I Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn raised the question: Why do Jews recite on Yom Kippur the blessing: “The King who pardons and forgives our sins”? Conceivably the Almighty not forgive our sins, and if so we will have pronounced a blessing in vain, which is forbidden.
Then he continued: This is comparable to a clever child who wants the luscious apple in his father’s hand and quickly recites the blessing for fruit which obligates him to eat it. The father will certainly not know attempt to withhold the apple, for then his son will have pronounced a benediction in vain.
So it is when we recite the benediction “The King who pardons and forgives our sins,” the Almighty will not cause us to recite a blessing in vain.
II Satan comes on the Day of Atonement to accuse Israel and he specifies the iniquities of Israel... But the Holy One, blessed be He, specifies the just deed of Israel. Then what does He do? He suspends the beam of the scales and looks to see what the balance or imbalance is between the iniquities and the just deeds. And as they are weighed.. the two pans of the scale balance exactly. Thereupon Satan goes out to fetch more iniquities... Even while Satan is going about seeking iniquities, the Holy One, blessed be He, takes the iniquities out of the pan and hides them under His royal purple. Then Satan comes and finds no iniquity on the scale Pesikta Rabbati 45
III Who is like G-d, a teacher of sinners that they may repent? They asked Wisdom, what shall be the punishment of the sinner? Wisdom answered: Evil pursueth sinners (Proverbs 13.21). They asked Prophecy. It replied: The soul that sinned shall die (Ezekiel 18.4). They asked the Law. It replied: Let him bring a sacrifice (Leviticus 1.4). They asked G-d and He replied: Let him repent and obtain his atonement. My children, what do I ask of you? Seek Me and live. Pesikta Kahanna 158b
IV If one says, “I shall sin and then repent,” he is given no opportunity to repent. If one says, “I shall sin and the Day of Atonement will atone,” then the Day of Atonement” does not atone. If one says, “I shall sin and the day of death will purge me of sin,” the day of death does not purge him of sin Avot d’ Rabbi Natan 40
V The Kelemer maggid asked: Why is the Day of Atonement called in Hebrew Yom ki-Purim (a day like Purim)?
And he gave this answer: The similarity between the two days is based on the fact that on both days it is customary to masquerade. On Purim Jews masquerade and don the costumes of no-Jews. On the Day of Atonement, they masquerade as pious Jews.
VI The confession table seems almost to be a mask to keep a man’s wrongdoings a final secret between himself and his Maker... The wording throughout is plural... A man can acknowledge his own sins in his heart when he speaks the words that do describe things that he has done; but he utters no testimony against himself to any ear on earth on earth. The whole autonomy rests with the individual conscience.
But in a sweeping paradox, this same confession that seals the individual in his privacy with G-d, draws him into an ancient communal bond.. all Israel.. stands in relation to G-d as a single immortal individual. Herman Wouk- This is my G-d
VII Resh Lakish (1): “Great is repentance that causes premeditated sins to be accounted as errors”
Resh Lakish (2): “repentance is so great that premeditated sins are accounted as though they were merits” Yoma 86b
VIII Kapparah means: forgiveness or withdrawal of claim. This is a legal concept, borrowed from the laws of property. Just as one may release his fellow man of a debt owed to him, so may God absolve one of penalty to which he is liable due to sin. Kapparah removes the need for punishment.... That is to say, a barrier is set up through which punishment may not pass. R’ Soloveitchik
IX This is the first way or repentance but, there is another way – not by annihilating evil but by rectifying and elevating it. This repentance does not entail making a clean break with the past or obliterating memories. It allows man, at one and the same time, to continue to identify with the past and still to return to G-d in repentance... This way of repentance does not transform the penitent into “another”. Here there is no clean break between “this person” of yesterday and the “he” of today. It is not necessary to blot out and erase the past. The future can be built upon the foundations of the past. How so? By elevating and exalting evil. R’ Soloveitchik
X The attainment of kapparah will not be as complete or perfect now as it was when the cult worship acts of the high priest brought man into contact with a transcendent and incomprehensible divinity. But we Jews have brought another message of teshuva to man, that of tahara. There is nothing transcendent, miraculous or nonrational about tahara R’ Soloveitchik
XI Thus, the significance of any previous act remains continuously dependent on how we relate to that act... Each human life resembles a book in which the meaning of each chapter only becomes clear with the reading of the final chapter. R’ Blau
XII Is such the fast that I have chosen? The day for man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen?: To loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring that are cast out to your house?... The glory of the Lord shall be your reward, then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say: “Here I am” Isaiah chp 58
