Igeres Hateshuvah Chapters 1–2

00:01 Speaker 1 Yes, chapter 1 of Igeres Hateshuvah. Let’s begin. Igeres Hateshuvah is the third part of Tanya. The Frierdiker Rebbe says that the four parts of Tanya correspond to the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch. Tanya is the Written Torah of Chassidus. Just as the Written Torah is the foundation of Jewish life, the foundation of all of Judaism, the foundation of the laws of how to conduct ourselves is the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch is divided into four parts, and correspondingly, Tanya is also divided into four parts. The first part of Tanya, Likkutei Amarim, is Orach Chaim. How should a Jew—what is a Jew’s way of life? The second part of the Shulchan Aruch is Yoreh De’ah: everything connected with the laws of nonkosher animals, holiness, what is prohibited and what is permitted. All of that belongs to the section dealing with Torah prohibitions. All the negative mitzvos—that is called Yoreh De’ah. So the second part of Tanya is Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, knowing Hashem. The third part of the Shulchan Aruch is Even Ha’ezer, all the laws relating to women. And the third part of Tanya, as the Rebbe explains, is teshuvah. Teshuvah means returning—the wife returning to her husband. It is like what we find in the Torah, although it may not sound like the usual order to us: first there was a divorce, and only afterward was there a marriage. First Hakadosh Boruch Hu expelled Adam from Gan Eden, and only afterward, at the giving of the Torah, was there a marriage. And in the Gemara, in the order of Nashim, Tractate Gittin comes before Tractate Kiddushin. Here too, spiritually, it is the same thing. For there to be a return through teshuvah, there is first the sin, and afterward the teshuvah and the marriage. So the third part of Tanya follows the order of Nashim. That is in general. More specifically, just as in the first two parts

02:23 Speaker 1 the Alter Rebbe transformed our whole understanding. There were several major innovations there in the way we understand the entire subject of the first part: what a Jew is, where he needs to get to, what his aspirations are, and what his way of life is. It presents a new perspective, the likes of which we had not seen before—or since. The same is true of the second part. So in the third part too, on the subject of teshuvah—even though teshuvah has been discussed by all the great Torah sages, from every perspective and in every generation—the Alter Rebbe has a great deal to add. His innovations are very fundamental and really bring order to the entire subject of teshuvah. The problem—I don’t know if I would call it a problem—is that when you ask Jews what teshuvah is, you get all kinds of answers. Teshuvah is atonement; teshuvah is fasting; teshuvah is self-affliction; teshuvah is regret; teshuvah is confession. There are all kinds of answers. What is teshuvah? The Alter Rebbe brings exemplary clarity to all these concepts. That is what he deals with throughout the first three chapters—1, 2, and 3. They are simply an explanation of teshuvah according to the revealed dimension of Torah. What is teshuvah? Only after we understand what teshuvah is, what all the other concepts are, and where each one belongs, does he begin, in chapter 4, to explain teshuvah according to the mystical dimension, the inner dimension of Torah. So first we begin by sorting things out, putting in order what teshuvah is. Chapter 1. “It was taught”—the chapters themselves are easy chapters. Not that... there aren’t any ideas in these first chapters that are difficult to understand. “It was taught at the end of Yoma”—that means Tractate Yoma in the Gemara—“There are three categories of atonement, and teshuvah accompanies each one.” There it is a baraisa, not “it was taught,” but that is not our concern,

04:26 Speaker 1 and it isn’t relevant right now. So the Gemara says there are three categories of atonement: three types of transgressions, each with a different kind of atonement, and each kind of atonement also requires teshuvah. In other words, the baraisa in the Gemara divides transgressions into three levels of severity and says that each has a different kind of atonement, but teshuvah is needed for all of them. In fact, the Gemara lists four categories of atonement, not three. The Alter Rebbe does not bring the fourth because it is not relevant to the subject of teshuvah. So the Gemara says the following—this is a direct quote: “If one transgressed a positive mitzvah” and “repented,” doing teshuvah, “he does not move from there before he is forgiven.” In other words, someone who fails to fulfill a positive mitzvah does not need atonement. He does teshuvah, and that is it. No further atonement is necessary. “If one transgressed a negative mitzvah and repented,” then here it says that teshuvah only suspends the punishment, while Yom Kippur atones. In other words, for a negative mitzvah, teshuvah alone is not enough; here atonement is needed as well. And that immediately raises a question. We know that when a positive mitzvah and a negative mitzvah conflict, what do we say? Which overrides which?

