Repentance as (Re)Interpretation

Reish Lakish said: Teshuvah is so great that his [the penitent's] willful sins become for him like involuntary infractions, as it says "Return oh Israel to Hashem your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity" -- it says 'avon,' and yet it refers to it as a mere stumbling block! But that can't be right, as Reish Lakish said: Repentance is great, for intentional sins are made for him into virtues, as it says (Ezekiel 33:19), "And when the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby." This is no contradiction: the one case involves teshuvah from love, the other from fear.

(3) Anyone that regrets the mitzvot that he did, and hedges on his merits, and says in his heart "And what value is in them being done? I wish I had not done them." Lo! He loses all of them and they are not mentioned on his behalf ever again, as it says, "The righteousness of the righteous [man] will not save him on the day of his wickedness" (Ezekiel 33:12). This [verse] refers only to the regret of previous actions.

(6) Even though teshuva and crying out are desirable all year, on the ten days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, they are more desirable, and are immediately received, as it says: "Seek out G-d and you will find him. Call to him, and he will be close." This is talking about someone who is doing teshuva alone. But if someone if doing teshuva as part of a quorum, anytime that they do teshuva with a full heart, they are answered, as it says, [For what great nation is there, that has God so near to them,] as the Lord our God whenever we call to Him (Deuteronomy 4:7).

R. Yohanan said: Great is Teshuvah, for it can rend a person's decree. As it says: ...Rav Papa said to Abaye: Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and understanding with their heart, return, and be healed.' R. Papa said to Abaye: But perhaps that is only prior to the decree? He responded: it says, "and be healed." What requires healing? One would say: a decree.

It was objected: One who repents in between [Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur], he is forgiven. If he does not repent, even with all the Nevayot rams in the world he won't be forgiven. This is no contradiction: The one refers to an individual, the other to the community.

R. Levi said: Great is Teshuva in that it reaches to the Throne of Glory, as it says: "Return oh Israel to Hashem your God.

(2) The scapegoat sent off [on Yom Kippur], since it is an atonement for all of Israel, the High Priest does the confession on it using language inclusive of all of Israel, as it says (Leviticus 16:21), And he shall confess on it all the sins of the people of Israel. The scapegoat sent off [on Yom Kippur] atones for all the sins in the Torah, the light ones and the heavy ones [see next law], whether transgressed intentionally or unintentionally, whether it is made known or not made known - all are atoned through the goat that is sent off. That is, if repentance is done [for them]. But if repentance wasn't done, the goat only atones for the light ones. What are "light ones" and what are "heavy ones"? The heavy ones are sins that have the obligation of death by court, or excision [by heaven]. And false or vain oaths, even though they do not have excision [karet], are of the heavy ones. And the rest of the negative commandments, and the positive commandments which do not have excision - those are the light ones.

(5) When a person weighs his sins against his merits, he should not calculate a sin sinned once, nor twice, but only [when sinned] thrice and on. If the sins done three times or more are found to be greater than his merits, then those sins [done once or twice] are added to it and he is judged on all of them. And if it turns out that his merits are equal to his sins that were transgressed from the third time onwards, all of his sins are forgiven one at a time, such that the third transgression is considered the first [to be up for forgiveness], since the [first] two were already forgiven. And so [too] the fourth, behold it is [now] the first [in line], since the third was forgiven. And so [on], until their end. To what does this refer? To an individual, as it says, Behold, all these things the Power does, twice, thrice, with a man (Job 33:29). But with the group, He suspends the first, second and third sin, as it says, For three transgressions, but for four I will not return it (Amos 2:6). And when it is calculated for them upon this way, it is calculated [only] from the fourth sin and onwards.

(11) One who separates from the ways of the community – even though she has not committed sins but only broke away from the community of Israel and does not do mitzvot together with them, does not participate in their troubles, and does not fast on their fast days – but instead goes about her business like a member of the Nations of the Land, as if she was not one of them: she has no portion in the World to Come.

(2) Five of them are things that lock the path of teshuvah before those who commit them, and they are: (1) Someone who separates from the community – because at the time when they do teshuvah she will not be with them and will not merit to be included in the good deeds they do.

(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, (2) and you return to the LORD your God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. (4) Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you. (5) And the LORD your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers. (6) Then the LORD your God will open up your heart and the hearts of your offspring to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live. (7) The LORD your God will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you. (8) You, however, will again heed the LORD and obey all His commandments that I enjoin upon you this day. (9) And the LORD your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in the issue of your womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the LORD will again delight in your well-being, as He did in that of your fathers, (10) since you will be heeding the LORD your God and keeping His commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching—once you return to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. (11) Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. (12) It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” (13) Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” (14) No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.

The first and greatest question of them all, which has occasioned an intense struggle among contemporary scholars in the kingdom of Aragon, concerns the issue of the covenant and the words of Scripture "I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but with those who are standing here with us on this day and with those who are not with us here this day."

For who gave authority to the desert generation whose feet stood at Sinai to obligate those succeeding them by proclaiming "We will faithfully do, and to bring them [the following generations] into the covenant of the Lord, may He be blessed, their God, or to impose upon them an oath which will never be annulled? How could they obligate the following generations to comply with the entire Torah and the covenant they established, causing them to be liable for punishment?

These rules apply to the laws, decrees, regulations, and customs, introduced after the canonization of the Talmud. However, all matters mentioned on the Babylonian Talmud are binding to all Israelites. We force all cities and all countries to follow all customs followed by the Talmudic sages, and to uphold their decrees and their regulations.

[That is] because all these matters in the Talmud were agreed upon by all Israel, and the sages who regulated or decreed or made a custom or judged and taught that the law is such and such, are all the sages of israel or their majority, and they are the ones who received the whole transmission, person from person, all the way to Moshe at Sinai.

But the whole of the Torah is to be analogized from!

(3) Anyone who confesses verbally and does not commit in his heart to abandon [sin], this is like a person who immerses [in a purity pool] while holding an unclean creature in his hand, so that the bath is not effective until he sends away the unclean creature, and so it says, One who admits and abandons is given mercy (Proverbs 28:13). And he must specify the sin, as it says, This nation has sinned a great sin and made a golden god for themselves (Exodus 32:31).