (1:1), “If a person is forced to give a divorce it is invalid. Even if he was forced to say ‘I’ll do it – rotzeh ani’ it’s nevertheless considered forced and is invalid.” Later, (2:20) he says that if a person is halachically required to divorce his wife and he refuses to divorce her, then beis din can use physical force. They hit him until he says “rotzeh ani” and then the divorce is valid.
Why isn’t this considered forced and invalid? He explains, “One is not considered forced unless it is to do something that he is not required to do by the Torah… However, one whose yetzer hara is overpowering him not to do a mitzvah or to do an aveirah and he is forced to do the mitzvah or not to do the aveirah, it is not considered forced. Rather he was trying to compel himself with his evil ways to do the opposite of what he really wants.
“Therefore, this man who [is obligated but] doesn’t want to divorce his wife, really wants to be part of Klal Yisroel –he wants to do all the mitzvos and refrain from the aveiros and it’s just his yetzer hara which is overpowering him. When he is hit until his yetzer hara is weakened and he says, ‘I will do it,’ that is considered divorcing by his own volition.”
However, Rav Chaim (Shaar 4:24) discusses the situation of one who dismisses and completely denigrates the Torah. One who does this loses his entire chelek in the World To Come. Rav Chaim establishes a rule that when the Torah says the punishment of kareis once, it refers “only” to a part of his soul being cut off, but if it says “hikareis tikareis,” a double language, as it does regarding (Bamidbar 15:31) “Dvar Hashem Bizah – he has degraded the word of Hashem,” then it is discussing his totality and he loses his olam habah entirely. Of course, teshuva can still rectify even such a grave sin.
The upshot from all this is clear. No matter what we have done in the past, there is always hope for the future – as long as we don’t cut off all ties with Hashem
And these are some of the happenings in this week’s haftarah.