Blameless Teshuva–A Teaching for Yom Kippur

Blameless Teshuva

based on R. Tsadok HaKohen, Tsidkat HaTsadik 43

• If one violated a positive commandment (מצוות עשה) and repented (עשה תשובה), they are forgiven immediately.
• If one violated a [minor] negative commandment ((מצוות לא תעשה, one that doesn’t carry karet or death penalty as its consequence, repentance [aka apology] suspends the punishment, and the [five afflictions of] Yom Kippur complete the atonement.
• If one committed a grave sin incurring karet or capital punishment, repentance and Yom Kippur suspend the punishment, and the sufferings of life (ייסורין) complete the atonement.
• If one committed a sin that desecrated God’s name (חילול השם), nothing suffices but repentance, Yom Kippur, and suffering together—and even then, death is required for complete atonement. [TB Yoma 86a–b]

One can extrapolate from this Talmudic teaching that there are two levels of psyche involved in a sin and affected by it. There is a) an accountability debt (basically the extent to which one should have known better and could have refrained) and b) the existential fact of the deed itself (the physiological impact it has on the nerve net). These two elements affect the soul independently and differently as indicated by the different atonements prescribed for each one.

Teshuva, as presented in rabbinic writings entails three tasks (plus another two if the wrongdoing harmed people, and not just the Shekhina.)[1]  These three steps are:

1)     confession (vidui), 2) remorse (charata), and 3) resolve not to repeat the sinful deed (kabbalat ha’atid).

The additional two tasks are 4) recompensing any damage done and 5) securing forgiveness from the person who was harmed.

In Summary:

Confession—I did this. I behaved in a way that violated spiritual law and brought darkness, constriction and harm to my soul and to the world

Remorse—I feel terrible that this misdeed was perpetrated by me. I am pained by the harm I’ve done and the damage I’ve caused.

Resolve not to repeat—I commit myself to doing whatever I must to prevent a repeat of that depravity.

Now focusing on step two—remorse:

The Talmud, above, presents the sin of neglecting a positive commandment, as an example of an accountability debt that caused no callousing of the nerve-net for there was no wayward action performed. And so the teshuva entails a simple acceptance of accountability—a [sincere] apology—but there is no penance necessary to scour the soul.

The reverse is also possible. It could happen that there is no accountability debt, for the person was effectively, forced into it. The compulsion could be literal, psychological, or circumstantial.

It could be (G-d forbid) a literal knife to one’s throat. Or it could be that given the reality of one’s life, family system, life circumstances, limited field of awareness, emotional hangups, strengths and weaknesses that there was just no way for them to avoid that sin. For example, someone trained since the age of three to pick pockets.

Or it could be circumstantial. For example a Jew who was born into a non-observant home and who didn’t even know that lighting a fire on shabbat (on Saturdays) was a cardinal sin.

In such cases, the rabbis invoke a verse from Psalms, “What a setup [HaShem] foisted on human beings… נורא עלילה על בני אדם.[2] The heavenly verdict would be, “No Blame”…but, nevertheless, there was wrong action.  In ignorance, or coercion, one committed a sin, meaning they served as the instrument through which a deed was perpetrated that caused soul damage and darkened the world instead of enlightening it. There is still teshuva to be done, even though there is “no blame.” For, there is nothing in those three steps of teshuva that requires one to say, “I did this, and I could have done differently.”

Sometimes the accountability is part of the teshuva, and sometimes it is not. The “teshuva without blame” could be something like, “I did this, and although I could not have done differently I still participated in actions that insulted the Torah and spurned  G‑d’s will. I am pained by the hurt it caused, whether to myself, to others, and/or to the Shekhina.

And because there was “wrong action,” the teshuva will require some scouring. That is just the existential fact of things: physical actions engrave the nerve net via the mechanism of structural coupling.[3] Wrong actions leave dullness in their wake. Scouring restores one’s spiritual sensitivities.  Yet, under these “no-blame” circumstances, HaShem will surely administer the soul-cleansing as gently as possible for He knows that the accountability debt rests with him. נורא עלילה….

The Talmud acknowledges this mystery of accountability in its teaching tale where, in the course of their dialogue, HaShem diminishes the moon and then acknowledges that very act as the breach that allowed evil into the world. The story ends with HaShem calling for us to bring a sin-offering for Him, for His misdeed (so to speak) of insisting that the moon grow small.[4]

I bring this teaching for two reasons: 1) It testifies to the Talmud’s remarkable capacity to hold the complexities of life and truth. And 2, I bring it in our Jewish season of teshuva because there are so many people agonizing over sins in which they were simply accessories to someone else’s misdeed, or coerced in one way or another. It hurts them to be forced to accept accountability when it really, truly wasn’t their fault.

גמר חתימה טובה