The Epistle on Repentance: Chapter 01 – Part 4 – video

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The Epistle on Repentance: Chapter 01 – Part 3 – audio
The Epistle on Repentance: Chapter 01 – Part 4 – audio

The Beraita with which this chapter opened is now resumed:

עבר על כריתות ומיתות בית דין, תשובה ויום הכפורים תולין, ויסורים ממרקין

If one commits a sin [punishable by] excision or execution, repentance and Yom Kippur are tentative, so that the individual is not punished, and sufferings scour

(פירוש: גומרין הכפרה, והוא מלשון מריקה ושטיפה, לצחצח הנפש

(15i.e., they complete the atonement. [The verb] memarkin denotes the final stage, namely, scouring and rinsing, in order to “polish” the soul,

כי כפרה היא לשון קינוח, שמקנח לכלוך החטא)

for kaparah (“atonement”) is the term for the preceding stage of cleaning, removing the uncleanness of the sin),

Sins punishable by excision or execution are not cleaned away through repentance and Yom Kippur alone: the soul must also be scoured and rinsed through suffering, heaven forfend.

שנאמר: ופקדתי בשבט פשעם, ובנגעים עונם

as it is written,16 “With a rod shall I remember their sin, and with afflictions their iniquity.”

עד כאן לשון הברייתא

Thus far the Beraita with which this chapter opened.

והנה מצות התשובה מן התורה היא עזיבת החטא בלבד

Now the mitzvah of repentance17 as required by the Torah is simply the abandonment of sin

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