Maimonides writes that when it comes to Rosh Hashanah, which is going to be in a couple of weeks, and then Kippur, most people make Teshuvah (repentance) from sins, which is a good thing to do. You know what Maimonides says? He says, “Yeah, it’s important to make Teshuvah from sins, but you’re missing the point.” What do you mean? If I shouldn’t make Teshuvah from sins, then what should I make Teshuvah from?
I’m warning my audience now. Al tomar: Don’t say she’ein Teshuvah ela me’aveirot. That Teshuvah only is from sins. And he quotes a couple of them: immorality, stealing, etc. He says, Ela (rather), you should know shetzarich ha-adam lashuv me’eilu. It’s true, you have to get rid of those. But kach hu tzarich lechapes. He has to make introspection b’de’ot ra’ot, in his outlook, or in his character, or in his—we say in Hebrew—his middot, his nature.
For example, anger. Anger, that’s a character trait. Some people are angry; some people are less angry. But the rabbi says most of the sins that you’re going to commit come from anger. So by getting rid of the sin and not getting rid of the root, you didn’t solve anything, which means the sin is going to recur. And therefore, he says, to really make the Teshuvah, you have to root it out from the source. And the source of most sins is not in the sin; it’s in the attitude, the behavior, the personality.
Jealousy, jealousy: “I’m a jealous person.” Yeah, but guess what? Jealousy will cause you to speak Lashon Hara (evil speech). Jealousy will cause you to take revenge. Jealousy will cause you maybe to cause damage. So what does the person do on Yom Kippur? “I’m not going to damage anymore. I’m not going to speak Lashon Hara anymore.” But the cell of jealousy is still inside of you. So until you get rid of the—God forbid—the cell which is causing everything to metastasize, God forbid, into sin, Maimonides said, you didn’t make true Teshuvah. And therefore, the most important item is not the action but the root of the action. The root of sin is not the sin...