06:23 Speaker 2 The positive mitzvah overrides it.

06:23 Speaker 1 A positive mitzvah overrides a negative mitzvah, right?

06:26 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

06:26 Speaker 1 The classic example—you know this one, Ella?—the classic example they always give is the mitzvah of tzitzis. There is a mitzvah to make tzitzis from wool. And the techeiles thread—we don’t use a techeiles thread today, but the mitzvah of the techeiles thread is to make it from linen. So the mitzvah is to take a linen thread and use it to make tzitzis on a wool garment. That is the mitzvah. But it says, “You shall not wear shatnez, wool and linen together.” So on the one hand there is a mitzvah involving wool and linen, and on the other hand there is a prohibition elsewhere against wearing wool and linen together. Here are two mitzvos that conflict. You cannot fulfill both together. So what do you do? There are various situations like this. I can give another example. There is a mitzvah to perform a bris milah, and there is a negative mitzvah: if someone has tzaraas, it is forbidden to cut away the patch of tzaraas. You have to bring it to a kohen. What happens if, when they come to perform a bris milah on a baby, they discover a patch of tzaraas on the area that has to be cut? What do you do? There is a positive mitzvah and a negative mitzvah. So there is a rule: whenever two mitzvos conflict, the positive mitzvah overrides the negative one. You fulfill the positive mitzvah and set aside the negative mitzvah. Right? What would I understand from that at first glance? Which is more important?

08:12 Speaker 2 The positive mitzvah.

08:13 Speaker 1 The positive mitzvah. Otherwise, why would it override the other one? It is more important, so it overrides it. Right. But what did we learn here? We learned that if someone fails to fulfill a positive mitzvah, he does not need atonement. He does teshuvah, and that is it. For a negative mitzvah, teshuvah is not enough. He also needs atonement; he also needs Yom Kippur. Which is more severe? The negative mitzvah. Well, what do we do with that? Which is more important, the positive mitzvah or the negative mitzvah? The Rebbe explains this point in parentheses. After the parentheses, once he has explained this apparent contradiction, we return to the baraisa. So he explains it like this: “Meaning, although with regard to fulfilling a positive mitzvah, it is greater.” What is the proof? It overrides a negative mitzvah. Why? “This is because by fulfilling a positive mitzvah, one draws light and spiritual flow into the supernal worlds from a ray of the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He.” We already learned this at length in chapter 1 of the first part: when a Jew fulfills a positive mitzvah, he draws down supernal lights, G-dliness, and a revelation of G-dliness into the world. As it says in the Zohar, “The 248 commands”—the 248 positive mitzvos—“are the 248 limbs of the King.” Just as a person’s limbs draw the vitality of the soul into the body, mitzvos draw Divine vitality into the world. That is what positive mitzvos do. They also draw a revelation of G-dliness into his G-dly soul. As it says, “Who has sanctified us with His commandments.” How do we become holy? Through His commandments. So positive mitzvos draw light and revelation into the world and into the G-dly soul. Negative mitzvos do not draw anything down. He is not doing anything—how would he draw something down? Right. Negative mitzvos do not draw anything down. So it is quite understandable that when the two conflict, the negative mitzvah does not draw anything down. If we set it aside, we have not lost anything. Ah, but if I fulfill the positive mitzvah, I will be setting aside the negative mitzvah. Fine—so here, when I set aside the negative...

10:39 Speaker 1 Do it according to Torah, and I don’t cause any blemish, either. So I drew down the light and caused no blemish. That makes it clear why a positive commandment overrides a negative commandment. That much we understand. But why is atonement for a negative commandment harder? We haven’t seen that yet. Now, regarding teshuvah: Although he is forgiven the punishment for rebelling against His blessed sovereignty and failing to carry out the King’s command, nevertheless, the light is absent, and so on. Wait, wait, wait. A person neglected a positive commandment and did teshuvah. What happened? Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave him. He did teshuvah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is gracious and compassionate, abundantly forgiving, and He forgave him. But what about the light that was supposed to be drawn down? It wasn’t drawn down. The fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave him won’t change that. He forgave him; He pardoned him. Look, as we say, he spat and moved on. That’s it. The light wasn’t drawn down. Only a person’s action can draw down that light. He didn’t do the action. He asked for forgiveness. He asked nicely. Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave him, forgave him, forgave him. But what about the light? The light is absent. The reason there is no atonement for a positive commandment isn’t that it’s less serious. It’s that you can’t repair it. A negative commandment causes a blemish. Something I’ve damaged, I can repair. With a positive commandment, he hasn’t caused any blemish. There’s nothing to repair. No atonement will help here. He can do teshuvah; he can be forgiven. But there’s no atonement. In other words, the fact that there is no atonement for a positive commandment isn’t because of its, its, its lesser severity. Just the opposite. Right? It’s because you can’t repair it. Atonement won’t help. “Nevertheless, the light is absent,” and so on. As the Zohar says about the verse, “What is crooked cannot be made straight.” What does “What is crooked cannot be made straight” mean? That it can’t be repaired? It refers to someone who missed the evening Shema. Once in his life, he missed the evening Shema. He was

