The Yom Kippur Discussion Group for 5767 will meet on Monday at 4pm
Ben Newman will be leading a discussion of the following texts (and songs). Read them in advance, and come ready with comments...

1) Pitchu li sh’arei tzedek avo vam odeh yah (2x), zeh ha-sha’ar la-donai tzaddikim yavo’u vo (2x)
פתחו לי שערי צדק אבא בם אודה יה, זה השער ליי' צדיקים יבאו בו


2) Im nin’alu daletei nedivim, daletei marom lo nin’alu (2x), El Chai meromam me-al keruvim kulam be-rucho ya’alu (2x), chayot she-hen ratzo va-shovim mi-yom beriah nichlelu (2x)

אם נינעלו דלתי נדיבים דלתי מרום לא נינעלו, אל חי מרומם מעל כרובים כולם ברוחו יעלו, חיות שהן רצוא ושובים מיום בריאה נכללו
Texts:

זוהר ויקרא חלק ג דף סט ע"א-ב :

תנינן בשעתא דברא קב"ה עלמא למברי בר נש אמליך באורייתא אמרה קמיה תבעי למברי האי בר נש זמין הוא למחטי קמך. זמין הוא לארגזא קמך אי תעביד ליה כעובדוי הא עלמא לא יכיל למיקם קמך כ"ש ההוא בר נש א"ל וכי למגנא אתקרינא (שמות לד) קל רחום וחנון ארך אפים. ועד לא ברא קב"ה עלמא ברא תשובה אמר לה לתשובה אנא בעינא למברי בר נש בעלמא על מנת דכד יתובון לך מחוביהון דתהוי זמינא למשבק חוביהון ולכפרא עלייהו. ובכל שעתא ושעתא תשובה זמינא לגבי בני נשא וכד בני נשא תייבין מחובייהו האי תשובה תבת לגבי קב"ה וכפר על כלא ודינין אתכפיין ומתבסמאן כלהו ובר נש אתדכי מחוביה. אימתי אתדכי בר נש מחוביה בשעתא דעאל בהאי תשובה כדקא חזי...

Zohar Vayikra Section 3, 69a-b:

“We have learnt", he said, “that when God was about to create man, He consulted the Torah and she warned Him that he would sin before Him and provoke Him. Therefore, before creating the world God created Repentance, saying to her: ’I am about to create man, on condition that when they return to thee from their sins thou shalt be prepared to forgive their sins and make atonement for them.’” Hence at all times Repentance is close at hand to men, and when they repent of their sins it returns to God and makes atonement for all, and judgement is suppressed and all is put right. When is a man purified of his sin? R. Isaac said: "When he returns to the Most High King and prays from the depths of his heart, as it is written, ’From the depths I cried unto thee’." R. Abba said: "There is a hidden place above, which is ’the depth of the well’whence issue streams and sources in all directions. This profound depth is called Repentance, and he who desires to repent and to be purified of his sin should call upon God from this depth. We have learnt that when a man repented before his Master and brought his offering on the altar, and the priest made atonement for him and prayed for him, mercy was aroused and judgement mitigated and Repentance poured blessings on the issuing streams and all the lamps were blessed together, and the man was purified from his sin.”


רמב"ם משנה תורה הלכות תשובה ב"
(א) אי זו היא תשובה גמורה זה שבא לידו דבר שעבר בו ואפשר בידו לעשותו ופירש ולא עשה מפני התשובה לא מיראה ולא מכשלון כח כיצד הרי שבא על אשה בעבירה ולאחר זמן נתייחד עמה והוא עומד באהבתו בה ובכח גופו ובמדינה שעבר בה ופירש ולא עבר זהו בעל תשובה גמורה הוא ששלמה אמר וזכור את בוראיך בימי בחורותיך ואם לא שב אלא בימי זקנותו ובעת שאי אפשר לו לעשות מה שהיה עושה אף על פי שאינה תשובה מעולה מועלת היא לו ובעל תשובה הוא אפילו עבר כל ימיו ועשה תשובה ביום מיתתו ומת בתשובתו כל עונותיו נמחלין שנאמר עד אשר לא תחשך השמש והאור והירח והכוכבים ושבו העבים אחר הגשם שהוא יום המיתה מכלל שאם זכר בוראו ושב קודם שימות נסלח לו:


1) Repentance is completed when an opportunity to commit one's original transgression again arises but one doesn't and repents instead, but not if the reason for repenting was that someone was watching or because of physical weakness. For example, if one copulated in sin with one's wife, and then later one had another opportunity to do it again but didn't, then even though one may still love her and she may be in perfect physical health and was even in the same country [when the opportunity arose], one has repented completely. Solomon said, "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near when you shall say, `I have no pleasure in them'". If one repented only one's old age, or at a time when one can no longer commit the original sin, then it is not the best type of repentance, but it is to his advantage and is nevertheless repentance. Even if one sinned throughout one's life but repented on one's dying day and died atoned, then all one's sins are forgiven, as it is written,"...before the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain", which refers to the day of one's death. The general rule is that one is forgiven provided one repented before dying.

