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.
I.e., fasting is not required even with regard to those sins whose atonement is completed through suffering.
רק הוידוי ובקשת מחילה, כמו שכתוב בתורה: והתודו את חטאתם וגו׳
They cite only confessing [verbally] and requesting forgiveness; as the Torah prescribes,35 “They shall confess their sin….”
Why are confession and requesting forgiveness indeed part of repentance?
Every sin consists of a body and a soul. The actual misdeed itself is the “body” of the sin, and the bodily pleasure and ensuing desire with which it was committed are its “soul”. Repentance involves eliminating both these elements.
The “soul” of the sin is eradicated by the earnest regret of the individual, who is mortified and pained by his past. Inasmuch as pain is the opposite of pleasure, it negates the pleasure which had earlier aroused his desire to sin, and thereby obliterates the “soul” of the sin.
But the “body” of the sin also needs to be nullified. Simply refraining from further transgression lacks the action that would negate the sinful act itself, its “body”. This is accomplished through verbal confession, for36 “verbalization is also considered to be an action.”
At any rate, verbal confession is thus a component of repentance — while fasting is not.
ומה שכתוב ביואל: שובו עדי בכל לבבכם, ובצום ובבכי גו׳
As to what we find in the Book of Yoel,37 “Return to Me with all your hearts, and with fasting and weeping…,” which would seem to indicate that fasting is in fact part of return and repentance,
היינו לבטל הגזרה שנגזרה, למרק עון הדור על ידי יסורים בארבה
this was to nullify (Note inserted by the Rebbe: ‘…something which relates to the future, while repentance involves forsaking the past’) the heavenly decree that had been issued, to expunge the sin of the generation through the affliction of locusts; it was not part of the act of repentance.
וזהו הטעם בכל תעניות שמתענין על כל צרה שלא תבא על הצבור
This is the rationale for all fasts undertaken for any trouble threatening the community, their purpose being to avert the impending harsh edict,
וכמו שכתוב במגלת אסתר
as in the Book of Esther,38 where we find that the Queen asked that a fast be proclaimed in order to nullify Haman’s evil decree.
ומה שכתוב בספרי המוסר, ובראשם ספר הרוקח וספר חסידים, הרבה תעניות וסיגופים לעובר על כריתות ומיתות בית דין
Now the classic Mussar works, particularly the Rokeach and Sefer Chassidim, specify numerous fasts and mortifications39 for sins punishable by excision and execution;
וכן למוציא זרע לבטלה, שחייב מיתה בידי שמים, כמו שכתוב בתורה גבי ער ועונן
likewise numerous fasts are prescribed for the wasteful emission of semen — a sin punishable by death by divine agency, as the Torah recounts of Er and Onan,40
ודינן כחייבי כריתות לענין זה
and a sin whose retribution is identical in this respect to that of sins punishable by excision, and hence the numerous fasts prescribed.
All this might lead us to assume that the purpose of fasts is suffering — this being the manner through which atonement is brought to completion by those who are guilty of sins punishable by excision. But it has been previously stated that the suffering which completes atonement is specifically that which comes from Above, and not manmade suffering incurred through fasting and the like. The Alter Rebbe answers this seeming contradiction by stating:
היינו: כדי לינצל מעונש יסורים של מעלה, חס ושלום
These above-prescribed fasts and mortifications are intended to avert the punishment of suffering at the hand of heaven, G‑d forbid. (Note of the Rebbe: “This too relates to the future, unlike repentance, which relates to the past.”)
This means that if, G‑d forbid, the punishment of suffering had been decreed upon an individual, he is able to exempt himself from it through these self-imposed fasts.
וגם כדי לזרז ולמהר גמר כפרת נפשו
Another reason [for these fasts] is to urge on and expedite the conclusion of his soul’s atonement.
וגם אולי אינו שב אל ה׳ בכל לבו ונפשו מאהבה, כי אם מיראה
Also, perhaps he is not returning to G‑d with all his heart and soul out of love, but only out of fear.
Such a penitent would not enjoy the Divine reaction that comes “as water reflects the countenance,” and would not be granted the completion of his atonement through suffering. Accordingly, he might undertake these fasts in order to secure this alone. Essentially, however, the suffering that brings about complete atonement (for those guilty of sins punishable by excision and death by Divine agency) is not meant to be self-inflicted, but rather — heaven forfend — imposed from Above.
Footnotes
1.Cf. 86a.
2.Parentheses are in the original text.
3.Yevamot 3b.
4.Makkot 23b.
5.Makkot 3:15.
6.Parentheses are in the original text.
7.Tikkunei Zohar 30.
8.Kohelet 1:15.
9.Cf. Berachot 26a.
10.Parentheses are in the original text.
11.Introduction.
12.Vayikra 16:16 and 16:30.