13:01 Speaker 1 tired, and it slipped his mind.

13:03 Speaker 3 What, but can you really make it up?

13:06 Speaker 1 Really, really.

13:08 Speaker 3 No, but isn’t there some... I don’t know. That’s how I remember it, but I’m not sure.

13:13 Speaker 1 …

13:13 Speaker 3 Yes, there’s something that—

13:16 Speaker 1 For a positive commandment? How?

13:19 Speaker 3 I don’t know. I think so.

13:22 Speaker 1 The whole concept of atonement, as the Rebbe explains very clearly here, concerns negative commandments. “And even if from now on he is careful to recite the evening and morning Shema forever, his teshuvah does not help to repair the one time he missed it.” When he comes the next day to recite the morning or evening Shema, that draws down the light for the next day. What about yesterday’s light? He can’t turn back time. “And one who transgresses”—so all of this concerns positive commandments. “And one who transgresses”—

14:06 Speaker 3 As long as the soul is still here, it’s as though things can be repaired, because we encourage the person.

14:10 Speaker 1 Yes, of course things can be repaired. A negative commandment can be repaired, and for a positive commandment a person can be pardoned, forgiven. And, as we’ll see later, he can even be cherished and accepted as he was before the sin. Yes, but that all concerns the relationship between the person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As for what he was supposed to accomplish, that’s it. It was a one-time opportunity. Every moment has its own task; every moment was created for a particular purpose. If he didn’t use that moment, it has passed. Afterward, it’s a different moment, a different drawing down of light. Frightening, isn’t it?

15:00 Speaker 3 Yes.

15:00 Speaker 1 But someone who transgresses a negative commandment—because evil attaches itself to his soul, he causes a blemish above, in the root and source from which his soul was hewn. What is the root and source from which his soul was hewn? The garments of the ten sefiros of Asiyah. As it says in Tikkunei Zohar—we recite this on Friday evening; that’s the Chabad custom—“You fashioned garments for them.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, You fashioned garments for the sefiros, “from which souls take flight to human beings.” The garments of the sefiros are the root of human souls. So because the soul’s root is in the garments of the sefiros, when a person commits a transgression, violating a negative commandment, it blemishes his soul, higher and higher, all the way to its root and source in the garments of the sefiros of Atzilus. Therefore, since he has caused a blemish reaching the garments of the sefiros, every transgression, even a minor one, even a violation of a rabbinic law, causes a small blemish. But he has caused a blemish, and that blemish affects the soul, and the soul is connected. It’s like a rope, connected all the way up. So even the smallest thing reaches up above. Therefore, there is no atonement for his soul or above until Yom Kippur. So it’s exactly the opposite. A positive commandment... In other words, when a person returns, when he does teshuvah for a transgression, for neglecting a commandment, for violating a negative commandment, he may be forgiven immediately, but the blemish hasn’t been repaired. Atonement means repairing the blemish. He may indeed be forgiven. He’s doing teshuvah. Why shouldn’t he be forgiven? That applies to the teshuvah, whether for a positive or a negative commandment. But even after he has been forgiven, the blemish remains until Yom Kippur. Why? Hakadosh Boruch Hu can repair the blemish through his teshuvah. Why not repair it for him right now? Why wait until Yom Kippur? So he explains: Regarding Yom Kippur, it says, “And he shall atone

17:24 Speaker 1 for the holy place because of the impurities of the Children of Israel and their transgressions”—all the things the Children of Israel do as transgressions, violating negative commandments. What atones for that? Yom Kippur. Why? Because of Yom Kippur it says, “Before Hashem you shall be purified”—specifically “before Hashem.” The name of Hashem, generally speaking, refers to the sefiros of the world of Atzilus. That is where he caused the blemish. To repair it, a light higher than the world of Atzilus, higher than the sefiros, has to be revealed. That happens only on Yom Kippur. So he can be forgiven. But for the blemish in his soul and in the higher realms to be repaired, he has to wait for that one day of the year when that point is revealed, far, far above the very essence of G-dliness. Only then is the blemish filled in—provided he has done teshuvah.

