Repentance תשובה Year 7 כיתה ז

(2) What constitutes Teshuvah? That a sinner should abandon his sins and remove them from his thoughts, resolving in his heart, never to commit them again as [Isaiah 55:7] states "May the wicked abandon his ways...." Similarly, he must regret the past as [Jeremiah 31:18] states: "After I returned, I regretted."

[He must reach the level where] He who knows the hidden will testify concerning him that he will never return to this sin again as [Hoshea 14:4] states: "We will no longer say to the work of our hands: `You are our gods.'"
He must verbally confess and state these matters which he resolved in his heart.

(1) [He must abandon his way] in deed and speech, so too he must abandon his wicked thoughts, for repentance will not be effective with regard to the visible [aspects of sin] if it does not also target the hidden [aspect of sin, i.e. thoughts]. For the good and bad actions of man are dependent upon the hand, mouth, and heart, and repentance is required from all of them.

(1) The elements of repentance by which a person may be cleansed of his iniquities [sins] and purified of his sin before God are correction of thought, speech and act. Correction of thought means that he should feel regret on account of his sins. Correction of speech signifies that he should confess his transgressions [sins]; while correction of act denotes that he should take it upon himself never again to return to his folly [mistake], but should do instead such acts as would indicate that the former were done in error and unintentionally.

(3) (2) Sins between man and his fellow. These have matters of oppression and wickedness towards other people, whether to their bodies, possessions or reputation. ...

(3) We have trespassed [against God and man, and we are devastated by our guilt]; We have betrayed [God and man, we have been ungrateful for the good done to us]; We have stolen; We have slandered. We have caused others to sin; We have caused others to commit sins for which they are called רְשָׁעִים, wicked; We have sinned with malicious intent; We have forcibly taken other’s possessions even though we paid for them; We have added falsehood upon falsehood; we have joined with evil individuals or groups. We have given harmful advice; We have deceived; We have mocked; We have rebelled against God and His Torah; We have caused God to be angry with us; We have turned away from God’s Torah; We have sinned deliberately; We have been negligent in our performance of the commandments; We have caused our friends grief; We have been stiff-necked, refusing to admit that the cause of our suffering is our own sins. We have committed sins for which we are called רָשָׁע [raising a hand to hit someone]. We have committed sins which are the result of moral corruption; We have committed sins which the Torah refers to as abominations; We have gone astray; We have led others astray. ...

We learned there in a mishna that Rabbi Eliezer says: Repent one day before your death. Rabbi Eliezer’s students asked him: But does a person know the day on which he will die? He said to them: All the more so this is a good piece of advice, and one should repent today lest [in case] he die tomorrow; and by following this advice one will spend his entire life in a state of repentance. ...

Repent one day before your death. How so? Rabbi Eliezer’s students asked him: But does a person know what day he will die, so that he could repent? He said to them: All the more so should he repent every day, for perhaps he will die the next day! And the result is that he repents all of his days! ...

(3) ... Rather, just as a person is obligated to repent from these, similarly, he must search after the evil character traits he has. He must repent from anger, hatred, envy, frivolity [lack of seriousness], the pursuit of money and honor, the pursuit of gluttony [eating too much], and the like. He must repent for all [of the above]. These sins are more difficult than those that involve deed. If a person is attached to these, it is more difficult for him to separate himself. ...

(26) And the person who does teshuva is also obligated to submit, because he is obligated to remove from himself the traits that cause him to sin and to do rebellious deeds.