From the Tractate Yoma, pp. 85a-85b (Trans. from Emanuel Levinas, Nine Talmudic Readings) :

Mishna: The transgressions of man toward God are forgiven him by the Day of Atonement; the transgressions against other peo¬ple are not forgiven him by the Day of Atonement if he has not first appeased the other person.

Gemara: Rabbi Joseph bar Helbe put the following objection to Rabbi Abbahu: How can one hold that faults committed by a man against another are not forgiven by the Day of Atonement when it is written (1 Samuel 2): "If a man offends another man, Elohim will reconcile." What does Elohim mean? The judge. If that is so, then read the end of the verse: "If it is God himself that he offends, who will intercede for him?" Here is how it should be understood: If a man commits a fault toward another man and appeases him, God will for¬give; but if the fault concerns God, who will be able to intercede for him? Only repentance and good deeds.

Rabbi Isaac has said: "Whoever hurts his neighbor, even through words, must appease him (to be forgiven), for it has been said (Proverbs 6:1-3) "My son, if you have vouched for your neighbor, if you have pledged your word on behalf of a stranger, you are trapped by your promises; you have become the prisoner of your word. Do the following, then, my son, to regain your freedom, since you have fallen into the other's power: go, insist energetically and mount an assault upon your neighbor (or neighbors)." And the Gemara adds its in¬terpretation of the last sentence: If you have money, open a generous hand to him, if not assail him with friends.

... Rab Yose bar Hanina has said: Whoever asks of his neighbor to release him should not solicit this of him more than three times, for it has been said (when, after the death of Jacob, Joseph's brothers beg for forgiveness): "Oh, for mercy's sake, forgive the injury of thy brothers and their fault and the evil they did you. Therefore forgive now the servants of the God of your father their wrongs" (Genesis 50:17).

. . . Rab once had an altercation with a slaughterer of live¬stock. The latter did not come to him on the eve of Yom Kippur. He then said: I will go to him myself to appease him. (On the way) Rab Huna ran across him. He said to him: Where is the master going? He answered: To reconcile with so and so. Then, he said: Abba is going to commit murder. He went anyway. The slaughterer was seated, hammering an ox head. He raised his eyes and saw him. He said to him: Go away, Abba. I have nothing in common with you. As he was hammering the head, a bone broke loose, lodged itself in his throat, and killed him.

Rab was commenting upon a text before Rabbi. When Rab Hiyya came in, he started his reading from the beginning again. Bar Kappara came in-he began again; Rab Simeon, the son of Rabbi, came in, and Rab again went back to the beginning. Then Rab Hanina bar Hama came in, and Rab said: How many times am I to repeat myself? He did not go back to the beginning. Rab Hanina was wounded by it. For thirteen years, on Yom Kippur eve, Rab went to seek forgive¬ness, and Rav Hanina refused to be appeased.

But how could Rab have proceeded in this manner? Did not Rab Yose bar Hanina say: Whoever asks of his neighbor to release him must not ask him more than three times? Rab, that is altogether different.

And why did Rabbi Hanina act this way? Didn't Raba teach: One forgives all sins of whoever cedes his right? The reason is that Rabbi Hanina had a dream in which Rab was hanging from a palm tree. It is said: "Whoever appears in a dream, hanging from a palm tree, is destined ,for sover¬eignty." He concluded from it that Rab would be head of the academy. That is why he did not let himself be appeased, so that Rab would leave and teach in Babylon.

An Excerpt from Levinas’ Commentary:

Let us evaluate the tremendous portent of what we have just learned My faults toward God are forgiven without my depending on his good will God is, in a sense, the other, par excellence, the other as other, the absolutely other-and nonetheless my standing with this God depends only on myself. The instrument of forgiveness is in my hands. On the other hand my neighbor, my brother, man, infinitely less other than the absolutely other, is in a certain way more other than God: to obtain his forgiveness on the Day of Atonement I must first succeed in appeasing him. What if he refuses? As soon as two are involved, everything is in danger. The other can refuse forgiveness and leave me forever unpardoned. This must hide some interesting teachings on the essence of the Divine!

