We continue with our 13 attributes of mercy. We last spoke about Noseh Avon, which means that God carries the sin; after we’ve sinned and created a negative force, God is the One that gives nourishment to the negative force.
But, as we said, there are three terms for sin- Avon, Phesha and Chata’ah
We say that in our confession Hatati, Aviti, Pashati, and we will explain how they’re different:
The commentaries are basically agreement a Chet is a sin that is done B’Shogeg/It was done by mistake. Even when a person does a sin by mistake, he needs to be forgiven. For example, if a person didn't realize that he couldn't do something on Shabbat, he still needs to be forgiven. That's a mistake.
Then we have an Avon, which is a sin where, “I knew it was wrong. It wasn't a mistake, but I was driven by my desire. I couldn't control my desire. I just had to eat that slice of pizza. It was just too delicious.” That is an Avon. Phesha is what is called “to get God angry.” You weren't being driven by desire. You were just upset. You wanted to do it anyway. It wasn't an issue of desire. It was a sin that had no desire involved. You weren't in the mood, or didn’t want to do what was supposed to be done.
This is a bit more severe because you don't have the desire factor.
But regardless of what kind of sin it is, God forgives.
And again, we have to apply this back to people. People sometimes sin, and they say it was a mistake. And you say, “be more careful next time…” but it was a mistake. So we have to learn how to forgive mistakes. Then we have the sin of desire. A person sinned against you because he couldn't control himself. For example, you child could not control himself and he ate the cake that you made for someone's birthday party.
Lastly is the worst of the sins, when there's no real excuse. Just somebody who did something wrong to you, without any real excuse, or desire, he just didn't care. There was no concern or respect for your feelings… And you'll still forgave him.
Those are the three ways we emulate God. And again, as we always end off, the more we act that way, the more God reciprocates to us.