18:27 Speaker 4 And what does that blemish mean?

18:35 Speaker 1 I’m not a great expert in spiritual matters, but I know that when... I know that when a mixer breaks, you have to call a technician to fix it. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.

18:48 Speaker 4 But it affects the person. You told me that.

18:50 Speaker 1 Of course it affects the person.

18:52 Speaker 4 And you have to go back and put it right.

18:59 Speaker 1 We’ve spoken a lot about dullness of the heart, dullness of the soul, dullness of the mind, about impurity, distracting thoughts, all kinds of coarse physicality and materialism—all sorts of things that pull a person... how shall I put it, take him away from G-dliness and pull him toward this world. When a person blemishes his soul, G-dliness cannot be revealed there. So prayer will be harder for him, and perhaps he won’t be able to awaken his heart, and perhaps he’ll have more distracting thoughts. He’ll be drawn to forbidden things. I can’t identify every blemish precisely and in detail. I can’t explain it in detail, but that’s the general idea. “Therefore, there is no atonement for his soul or above until Yom Kippur.” “And he shall atone for the holy place because of the impurities of the Children of Israel and their transgressions,” for “before Hashem you shall be purified”—specifically “before Hashem.” Therefore, one must not learn from this any leniency, G-d forbid, regarding positive commandments, especially Torah study. So the fact that it says in the baraisa we brought here that someone who violated a positive commandment and returned—well, that teshuvah seems very easy: he does teshuvah and is forgiven immediately. For a negative commandment, the teshuvah is harder. Don’t infer from this that positive commandments can be treated lightly. This is no basis for leniency. On the contrary, the reason atonement seems easier here is precisely because the matter is so serious: it can’t be repaired. Hmm?

20:36 Speaker 5 The exact opposite of what you’d think.

20:36 Speaker 1 The opposite of what you’d expect. On the contrary, this is—the Alter Rebbe puts it the other way around. It’s connected to Purim, too: turning things around. On the contrary, our Sages said: Hakadosh Boruch Hu overlooked idolatry, forbidden relations, and bloodshed—the three most severe transgressions, for which one must give up one’s life rather than transgress. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, as it were, “That I can live with,” but He did not overlook neglect of Torah study. Because those are prohibitions, while Torah study is a positive mitzvah. Even though those transgressions carry the penalties of kareis and death by a court, Hakadosh Boruch Hu was prepared to overlook them, but He did not overlook neglect of Torah study. That is a positive mitzvah; that cannot be overlooked. So here the parentheses explaining the question end, and he returns to the beraisa. So far we’ve discussed two categories of atonement, right? Transgressing a positive mitzvah and transgressing a prohibition. The third category: transgressing offenses punishable by kareis or death by a court. If someone committed such offenses, teshuvah and Yom Kippur together only hold the punishment in abeyance, and suffering that comes upon the person cleanses him—completes the atonement. Even Yom Kippur together with teshuvah is still not enough. “Completes the atonement” means that it finishes the atonement, because there is already atonement. Yom Kippur does have an effect, and teshuvah does have an effect, but only suffering completes the atonement. The word for “cleanses” suggests scouring and washing: polishing the soul so that there is not merely atonement, but the soul is as spotless as it was before the sin. For “atonement” means wiping away the stain of sin. As it says—how do we learn that suffering only completes the atonement? From the verse, “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with afflictions.” That is the end of the beraisa. So we have three categories of transgressions. For neglecting

22:57 Speaker 1 a positive mitzvah, teshuvah alone is enough; nothing more needs to be done. With prohibitions there are two types... Yes, atonement is needed and is possible, and therefore one needs atonement. But there are two distinctions within that. For the less severe transgressions, Yom Kippur atones and repairs the damage, provided there has been teshuvah. For the more severe transgressions, one also needs, uh...

23:25 Speaker 5 Suffering.

