Yalla (Come on). Shevach gadol lashav sheyitvadeh barabim veyodia pish’o lahem. Business or nothing? Shevach gadol lashav. It’s a big shevach, praise, for the one who does teshuvah (repentance). Sheyitvadeh barabim: he should confess publicly. Veyodia pish’o lahem: they should let everybody know his sins. Halelu. Veyodia pish’o larabim: he should let everybody know about his sins.
Veyodia pish’o lahem umegaleh averot (transgressions) shebeino levein chavero la’acherim (and reveals interpersonal transgressions to others). He should let people know publicly about his sins against others, and say to them, “Omnam chatati lifloni (Indeed, I sinned against so-and-so), ve’asiti lo kach vechach (and did this and that to him), vahareini hayom shav venicham (and today I return and regret).” Vechol hamitga’eh ve’eino modia ela mechaseh psha’av ein teshuvato gemurah: anyone who is haughty and does not publicize his sins, but instead conceals them, has not completed his teshuvah.
Why does he have to let everybody know? It says, “Mechaseh pesha’av lo yatzliach.” We say it every morning. Whoever covers his psha’im (transgressions) will not be successful. When you make it public, it’s like a commitment. You can’t go back. There are a lot of witnesses. When you make it public, people are more aware of your averah (transgression), and you feel that more eyes are on you. But the text says, “Bameh devarim amurim, ba’averot shebein adam lechavero (in what cases does this apply? Interpersonal transgressions), aval shebeino levein HaMakom eino tzarich lefarsem atzmo.” That applies to transgressions between one person and another, but for transgressions between a person and God, he does not need to publicize himself.
The Ra’avad disagrees with the Rambam. The Gemara brings two teirutzim (answers): “Kan bechet mefursam, kan bechet she’eino mefursam”—one case is when the sin is known, and the other is when it is not known. The Gemara also brings a stirah, a contradiction: one pasuk (verse) says “Nesui pesha” (one whose transgression is forgiven), which means to keep the chet (sin) quiet; another pasuk says, “Mechaseh pesha’av lo yatzliach.” The Gemara gives two answers: one case is a known sin, and one is an unknown sin. Another chacham (sage) says, “Kan bein adam lechavero, kan bein adam laMakom”—one case is between one person and another, and one is between a person and God. The Rambam takes the second answer, and the Ra’avad takes the first.
Maybe the point is that you do more teshuvah when you are ashamed of what you are doing. If the sin is mefursam—known—anyway, everybody knows, so it is not positive to say bad things about yourself. But if everybody knows already, you can use that knowledge positively. Lema’aseh (in practice), if everybody knows, you can say that you are changing, and that can help you keep the change. We are not being asked to incriminate ourselves publicly when the sin is not known. If it is mefursam, it is already known.
For example, someone might say, “I used to be a thief, but I don’t do that anymore.” If you do business with that person, you are going to double-check. Essentially, he is asking you to check him: “Check carefully with me, because I don’t want to fall into that again. Don’t trust me; check.” That way, he is less likely to cheat. Even if he makes a mistake, someone will point it out. If it is a customer you trust, you might not check everything. That is the case of bein adam lechavero (between one person and another). I think the mefursam answer is what I said before.
But when it is between him and God, “Aval beino lebein haMakom, aveirot bein adam laMakom, eino tzarich lefarseim atzmo”: he does not need to publicize it.
With a Warner? No, with a rabbi. The sugyot are very good. We learned Tosafot, Tur, and Bach this morning. We fought four pshatim (interpretations) this morning, five! We studied Tosafot, the Rokeach, the Rif, the Meiri, and Rabbeinu Yosef Polak, on the morning sugya, in Berachot. We were studying how to say the berachah without Shem uMalchut and all that stuff. Berachot daf mem. Daf mem means that in three years, we’re going to finish.
“Ve’azut panim hi lo im gilam”—it is chutzpah if he reveals his private things. Why is it azut panim (brazen conduct)? I really don’t know. “Chatzif alai man dimefareit chata’ei” (Brazen is one who details his sins). He is chatzuf—he’s brazen. Even to mention it is brazen. ’Ayb ya waladi—it’s embarrassing. Maybe we are not talking about someone who tells his story to teach people that change is possible. That can be inspiring. Here we are probably talking about someone who knew and was doing averot. We are not talking about the ba’al teshuvah (penitent) who did not know and then discovered.