How are the transgressions against God and the transgressions against man distinguished? On the face of it, nothing is simpler than this distinc¬tion: anything that can harm my neighbor either materially or morally, as well as any verbal offense committed against him, constitutes a transgres¬sion against man. Transgressions of prohibitions and ritual commandments, idolatry and despair, belong to the realm of wrongs done to the Eternal. Not to honor the Sabbath and the laws concerning food, not to believe in the triumph of the good, not to place anything above money or even art, would be considered offenses against God. These then are the faults wiped out by the Day of Atonement as a result of a simple contrition and peniten¬tial rites. It is well understood that faults toward one's neighbor are ipso facto offenses toward God.

One could no doubt stop here. It could be concluded a bit hastily that Judaism values social morality above ritual practices. But the order could also be reversed. The fact that forgiveness for ritual offenses depends only on penitence-and consequently only on us-may project a new light on the meaning of ritual practices. Not to depend on the other to be forgiven is certainly, in one sense, to be sure of the outcome of one's case. But does calling these ritual transgressions "transgressions against God" diminish the gravity of the illness that the Soul has contracted as a result of these transgressions?


Perhaps the ills that must heal inside the Soul without the help of others are precisely the most profound ills, and that even where our social faults are concerned, once our neighbor has been appeased, the most diffi¬cult part remains to be done. In doing wrong toward God, have we not undermined the moral conscience as moral conscience? The ritual transgres¬sion that I want to erase without resorting to the help of others would be precisely the one that demands all my personality; it is the work of Teshuvah, of Return, for which no one can take my place.

To be before God would be equivalent then to this total mobilization of oneself. Ritual transgression-and that which is an offense against God :n the offense against my neighbor-would destroy me more utterly than the offense against others. But taken by itself and separated from the im¬piety it contains, the ritual transgression is the source of my cruelty, my harmfulness, my self-indulgences. That an evil requires a healing of the self by the self measures the depth of the injury. The effort the moral conscience makes to reestablish itself as moral conscience, Teshuvah, or Return, is simultaneously the relation with God and an absolutely inter¬nal event.
There would thus not be a deeper interiorization of the notion of God than that found in the Mishna stating that my faults toward the Eternal are iorgiven me by the Day of Atonement. In my most severe isolation, I obtain forgiveness. But now we can understand why Yom Kippur is needed in or¬der to obtain this forgiveness. How do you expect a moral conscience af¬fected to its marrow to find in itself the necessary support to begin this progress toward its own interiority and toward solitude? One must rely on the objective order of the community to obtain this intimacy of deliverance. A set day in the calendar and all the ceremonial of solemnity of Yom Kippur are needed for the "damaged" moral conscience to reach its intimacy and reconquer the integrity that no one can reconquer for it. This is the work that is equivalent to God's pardon. This dialectic of the collective and the intimate seems very important to us. The Gemara even preserves an ex¬treme opinion, that of Rabbi Judah Hanassi, who attributes to the day of Yom Kippur itself-without Teshuvah-the power to purify guilty souls, so important within Jewish thought is the communal basis of inner rebirth. Perhaps this gives us a general clue as to the meaning of the Jewish ritual and of the ritual aspect of social morality itself. Originating communally, in collective law and commandment, ritual is not at all external to conscience. It conditions it and permits it to enter into itself and to stay awake. It pre¬serves it, prepares its healing. Are we to think that the sense of justice dwelling in the Jewish conscience-that wonder of wonders-is due to the fact that for centuries Jews fasted on Yom Kippur, observed the Sabbath and the food prohibitions, waited for the Messiah, and understood the love of one's neighbor as a duty of piety?...

Stories from the Ethical Kabbalah:

The Anonymous Penitent
The virtue of anonymity in repentance.