23:25 Speaker 1 Suffering that comes upon the person as well. Right, sorry. “Now, the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is merely abandoning the sin.” These words contain the great innovation of the whole Igeres Hateshuvah. Everyone says that teshuvah consists of all the things we mentioned earlier. The Alter Rebbe says: We must draw a distinction, a sharp distinction, between teshuvah and atonement. Atonement is not teshuvah, and the difference between them is as great as can be. Teshuvah concerns the future; atonement concerns the past.

24:15 Speaker 5 …

24:17 Speaker 1 Atonement means repairing the sin. Teshuvah means returning to a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Alter Rebbe places them on opposite sides. That is the foundation—the foundation of the explanation. So it follows that the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah, on a Torah level—what is its essence? Abandoning the sin. He has left the sin behind. The moment a person abandons the sin and resolves in his heart, “That’s it,” what happened before is no longer the issue. Afterward, atonement is also needed for teshuvah to be complete, because complete teshuvah does include repairing the sin. But that is only the completion of teshuvah, not its essence. The essence of teshuvah is merely abandoning the sin. “As stated”—and since this really sounds like an innovation, the Alter Rebbe says: No, it is already written elsewhere. Where? In the Gemara, chapter 3 of Sanhedrin, and in Choshen Mishpat, the end of section 34, concerning testimony. There are several places where the Rebbe explains why the Alter Rebbe specifically cites this matter. But the main point mentioned there is this: When a person commits a transgression and becomes disqualified from giving testimony, when does he become qualified again? They do not demand any atonement, suffering, or fasting from him there. Nothing. The moment we know he has done teshuvah, he becomes qualified to testify again. Now, since we are flesh and blood, we do not know what is in a person’s heart. So someone who has been disqualified from testifying and wants to testify before a beis din has to come before the beis din and say, “I have done wrong, I have sinned, I have transgressed, I did such and such, and I undertake not to do it again.” Once he makes that commitment before the beis din and confesses, we assume he has done teshuvah. We accept him, and he becomes qualified to testify again.

26:35 Speaker 1 Or suppose someone participated in lotteries—gambled, right? Once he breaks his gambling slips, the things he uses for those games, then, okay, we believe that he has done teshuvah. But that is only because we do not know what is in his heart; we are flesh and blood. In truth, from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, the moment he does teshuvah—this is conclusive proof that whereas the Torah previously called him wicked, now the Torah calls him righteous. Nothing else is needed, no atonement—only abandoning the sin. Meaning that he resolves wholeheartedly never again to return to his folly and rebel against His blessed sovereignty, and never again to violate the King’s commandments, G-d forbid. The moment he resolves in his heart that he will no longer rebel against Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he has done teshuvah. That’s it. He has already fulfilled the main mitzvah of teshuvah, the essence of teshuvah. And here the Alter Rebbe adds a few words that, when you think about them, add another layer of depth to the mitzvah of teshuvah: He will not violate the King’s commandments, G-d forbid, “whether positive commandments or prohibitions.” Whoa, what happened here? Excuse me. He committed a particular transgression, right? What are we demanding of him? When do I know you have done teshuvah? When you resolve in your heart that you will never commit that transgression, or any other transgression, and that you will not neglect a positive mitzvah either... Whatever transgression a person committed, even the lightest transgression, even one involving a rabbinic ruling—when is he considered to have done wholehearted teshuvah? When he undertakes not to rebel against Hashem’s sovereignty at all.

28:53 Speaker 6 In any matter, or—

28:54 Speaker 1 In any matter, ever. Doing teshuvah is not just doing teshuvah for that particular transgression. That is what it says here.

29:04 Speaker 6 Not like children who promise they won’t do something, and then it depends—

29:07 Speaker 1 Yes, but it has to be genuine. If the person later fails to keep his commitment, that is a separate matter. The fact that he promised and genuinely wanted to change does not mean his yetzer hara was uprooted at that moment. But his resolve must be genuine. And it is teshuvah only when his genuine resolve is never again to rebel or fail in any positive mitzvah or prohibition. Why? What is the logic? It’s very simple. What caused the person to transgress? A spirit of folly.

29:55 Speaker 6 Desire.

