13^th of Elul, 5770

The Mitzvah of Teshuba –repentance- takes place when we recite the Viduy. Viduy means ‘confession’, and it consists on the articulation and enumeration of our transgressions, after we have identified them and regretted.

Maimonides explains “When one does return from his sin, he must confess before God Almighty, Blessed is He, as it says: ‘they shall confess their sin that they committed’ (Bamidbar 5:7), this ‘Viduy’ is a positive commandment (Hilchot Teshuba 1:1)

Without Viduy the Mitzva of Teshuba cannot take place.

We do not disclose our sins in front of other people or a rabbi, but right in front of God Almighty, whispering to ourselves our transgressions.

The torah says that God Almighty knows “…the secrets of the universe, and the hidden-most mysteries of all the living creatures, nothing is hidden from You and nothing is concealed from Your eyes“. Now, if God knows our sins better that we do, for what purpose must we enumerate them before Him?

Similar to psychoanalysis, where the patient begins his metal healing when he or she is able to articulate his trauma, we have reached the level of ‘admission of our sins’ only when we are able to articulate our transgressions with words, not with thoughts.

Viduy has to be anticipated by hakarat hachet -admission of our misdeeds- and followed by azibat hachet , our determination not to repeat the sin.

Today is the 9th of Elul, 5770

Taking responsibility for our mistakes –hakarat haChet– is the first, and probably the hardest step in the process of Teshuba. Naturally, we tend to justify our actions and act as our advocates rather than as our prosecutors.

Illustration: David haMelekh committed a terrible sin, taking Bat Sheba, a married woman. Natan the prophet had to admonish David, and help him realize that he had sinned. Natan presented David with a fictitious case: A rich man owned thousands of animals. His neighbor, very poor, only had one lamb. One day, the rich man received a guest. In order to not “waste” one of his own sheep, the rich man decided to steal and slaughter his neighbor’s sole lamb, which he dearly loved. Nathan presented the case to the King an—as he had expected—the King reacted angrily. David said: “That man, the rich guy, deserves to die!” Nathan haNabi turned to David and said: atta haish…. “You are that man!” Faced now with the facts, and in light of the sentence that he had himself issued acting as an impartial judge, David haMelekh repented ‘chattati laHashem…’ he said, ‘I have sinned to God’.

David was not permitted to build the Bet haMikdash because of this sin, but God accepted his Teshuba. Part of the credit goes to Nathan who opened the Kings eyes helping him to evaluate his actions objectively allowing him to repent sincerely.

Today is the 7^th day of Elul, 5770

The first step in the process of Teshuba, repentance, is hakarat haChet— taking responsibility for our mistakes and misdeeds.

It is not an easy task. it has never been…

Everyone knows that God punished Adam and Eve and expulsed them from Paradise. But why?

If you put on a table all kind of candies, sweets, and cakes in front of child and in the middle of the table you put a tomato, a normal child is not going to eat or want the tomato… But what if you tell the child: ‘You can eat whatever you want except for the tomato’. It will be only a matter of time until the child disobeys and eats the tomato, since the “forbidden fruit” syndrome triggers curiosity and desire. According to Rabbi Yosef Albo, Adam and Eve’s sin was not that they ate the fruit. God knew they will succumb! He wanted to teach them to take responsibility and repent for their wrong actions!!

Adam’s real sin happened when God approached him and asked him: ‘What did you do?’ instead of admitting his fault, Adam ‘transferred’ the blame to Eve: haisha shenatata imadi… ‘the woman You put next to me, she offered me the fruit’. Then, God approached Eve and she said: ‘It wasn’t me! The serpent made me do it’.

‘Displacing blame’ is probably the main obstacle for repentance, or at least the oldest one.

Today is the 2^nd day of Elul, 5770

As we mentioned yesterday, during the month of Elul until Yom Kippur the Sepharadic custom is to wake up earlier in the morning to recite the Selichot prayer.

Selichot is a special Tefila that is traditionally said before the morning prayer (Shacharit).Technically, Selichot could be said also during nighttime or even during the day. There is only one period of time which is not suitable for reciting Selichot –following a very ancient custom instructed by Chakhme haKabbalah z’l-: in between sunset and midnight (middat hadin). By the way, Halakhically speaking, midnight (chatzot) is not necessarily at 12.00 AM but it’s calculated 12 hours from midday (when the sun is exactly on the zenith). For example, today in NY midday is at 1.01 PM, therefore midnight will be at 1.01 AM.

The Ashkenazi Minhag is to start Selichot service Sunday before Rosh haShana. But if Rosh haShana falls on Monday or Tuesday (it can never fall Sunday) Selichot will begin two Sundays before Rosh haShana.

During the entire month of Elul the Ashkenazim and most Sepharadim have the custom to blow the Shofar. The Ashkenazim blow the Shofar at the end of Shacharit. Our custom is to blow the Shofar at the end of Selichot service, right before Shacharit . Many Sephardim (Moroccans, etc) blow the Shofar also while reciting the 13 attributes of mercy (vaya’abor… ).

Today is the 1^st day of the month of Elul (Rosh Chodesh Elul), 5770

Rabbi Yehoshua en Korcha said that after receiving the 10 commandments Moshe Rabbenu stayed in Mount Sinai for 40 days. There, God taught him the Oral Law: the meaning and performance of all the 613 Miztvot. At the end of 40 days Moshe went down and encountered the people of Israel worshiping the golden calf. At the sight of such offense to God, Moshe broke the tablets containing the 10 commandments. It was the 17^th of Tamuz.

A few weeks later, in the beginning of the month of Elul, God told Moshe to ascend once again Mount Sinai where he stayed again for 40 days. What did Moshe do during those 40 days? He begged God Almighty to forgive Israel for their terrible sin. Moshe argued with God and advocated for the Jewish people, invoking the merit of their ancestors Abraham Ytzchak and Yaakob.

At the end of the forty days, God finally absolved the people of Israel. That day, the 10^th of Tishri, is Yom Kippur , the day of forgiveness.

In remembrance of those 40 days during which Moshe Rabbenu begged God to pardon Israel, we dedicate 40 days to ask God for our own forgiveness. This process of personal repentance –Teshuva- begins tomorrow and ends on Yom Kippur.

Tomorrow morning BH, we start saying Selichot, the prayers that inspire us to reflect on our lives and embark on the process of repentance.