In the days of the Ari-may his memory be for a blessing for the life of the world to come-there was one man, a penitent, who from time to time would go to the synagogue after midnight clad from head to toe in sackcloth so that people might not recognize him. And he would turn his face toward the wall,' standing there half the night' and all the following day until midnight, praying, pleading, and weeping. Only after midnight when everyone was asleep would he leave the synagogue to go home, and absolutely no one knew who he was.
The Rabbi (the Ari) used to say that this certainly exemplifies complete and perfect repentance.' For repentance and almsgiving are on the same level: Just as almsgiving is most perfect when done in secret, so is repentance when it is done in a clandestine manner. And such secrecy is beneficial in that the other side is unable to prevail over the penitent to make him depart from the ways of repentance.

Hemdat yamim, Yamim noraim 48b

The Ari and the Penitent
A man guilty of a grave sin is prepared to die as his way of atonement. His very readiness to die atones for his past.

In the days of the Rabbi (the Ari)-may his memory be for a blessing for the life of the world to come-it happened that a rich person came to him with the purpose of testing his knowledge. The Rabbi told him that he had seven abominations in his heart and disclosed to him all the details of the transgressions that he had committed. The Rabbi also told the wealthy man that he had had sexual relations with his maid. The man acknowledged all his transgressions without embarrassment, denying only his having had intimate relations with his maid. This he would not acknowledge until the Rabbi told him, "Now you will see me produce that accursed one in your presence." And the Rabbi placed his hands upon that man and produced the maid's image and likeness, a harlot and a scoundrel, and the man recognized her and declared, "She is more righteous than I"
His soul almost departed as he fell at the Rabbi's feet saying, "I have sinned and have clearly transgressed." And the Rabbi-may he rest in peace-restored his soul to him. Then the man cried with a bitter voice, crying and pleading before the Rabbi, "Just remove this death from me!" He answered, "This is yours in order that you will know that the sages said in truth that one who has [illicit] intimate relations with a non-Jewish woman will be bound with her like a dog even in the world to come.' She is bound to you and will depart only with great repentance and acts of rectification." The man responded, "Behold, I am prepared to accept even the four deaths imposed by the court." Then the Rabbi answered him, "Your penance is through burning."
As the man heard this, he took out money from his pocket to purchase wood with which to burn himself. The Rabbi told him that his judgment was not like that of the other nations, for according to Jewish law it was necessary to throw a boiling lead wick into the mouth.' And the man answered, "Whatever happens, I shall die." The Rabbi then ordered that lead be purchased, and they brought it and placed it upon the fire. The Rabbi told him to recite the confession [viddui] of one dangerously ill. And he did so.
He told him, "Throw yourself to the ground." And he lay down on the ground. He said to him, "Stretch out your hands." And he stretched them out. "Close your eyes." And he closed them. "Open your mouth." And he opened it. The Rabbi immediately threw into his mouth various kinds of sweets that he had on hand for the occasion and said to him, "Your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned. The Lord has removed your sin. You shall not die."
And the Rabbi raised him from the ground and wrote for him acts of tikkun for his soul. As part of the acts of penance he commanded him to read each day five pages from the Zohar, even though the man told him that the Lord had withheld this wisdom from him and that he was totally unfamiliar with it. Nevertheless he commanded him to read, even without understanding, in order to mend his soul. And that man died in a state of complete repentance. (Hemdat yamim, Yamim noraim 5b-6a)




Baal Shem Tov Stories:

Your Own Sins
BAAL SHEM TOV WAS ONCE IN A CERTAIN TOWN WHERE HE MET A PREACHER who was constantly inveighing against the evil inclination that leads people to the gates of hell. "Tell me," the Besht asked him, "how do you know so much about the ways of the evil inclination, when you've never committed any sins of your own?" The preacher was puzzled. "How do you know that I haven't sinned?" "My friend," said the Besht, "if you have sinned, then first rebuke yourself. Don't go on making a long list of other people's sins."'
The Stolen Harness
THE BAAL SHEM TOV WAS ONCE ABOUT TO BEGIN A JOURNEY, BUT SINCE IT / was the evening for blessing the new moon, he delayed his departure from Medzibuz until nighttime. He told his attendant to have the horses harnessed to the coach and ready to travel, so that he could leave as soon as he returned from the syna¬gogue. The attendant did as he was told, getting the horses' equipment, harnessing the horses to the coach, and bringing the coach out to the front of the house.
Then, the Baal Shem Tov, accompanied by one of his disciples, left his house to go recite the new moon blessing with the congregation. As they began walking down the street, the disciple wanted to turn around to look back, but the Besht told him not to, saying, "Don't look. Someone is stealing the harness from the horses." The disciple was surprised at the Besht's words and even more surprised at his explanation, which followed. "He's stealing because he needs money for Sabbath expenses." So they went on to the synagogue and out in front of the synagogue, on the street, they blessed the new moon with the congregation.
When they were walking back and nearing the house, the Besht's attendant had just discovered that the harness was missing and began to shout, "Who stole the harness?" But the Besht hushed him, saying, "Don't shout! The thief pawned it with a certain person. Take this money"-he handed him a specific sum-"and go to him and redeem it. And don't publicize the matter."
The holy Baal Shem Tov judged the thief favorably, for good-that he was stealing for his Sabbath expenses. Later that day, the Besht reached the town to which he was traveling. And between Minha and Maariv he taught his disciples there about judging others favorably. He said, "I once made a soul-ascent and saw the angel Michael, the great heavenly intercessor for Israel, defending the Jewish people by arguing that all their vices in money matters, such as cheating in business, were really virtues, because



