Today's Learning Gittin 2:5-6 Sponsored by O.C. 258:1-259:2 Aaron & Rona Lerner Shevuot 42 in memory of his mother Yerushalmi--none Mrs. Fay Lerner A"H Bert Anker, Judy Gabel & Harvey Anker on the yahrzeit of their father Moe Anker A"H Rochelle Dimont & Chayim Dimont Sahra & Yale Ginsburg and family Yocheved & Jonathan Neuman and family in memory of husband and father, Rabbi Albert Dimont A"H Hamaayan/The Torah Spring edited by Shlomo Katz Yom Kippur Vol. IX, No. 52 (436), 10 Tishrei 5756, October 4, 1995 For many people, Yom Kippur is an unpleasant day, even a bother. Yet the gemara (end of Tractate Ta'anit) teaches that Yom Kippur is one of the two happiest days on the Jewish calendar. Why? Simply because it is the day of forgiveness. Imagine the joy that one who must stand judgment--whether for the smallest traffic violation or for a capital crime--must feel when he is freed. None of us is perfect; we have each committed at least a "traffic offense" and probably serious offenses such as lashon hara and inadvertent Shabbat violations (from lack of knowledge). Thus, the chance for forgiveness makes Yom Kippur a joyous day. Why must the process of obtaining forgiveness be so painful? Maharal (Netivat Ha'anavah ch.2) explains that when we weaken ourselves through fasting and standing in prayer, we lessen our ability to sin. This also demonstrates our desire to improve. Maharal adds that korbanot (animal sacrifices) provide atonement in a similar manner. Because so many sins arise from man's lust for money, taking a bit of that money and spending it on atonement is itself an act of contrition. ************************************ Rav Avraham Danzig zatz'l writes: Out of Hashem's love for His nation (for He desires to do kindness and does not wish that the "dead" die but rather that he return from his way and live), and not out of G-d's own need (for if you do right, what good is it to G-d?), but only in order to reward man in the end, G-d waits and actually looks for the return of the wicked. He has even given us an extended period of time, not one or two days, but the whole period from the beginning of the year, when the gates of teshuvah and forgiveness open, until the gates close at the end of Yom Kippur. The sin of one who does not repent and who does not increase his Torah study and good deeds in this period is great. [Ed. note: Rabbenu Yonah likens such a person to a prisoner who finds the cell door open but does not escape, thus demonstrating that he has no fear of his jailor. Surely the jailor will not take this insult lightly.] Therefore, each person must take care to strengthen himself for the task of teshuvah so that he will be pure and clean when the Holy Day (Yom Kippur) arrives, as it is written, "Before G-d you shall purify yourselves." And let a person not say, "I lay tefilin every day, I wear tzitzit, I daven and I say blessings, and certainly the scales will tip in my favor." Only a fool would say this, for how many bundles of sins does a person perform every day, especially through idle chatter and lashon hara?!. Many people make this mistake, i.e., thinking that repentance is required only for serious sins such as idolatry, adultery, murder, and transgressing the laws of Shabbat, but this way of thinking is complete folly. Indeed, Chazal say that lashon hara is more serious than idolatry, adultery, and murder, and they say that no one escapes from committing this sin in some degree. Other common sins are lying and taking false oaths, especially among businessmen who casually use the expression, "I swear to G-d, this is my best price." [Ed. note: This was written 200 years ago.] In addition, who can say that his prayers were said with the proper concentration? Other common sins [from the many listed by Rav Danzig]: humiliating others in public, speaking in a hurtful manner, taking interest, engaging in excessive frivolity, becoming angry, and discussing business on Shabbat. These are among the most common sins, even among those who study Torah assiduously. And greater than all of these is the failure to devote sufficient time to Torah study. (Chayei Adam 142:1) ************************************ The gemara says (Yoma 86b, in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Yehuda): "If a person sinned once, he is forgiven; a second time, he is forgiven; a third time, he is forgiven; a fourth time, he is not forgiven." Why, asks Rav Azaryah Figo zatz'l, didn't the gemara say simply, "The first three times he is forgiven, but not the fourth time"? He explains as follows: The gemara says: "Sins to which one confessed