13.Yerushalmi, Chagigah 1:7.
14.The opening counterpart of this closing parenthesis appeared at the very beginning of the chapter: “(This means….”
15.Parentheses are in the original text.
16.Tehillim 89:23.
17.Note of the Rebbe: “The Alter Rebbe speaks of ‘the mitzvah of repentance’ (rather than ‘the content of repentance’ or simply ‘repentance,’ and the like, recalling the expression of the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuvah 2:2). This would seem to indicate his stand on the basic content of repentance — that abandoning sin is a command of the Torah. This is so even according to the Rambam and the Semag, whose opinions he follows here (see Sefer HaMitzvot of the Tzemach Tzedek, beginning of Mitzvat Vidui U‘Teshuvah) and not only according to the Ramban (on Nitzavim 30:11, quoted in Likkutei Torah on that verse).
”In the preamble to Hilchot Teshuvah in Sefer HaYad (and it would seem that these introductory headings were written by the Rambam himself) we [likewise] read: ’One positive command: That the sinner return from his sin before G‑d and confess.‘ Possibly this preamble also serves as the source for the words of the Tzemach Tzedek, loc. cit. [So too] in Sefer HaMitzvot of the Rambam: ’The seventy-third mitzvah is that He commanded us to confess [our transgressions] and to articulate them penitently (lit., ‘with teshuvah’).“
18.Parentheses are in the original text.
19.25b.
20.Sub-section 29ff.
21.Note of the Rebbe: ”It will be noted that the Alter Rebbe does not cite Tractate Kiddushin (49b) and the section of the Shulchan Aruch entitled Even HaEzer (38:31) with regard to marriage, even though these two sources respectively precede Tractate Sanhedrin and Choshen Mishpat (see also Minchat Chinuch, Mitzvah 364). [The Gemara in Kiddushin teaches that even if an utterly wicked individual betrothed a woman on condition that he was a tzaddik, the betrothal is valid — for at that moment he could have repented in his heart; the Shulchan Aruch in Even HaEzer determines that such a betrothal has a degree (albeit uncertain) of legal validity; and the Minchat Chinuch in fact cites the above-quoted Gemara to demonstrate that the abandonment of sin in itself constitutes teshuvah. Why, then, did the Alter Rebbe not draw on these sources?]
“It could be suggested by way of explanation that he prefers to adduce proof from fiscal law, where any particular case is not determined by a majority of instances. This is to say, that it is not only in the majority of instances [but in all instances] that abandonment of sin alone suffices.”
22.The Rebbe notes that the Alter Rebbe’s point here is that the main element of repentance is not fasting, as he goes on to prove, but the abandonment of sin. However, the text also makes it clear that verbal confession is not essential to repentance (as is demonstrated by the citation from Choshen Mishpat, where verbal confession is not mentioned). It is only that when one does confess verbally and ask for forgiveness, these steps are incorporated in his repentance and enhance it — for which reason Rambam speaks of them. Fasting, however, is a totally separate thing, as the Alter Rebbe explains at the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next — for which reason (as he goes on to say) “the Rambam and the Semag make no mention whatever of fasting as related to the mitzvah of repentance.”
23.Note of the Rebbe: “Though this requires action on his part, nevertheless he so resolves.”
24.Note of the Rebbe: “For by transgressing a negative command rebelliousness is evident — which is not the case when he fails to perform a positive command.”
25.Yeshayahu 55:7.
26.Note of the Rebbe: “The Alter Rebbe cites the parshah [Nitzavim] rather than simply stating that the quoted verse is found ‘in the Torah’ as he does later on, in order to make it clear that he is not referring the reader to Parshat Va-etchanan (Devarim 4:30), for there the Torah merely relates events, as we see from the beginning of the text, ‘I call as witnesses against you….’ Furthermore, and more importantly (for it could be pointed out that even from a narrative in the Torah we could learn what is considered repentance), there the verse does not specify that it be done ‘with all your heart.’”
27.Devarim 30:2.
28.The Rebbe suggests that the reason the Alter Rebbe quotes the Prophets (Yeshayahu) before the Torah (Devarim) is that the Prophet explicitly states that repentance involves the abandonment of sin. The Rebbe adds: “See Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 2:2.”
29.Hoshea 14:2.
30.Eichah 5:22.
31.Parentheses are in the original text.
32.Mishlei 27:19.
33.Ibid. 3:12.
34.Positive Command 16.
35.Bamidbar 5:7.
36.Sanhedrin 65a.
37.2:12.
38.4:16.
39.“Especially problematic here is the mention of mortifications, for in the context of averting a decree the sources speak only of fasts, as in the Books of Esther and Yoel cited above. An alternative explanation must therefore be found.” (— Note of the Rebbe.)
40.Bereishit 38:6-7.