29:56 Speaker 1 Casting off the yoke. He does not feel that Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over him. If he felt awe of Hashem, if he felt himself standing before the King, if he felt the yoke of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s sovereignty upon him all the time, he would not have stumbled into sin. The Alter Rebbe says that his failure in this particular transgression is only a symptom. He happened to stumble here. The problem is not the particular transgression. The problem is that he cast off the yoke. So it will not help us—it will not help him—to do teshuvah just for this particular matter. That is not where the problem lies. The problem is casting off the yoke. Therefore, for any transgression a person commits, he must do teshuvah for his whole approach, his outlook—whatever you want to call it—for having cast off the yoke with regard to all positive mitzvos and prohibitions. “And this is the primary meaning of the word teshuvah: to return to Hashem with all one’s heart and all one’s soul, to serve Him and keep all His commandments.” But how can you say such a thing? Demand that for every little thing, each person take upon himself the entire Torah? The Alter Rebbe says: It’s a verse, as it is written, “Let the wicked abandon his way.” The wicked person does not merely need to abandon his transgressions, his deeds. He needs to abandon his way—the path that led him to that transgression. “And the man of iniquity his thoughts; and let him return to Hashem.” So what is teshuvah? Teshuvah means that a person must correct his way, his path, and return to Hashem. In Parshas Nitzavim, too, there is a verse: “And you shall return to Hashem your G-d and heed His voice.” Does it say anything here about atonement, suffering, remorse, confession? Nothing. “And you shall return to Hashem and heed His voice”—that is teshuvah. “With all your heart,” and so on. “Return, Israel, to Hashem your G-d.” “Bring us back to You, Hashem,” and so on. In all the verses that speak about teshuvah, there is no—there is no... That’s it. Teshuvah.

32:13 Speaker 1 Nothing else is written there. And contrary to popular belief, teshuvah does not mean fasting. Even someone who committed sins punishable by kares or death at the hands of the court, whose atonement is indeed completed through suffering—and we said this earlier, yes—that means Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings suffering upon him, not that he brings suffering upon himself. As it says, “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with afflictions.” “I will visit”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu will bring suffering upon him. That is, when he returns to Hashem with all his heart and soul, out of love, his teshuvah is accepted before Him. Then, through an awakening from below—as water reflects a face, and so on—Hakadosh Boruch Hu will act kindly toward him out of His great love and bring him severe suffering to cleanse him of his sins, or even mild suffering. It is an awakening from Above, arousing Hashem’s love and kindness to cleanse his sin through suffering, not for him to bring suffering upon himself. If a person did things he should not have done, and afterward felt very sorry about them and truly did complete teshuvah, and then different kinds of suffering came his way, he needs to accept it with joy. He needs to know that it comes from Hashem’s love. It isn’t easy. As it says, “For Hashem rebukes the one He loves.” So whom does Hashem rebuke? Someone who has done genuine teshuvah.

33:53 Speaker 7 Because suffering is the third stage in...

33:56 Speaker 1 It, it, it is the atonement for serious sins—those punishable by kares or death at the hands of the court. G-d forbid, these aren’t... These aren’t sins people commit routinely, day to day. But, but. So it’s talking there about sins involving, involving, involving forbidden relations, idol worship, idolatry... sins. Baruch Hashem, we don’t encounter those so much among us, baruch Hashem. So now we understand why neither the Rambam nor the Semag mentions fasting at all in the mitzvah of teshuvah. They wrote legal rulings—the Rambam has his Laws of Teshuvah, and the Semag discusses it too—and fasting isn’t mentioned there. Even for sins punishable by kares or death at the hands of the court, they don’t write that a person must fast to atone for his soul. No, there’s no such thing there. What do they write? Confession and a request for forgiveness, as it says, “They shall confess their sin,” and so on. Now that really raises a question: why confession, yes? Earlier we said—this is already a new point. This is something that doesn’t quite fit what we said before. At the beginning we said that teshuvah... We need to distinguish between teshuvah and everything else. Teshuvah concerns the future, and everything else is atonement for the past. Here he suddenly adds something we didn’t have before: confession. And the Rambam and the Semag do write about confession. What is confession? You’re saying it isn’t teshuvah, and it isn’t atonement either, but it, it—yet it is necessary. So, so what does it do? Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came to be. The Alter Rebbe doesn’t, doesn’t, doesn’t explain this here. What is explained about this is that every sin a person commits has a body and a soul. When a person regrets it and returns with a whole heart, that destroys the soul of the sin. But the body, the spiritual body of the sin,