last year, he should not confess again this year. However, if he repeated the sin again this year, he should confess again." Would we think, asks Rav Azaryah, that a person should not confess for this year's sins? What is the gemara teaching us? Rather, the gemara means that if during the past year one repeated the sins of two years ago, this indicates that his repentance on the previous Yom Kippur was lacking. Once a person acknowledges his sins he must take extra care to guard against them so that he will not repeat them. Thus, if one repeated an old sin this year, he should confess again even for those old incidents for which he already confessed, because that first confession and teshuvah apparently was lacking. Even so, G-d's kindness is so great that He will forgive this sin again. Indeed, a second time man is forgiven (i.e., he is forgiven again for the sins for which he was forgiven last year but against which he did not guard himself), and even a third time he is forgiven (i.e., for the sins for which he repented twice already and failed during two years to guard himself). (Binah La'ittim) ************************************ We read in Tehilim (ch. 130, which we say every day from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur), "For forgiveness is with You so that You will be feared." Midrash Rabbah explains that Hashem could just as well forgive us on Rosh Hashanah, but he makes us wait until Yom Kippur so that we will feel fear of Him. Rav Shlomo Harkavi HY"D zatz'l explains further: The gemara says that the righteous and the wicked are judged on Rosh Hashanah while the benonim (in-between people) "hang and stand" until Yom Kippur. We commonly interpret this to mean that the benonim are in the same condition between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that they were in before Rosh Hashanah, i.e., they have not yet been judged. No, says Rav Harkavi, it is meant literally--"the benonim have their necks in the noose and they are standing on the gallows waiting for the lever to be pulled if they do not repent." And don't say, "I've survived the years until now; I'll get by again." When Lot fled from the city of S'dom he was able to survive in the neighboring town of Tzoar because that city was spared. Chazal say that that city was just as evil as S'dom, but was one year younger. One year of sin alone stood between safety and destruction. (Me'imrei Shlomo) ************************************ The gemara tells of a sage who used to bring an asham talui (the offering brought in the Temple when one is in doubt as to whether he sinned) every weekday, except on the day after Yom Kippur. On that day, he knew that his sins had been forgiven, and he did not need to bring the sacrifice. Interestingly, in the first shemoneh esrei following Yom Kippur, we do say the berachah, "Forgive us. . . because we have sinned. . ." Why is this necessary? Rav Yitzchak of Vorki explained with a parable of a king who walked through a field. A peasant saw him and kicked him. The king's guards wanted to kill the peasant, but the king said, "Let him be. He does not know who I am, or he would not have done such a thing. Instead, put him in school and teach him how to behave." So it is with us. Now that Yom Kippur has passed and we have reflected on G-d's greatness and we have come closer to Him, only now can we appreciate the magnitude of our past insults to G-d. Thus we say, "Forgive us . . . because we have sinned. . ." Perhaps we also are asking G-d to forgive the way we have just recited the first ma'ariv after Yom Kippur. ************************************ The Chafetz Chaim says: If you do not have the time to recite the entire prayer known as Tefilah Zakkah, please be sure to recite the following paragraph from that prayer: Because I know that there is hardly a righteous person in the world who never sins between man and his fellow, either monetarily or physically, in deed or in speech, therefore my heart aches within me because Yom Kippur does not atone for a sin between man and his fellow until one appeases his fellow ... Behold, I extend complete forgiveness to everyone who has sinned against me, whether physically or monetarily, or who has gossiped about me or even slandered me [one may add: except money that I wish to claim and can recover by halachah, and except for someone who says, "I will sin and he will forgive me"]. And just as I forgive everyone, so may You grant me favor in every person's eyes so that he will grant me complete forgiveness. ************************************ Donations to Hamaayan are tax deductible.