The Bach—Bach, not Beit Chet. In Beit Cher? Bach. The Bach says, “Ela shav lifnei Ha’El baruch Hu, uforeit chata’av lefanav, umitvadeh aleihem bifnei rabim stam.” You can say vidui (confession) stam, as everybody does, but keep your personal details quiet. It is good that his sin was not revealed, as it says, “Ashrei nesui pesha, kesui chata’ah” (Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered).
What happens if someone is known to have done an issur (prohibition) between a person and God, and someone asks him about it? He would say, “Avarti—I transgressed—and I am returning in complete teshuvah before God.” But if there is someone there who does not know, he does not have to admit it. “Ulai yesh sham adam shelo yada badavar ve’achshav yeida” (Perhaps someone there did not know, and now will know). “Vehu yikach chilul Hashem.” Why would that be chilul Hashem (desecration of God’s name)? There is the chilul Hashem that occurred when the sin was committed, and there is another kind that occurs when people find out. When people learn that a Jew could do something like that, that can also be chilul Hashem. So why publicize it? Whenever a Jew does something like a scam, it can be chilul Hashem. There are many small Madoffs. The first time someone hears that a religious Jew could do these things, it is unbelievable.
Tafsik lidrosh (Stop lecturing). Although teshuvah and crying out are always good, they are especially good during the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance), between Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKipurim, and teshuvah is accepted immediately. Maybe he means that sins that would normally take time are accepted immediately when a person does teshuvah during this period, when Hashem is close. “Yafeh beyoter miyad yitkabel shene’emar, Dirshu Adonai behimatze’o, kera’uhu bihyoto karov.” Seek Hashem while He is available to be found; call to Him while He is close.
What cases are we talking about? Beyachid—an individual. But betzibbur, if there is a community that wants to do teshuvah, it is always accepted. “Aval betzibbur kol zeman she’osim teshuvah vetzo’akim belev shalem hen ne’anin, shene’emar, k’Hashem Elokeinu bechol koreinu elav.” Whenever we call to Him, in the plural.
What does teshuvah betzibbur mean? I think we live in a generation where people don’t bother for others. I don’t mean giving a check; I mean doing something for someone else, like visiting someone in the hospital. Others say that people do help one another, including through meal trains. I hope I’m wrong. I think a community can be very discreet about what people do for each other. A community-wide decision to change something is different: “Let’s help each other.” It depends on the leader, and the community also has to accept the suggestion. Chabad is very good at this, but that is not what this passage means. We are talking about Hilchot teshuvah and people who already know, not someone who did not know and has now learned. We are talking about someone who knew, sinned beshogeg (unintentionally) or bemezid (intentionally), and is now returning. That is why this can be a good example: a community may know the halachot (laws), but still say, “We are lacking in this area,” or, “We are lacking in that area.”
For example, in most communities in the world, weekday attendance is 15% of Shabbat attendance, which is really bad. Some communities have more people on Shabbat; one estimate was that weekday attendance might be 30% of Shabbat attendance. Someone said their Shabbat attendance was 10 or 11, while weekday attendance was around 20, because many people attend netz (sunrise) during the week but not on Shabbat. Netz is a special case. Suppose a community said, “Let’s mitchazek. I want every man to come every day.” If the whole community committed to coming every day, that would be teshuvah berabbim. You have to do something to bring people. For example: “If you want to come back to the Sunday second minyan, we have croissants.” The croissants were for the Aitora boys.
“Aval betzibbur kol zeman she’osim teshuvah vetzo’akim belev shalem hen ne’anin.” When a community does teshuvah and cries out with a whole heart, it is answered. What is the cheshbon (reasoning) here? Why equate an individual during the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah with the public during the year? One answer was that during those ten days, an individual has the opportunity to approach Hashem without waiting for the community to help. But it means that the closeness an individual has during the ten days is the same closeness a community has all year if it does teshuvah. What is the cheshbon? I have a pshat. But it’s the Rambam. No, it’s going to take Rambam...