36:20 Speaker 1 still exists. A soul can be nullified with a soul, but a body can only be nullified with a body. When a person makes a verbal confession, the movement of his lips counts as an action, and the words he says—“I have sinned, I have acted iniquitously, I have transgressed”—those words destroy the body of the sin. So although confession is not part of the essence of teshuvah, it does belong to the completeness of teshuvah. In other words, confession doesn’t belong to... It does belong to teshuvah, not to atonement. But even within teshuvah itself there are two, two things: the essence of teshuvah and the completeness of teshuvah. The essence of teshuvah, teshuvah itself, is the... the inner feeling, the decision. And confession is the completeness of teshuvah: destroying the body of the sin as well. If so, how does that fit with the explicit verse in the Book of Yoel? “Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and weeping.” So the Book of Yoel says that the teshuvah Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks of the Jewish people involves fasting and weeping. Not just weeping, but fasting too? That isn’t what we learned. Right? What is this fast? The Alter Rebbe says: No, it was to annul the decree that had been issued to cleanse the sin of that generation through the suffering caused by locusts. There was a decree to cleanse the sin of the generation, the generation, through suffering caused by locusts. The fast annuls the decree. It does not atone for the sin that was committed. It annuls the decree concerning what will happen. So here too, in this verse, the fast is not about atonement, about correcting the past. It is only about annulling a future decree. And that is the reason for all the fasts observed in response to any trouble that may, G-d forbid, come upon the community: to annul a decree issued against the generation, not to correct the sins. As it says in the Megillah of Esther, yes, “Fast for me”—to annul Haman’s decree. And as for what is written in the works of mussar... Still, still, you could ask: what about what is written in the works of mussar, foremost among them

38:52 Speaker 1 Sefer Rokeach, Rokeach, and Sefer Chassidim, prescribing many fasts and acts of self-denial for someone who committed a sin punishable by kares or death at the hands of the court? It says explicitly that someone who commits such a sin needs to undertake fasts—so many fasts, and so on and so forth. It explicitly says that this is part of the matter. How can you tell me it isn’t? The same applies to emitting seed in vain, which is punishable by death at the hands of Heaven. There, too, it prescribes 284 fasts, and so on. As it says in the Torah regarding Er and Onan, in this respect his status is like that of someone who committed a sin punishable by kares, and he needs to fast. That is what Sefer Rokeach and Sefer Chassidim say, and they knew what they were talking about. So the Alter Rebbe explains that this is in order to be spared suffering as a punishment from Above. It is not for atonement, only to be spared the suffering. It doesn’t help with atonement. And also to hasten and speed the completion of his soul’s atonement—that is already a second reason. Yes? And perhaps a third reason as well: perhaps he has not returned to Hashem with all his heart and soul out of love, but only out of fear. If he imposes fasts and acts of self-denial on himself, that will awaken fear in his heart. So... there are a number of reasons and explanations one could give for why Sefer Rokeach and Sefer Chassidim prescribe so many fasts. In any case, whatever the reason, it is not to correct the past. It is not atonement. So that is chapter one. In chapter one, the Alter Rebbe puts things in order: what teshuvah is and what atonement is. Teshuvah concerns the future—returning to Hashem. Atonement concerns the past—repairing the damage caused by the sin. That is chapter one. In the second chapter, which we will study next time, with Hashem’s help, the Alter Rebbe brings up fasts again, at much greater length. There he says that nevertheless, despite what we said here—that fasts have nothing at all to do with atonement—there is a certain aspect of fasting that does relate to atonement. And the central explanation will follow the same pattern as the relationship between

41:11 Speaker 1 confession and teshuvah: just as teshuvah has its essence and its completeness, atonement also has its essence and its completeness. Fasts have nothing to do with the essence of atonement, but for the completeness of atonement, fasts are needed.

41:32 Speaker 8 To speed it up, huh?

41:33 Speaker 1 Huh?

41:33 Speaker 8 To speed it up.

41:34 Speaker 1 Yes, we’ll see that in the next chapter—what, what, what the difference is between the essence of atonement and its completeness.

41:40 Speaker 8 We’ll see if we can do it quickly.

41:42 Speaker 1 I told you, these are short, easy chapters. At least the first three. After that it starts to get, uh...

41:49 Speaker 8 All right.

41:49 Speaker 1 This is nigleh, this is nigleh. There’s no, no, no, no Chassidus here. It’s an introduction so we can understand what we’re talking about.

41:56 Speaker 8 Good.