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The conclusion of Tractate Yoma this week brought Daf Yomi readers face to face with the heart of Yom Kippur: repentance.
For months now, we have learned about the color of the high priest’s robes and how to sacrifice a goat to Azazel. Most of these matters concern the ordinary Jew not at all, and the overall picture of Yom Kippur that one gets from the Talmud feels very far from the holiday as we experience it today. But now, at the culmination of the whole tractate, the rabbis zero in on the spiritual and ethical questions that concern us most. How exactly does Yom Kippur achieve atonement for our sins?
What steps must we take to show that repentance is sincere?
Rav Chisda teaches that we must apologize in three ways: We say, I have sinned, I perverted what was right, my sin did not profit me", as taken from Job 33:27. Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina agrees with the three part apology, but he suggests, "please, please forgive my transgression, and now please forgive", this idea taken from Genesis 50:17.
“Please, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. And now, please forgive”
If we owe money, we must pay that money back. If the wronged person dies before accepting our apology, the apology is repeated at his gravesite with ten people as witnesses.
This leads us to the Difference in Obligation of Bein Adam Le-chavero and Bein Adam La-Makom, an essay by Rav Zimmerman... and an exploration of repentance and forgiveness and the parallels between the 12 step program and penitence.