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Yom Kippur 5772Volume 8 · Issue 5
Lifeline
Thus, on a deeper level, there are essentially two causes for the forgiveness of sin. Let us first explore the simpler process. Indeed, repentance and forgiveness in general require contemplation. How are we to understand them? When one sins, one has already transgressed the Will of God. Where is there room to negate it? What can happen?
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Behaaloscha 5773Volume 9 · Issue 31
Impetus of Prayer
But the question of the Talmud is specific to wisdom. The answer cannot be that it is like everything else. There is one universal solution and wisdom is attained in the same manner as repentance, intellect, forgiveness, livelihood, healing, and all other requests of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer.
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Shoftim 5773Volume 10 · Issue 1
Blurring the Lines
Indeed, our masters, the earlier commentators, speak of repentance as an escape. Rabbeinu Yonah begins his work Gates of Repentance with this. In his very first words, he states, “And of the great kindnesses that HaShem Yisbarach performed with His creations is that He prepared the way for them
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Tazri'a Metzora 5747Volume 13 · Issue 27
Catalyst of Summer
In the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, no reality is created without prior causes. And the creation of the future reality is caused by repentance. This is true even according to Rabbi Yehoshua. But if the world was created in Tishri, there is no room for any actualization without preceding causes. Nothing is created from end to beginning—the end always comes after the beginning
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Ki Savo 5746Volume 17 · Issue 4
Passport to Life
The month before the High Holidays is a time of reflection and repentance. At first glance, it seems to have no significance of its own, only in anticipation of the approaching Days of Judgment and Atonement. To prepare for these Fearsome Days, it is necessary to dedicate the preceding month to examining all our past deeds, identifying where we fell short in serving the Creator, and mending our ways.
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Rosh Hashanah 5757Volume 18 · Issue 4
Mercy in Judgment
The partnership of mercy only affects the way the judgment is carried out. It promotes forbearance to facilitate repentance and it enables the punishment to be administered gradually instead of all at once. But in the end, after all these differences, payment is in full, to the last penny—and even any fraction thereof.
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Korach 5765Volume 1 · Issue 17
Self-Sufficiency: The Antithesis of Being
Of Repentance and of Infants
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Ki Sisa 5760Volume 20 · Issue 23
Governance of Unity
alive and well. A covenant was forged with them that whenever we recite them in our prayers of fasting, they would not be turned away unanswered (Rosh Hashanah 17b, Rashi). They are our Yom Kippur, all our days of repentance, and all the days of our pleas for forgiveness.
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Nitzavim-Vayelech 5769Volume 6 · Issue 2
Rosh Hashanah: True Individuality
“It also does not say that they would return to Him with complete repentance, only that they would confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors (v.40), and we find the people of the Second Temple doing this, as Daniel confessed (Daniel 9:5-8), “We have sinned, and we have transgressed
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Emor 5773Volume 9 · Issue 27
Ultimate Concession
undeserving—if he is but truthful. He realizes that he is being fed his own flesh; he is consuming his world. If he perceives this correctly, it can transform him; it can inspire him to complete and true repentance.
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Shoftim 5774Volume 11 · Issue 1
Signposts of the Torah
The Talmud (Megillah 17b) discusses the order of the middle blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer and asks, “Why does the blessing of understanding precede the blessing of repentance and the blessing of pardon?” The Talmud answers that it follows the wording of the aforementioned verse, “And his heart understands and he repents, and he is healed,” meaning pardoned.
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Yom Kippur 5775Volume 11 · Issue 5
Seal of Life
The Arizal states in most explicit terms—nothing could be more explicit—that on Yom Kippur, even the intermediates are sealed for life. Throughout the Ten Days of Repentance, they hang in the balance (Rosh Hashanah 16b). When Yom Kippur arrives, what is sought of them is not that they become righteous; they continue to be intermediates. The three books that were opened on Rosh Hashanah remain three books
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Terumah 5752Volume 15 · Issue 21
Doubled Month
Leah’s sons, however, are repentant. Her son Reuven was the first to initiate repentance—when he discovered his brother gone from the pit, he returned to his sackcloth and fasting (Bereshis 37:29; Rashi; Bereshis Rabbah 84:19). And her son Yehudah was named after concession, hodaah, which is the concept of repentance (Bereshis
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Shemos 5756Volume 17 · Issue 16
Key to the Future
Formidable Repentance
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Nitzavim-Vayelech 5756Volume 18 · Issue 3
Keeping the Covenant
that My anger may flare against them and that I may annihilate them” (Shemos 32:10). In this season, we are accepting the Torah after Moshe Rabbeinu ascended Mount Sinai for 120 days and pleaded, and God accepted the repentance and prayers and agreed to rescind the terrible decree.
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Rosh Hashanah 5762Volume 23 · Issue 5
Celebration of Judgment
The Rambam cites this in these words. “On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there is no Hallel for they are days of repentance and fear and trepidation, not days of excessive joy” (Hilchos Chanukah 3:6).
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Emor 5768Volume 4 · Issue 29
Struggle of Majesty
The reason King David was originally not meant to have a lifespan is that his essence of being was to establish the Pillar of Repentance. The Talmud reinterprets the verse said of him (Avodah Zarah 5a; Shmuel II 23:1), “The words of the man who was established on high (hukam ahl),” as, “the words of the man who established the yoke (haykim ulah),” referring
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Vayigash 5769Volume 5 · Issue 12
Deciding our Faith
…ower of deed like Esav and we accepted to go and do immediately (cf. Sha’arei Teshuvah 2:10). There is no deliberation, no hesitation at all. We accepted. Our subsequent acceptance to hear meant that we would perceive the words…
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Naso 5771Volume 7 · Issue 31
Innovating Creation
We are unfamiliar with such absolute atonement. In general, what atones for sins is repentance, but never to this extent. One form of repentance transforms intentional sins into unintentional sins of various degrees, even to the point of considering them coerced. Another form of repentance transforms intentional sins into merits (cf. Yoma 86b). But repentance that
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Vayechi 5746Volume 13 · Issue 16
Linked to our Roots
…scepter from between his feet.” And King David is the one who established repentance. Of him, it says (Shmuel II 23:1), “The words of the man who was established ahl, on high.” The sages read the word ahl as ohl,…
