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Introduction By way of introduction to Iggeret HaTeshuvah it should be noted that the Alter Rebbe is known as1 “Master of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch.” The Rebbe once remarked that “Master of the Tanya” means that the Alter Rebbe is2 an arbiter in the esoteric dimension of the Torah, and “Master of the Shulchan […]

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תניא בסוף יומא: שלשה חלוקי כפרה הם It has been taught in a Beraita at the end of Tractate Yoma:1 There are three types of atonement, varying according to the different categories of transgression, ותשובה עם כל אחד and repentance [necessarily] accompanies each of them. עבר על מצות עשה ושב, אינו זז משם עד שמוחלין […]

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However, in light of the above, it would seem that the same reasoning should apply with regard to transgressions: a higher degree of repentance should be necessary for violating a positive command than for transgressing a negative command — yet according to the above quotation from the Gemara in Yoma the opposite is true. The […]

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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, […]

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(כדאיתא בגמרא ,פרק ג׳ דסנהדרין, ובחושן משפט, סוף סימן ל״ד, לענין עדות) (18cf. Sanhedrin, ch. 319; Choshen Mishpat, end of Sec. 34,20 regarding testimony21), where it is stated that if a potential witness simply abandons and does not repeat the transgression that had previously disqualified him, he is once again able to testify.22 דהיינו שיגמור […]