all their lowly acts were done in order to be able to serve God-to have money to make a shidduch (marriage-connection) with a Torah scholar or to give tzedaka and so on. From Michael," said the Besht, "I learned how to defend the Jewish people before the heavenly court."
"Earlier today in Medzibuz, I saw a thief stealing something from me. I didn't try to stop him and told myself that he was stealing for his Sabbath expenses. It might seem farfetched to say that the thief was stealing, so to speak, for the honor of the Sabbath. But why did God-who created everything for a purpose-give us the ability to be illogical? The answer is: So we could justify the faults of others. Most of us twist logic to justify our own behavior, but we should actually use our irrationality only to justify others.
"Never speak ill of any Jew, or when the Satan accuses him, he'll call you to be his witness. When the Satan accuses a Jew before the Throne of Glory, his single accusa¬tion is not accepted as true, because the Torah says: `According to two witnesses shall the matter be established.' Therefore, the Satan waits until he can find a partner to defame the person. If you have to mention a particular person when condemning some bad trait, say explicitly that you're not talking about the person himself, but just about his bad trait.

Arousing an Accusation Above
1( DURING THE PRAYERS ONE ROSH HASHANAH, THE SNUFF BOX OF ONE OF the Baal Shem Tov's disciples fell to the ground, whereupon he picked it up and sniffed the tobacco. This disciple, like some others at that time, used snuff to keep alert and increase his concentration while praying. But another disciple was annoyed at seeing this and thought, "How can he interrupt in the middle of the prayers and sniff tobacco?" This tzaddik's annoyance aroused an accusation in heaven and caused a heavenly decree that the man he criticized die that year.
The Besht saw all this with his holy spirit and made a soul-ascent to defend the accused before the heavenly court, "How can a punishment of death be decreed for such a minor transgression?" But none of his arguments succeeded and he could not cause the decree to be annulled. As a result, the Besht was upset and troubled.
On Hoshanna Rabba*, he made another soul-ascent, and he argued and complained and cried out, until he achieved by his prayer that if the accuser himself found a justifi¬cation for his comrade, the decree would be ripped up and the other disciple par¬doned. The Besht then entered his belt midrash, and found the accusing disciple sitting reciting the Hoshanna Rabba Tikkun. By mystical means, the Baal Shem Tov removed the disciple's power of concentration so that he could no longer recite the tikkun with d'vekut! He then got up and began to walk around thinking about various matters, such as, "Why did divine providence arrange for snuff and smoking tobacco to be introduced into Europe in recent generations?" It occurred to him that certain souls were only able to meditate and concentrate with the help of tobacco. When he thought this, he regretted having been critical of his fellow disciple, who had been sniffing tobacco while praying.
Now, on Hoshanna Rabba, the Baal Shem Tov's custom was to answer questions of all sorts. And this day he was in a very good mood and was answering questions put to him by his disciples. This disciple asked him, "Why was tobacco introduced in recent generations?" "What do you think?" replied the Besht. The disciple told him what he had thought. Then the Besht asked him why he had been thinking about this. The dis¬ciple remembered, and told him how he had been critical of his comrade and had onlynow found a justification for what he had done. The Besht knew that because the accuser had repaired the damage by finding an excuse, the decree was nullified. He then revealed to the disciple what had happened and told him the danger his fellowdisciple had been in because of his judgmental attitude and his critical thoughts. The Besht went on to rebuke him severely about this and warned him not to judge another person, saying, "When you see someone acting badly, don't judge him, because it arouses an accusation against him in heaven. Judge others favorably, and then you too will be judged favorably.”
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