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Loading the player… ולכן לא הזכירו הרמב״ם והסמ״ג שום תענית כלל במצות התשובה, אף בכריתות ומיתות בית דין It is for this reason that the Rambam and Sefer Mitzvot Gadol34 make no mention whatever of fasting as related to the mitzvah of repentance, even in the case of sins punishable by excision or capital sins. […]

Loading the player… Repentance, as the Alter Rebbe explained in the opening chapter, is in no way synonymous with fasting for a sin that one has committed; repentance merely entails abandoning the sin for all time. This is so even with regard to transgressions — those punishable by excision or by execution — whose atonement […]

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Loading the player… ועכשיו שאין לנו קרבן להפיק רצון מה׳, התענית הוא במקום קרבן, כמו שכתוב בגמרא: שיהא מיעוט חלבי ודמי שנתמעט כאלו הקרבתי לפניך כו׳ Today, when we have no offerings to call forth G‑d’s pleasure, fasting replaces the offering. As the Talmud says, that the prayer of one who is fasting is:7 “May […]

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Loading the player… Though fasting is not at all necessary for attaining atonement, it was explained above that nevertheless it has a salutary effect as a substitute for the olah offering. In Temple times this sacrifice was offered (even) for transgressing a positive command, in order to make the former offender once again acceptable and […]

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Loading the player… אכן כל זה באדם חזק ובריא, שאין ריבוי הצומות מזיק לו כלל לבריאות גופו, וכמו בדורות הראשונים However, all this4 applies to the strong and robust, whose physical health would not be harmed at all by repeated fasts, as in the generations of yore. אבל מי שריבוי הצומות מזיק לו, שאפשר שיבוא […]