Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Dual Nature Of Vidui - The Sequel

 

Contradiction In The Rambam About The Correct Version Of Vidui


The Rambam writes [Teshua 2/7]:

יוה"כ הוא זמן תשובה לכל, ליחיד ולרבים, והוא קץ מחילה וסליחה לישראל. לפיכך חייבים הכל לעשות תשובה ולהתודות ביום הכפורים.
ומצות וידוי יום הכפורים, שיתחיל מערב היום קודם שיאכל שמא יחנק בסעודה קודם שיתודה. ואף על פי שהתודה קודם שיאכל, חוזר ומתודה בלילי יוה"כ ערבית, וחוזר ומתודה בשחרית, ובמוסף, ובמנחה, ובנעילה.
והיכן מתודה? וכו' וכו'. 

Yom Kippur is the time of Teshuvah for all, both individuals and the community at large. It is the apex of forgiveness and pardon for Israel. Accordingly, everyone is obligated to repent and confess on Yom Kippur.

The mitzvah of the confession of Yom Kippur begins on the day's eve, before one eats [the final meal], lest one choke to death in the meal before confessing.

Although a person confessed before eating, he should confess again in the evening service, Yom Kippur night, and similarly, repeat the confession in the morning, Musaf, afternoon, and Ne'ilah services.
And when does he confess? etc. etc.

In the next halacha he continues:

הוידוי שנהגו בו כל ישראל, "אבל אנחנו חטאנו", והוא עיקר הוידוי.
 
The confessional prayer customarily recited by all Israel is: "For we have all sinned...." This is the essence of the confessional prayer.
 
The Lechem Mishna says that the Rambam's source is a gemara in Yoma 87b: "......for Bar Hamdudi said: Once I stood before Samuel, who was sitting, and when the public reader came up and said: ‘Truly, we have sinned’, he rose. Hence he inferred that this was the main confession."
 
However, the Rambam seems to contradict himself, for in the first perek in the first halacha, he writes:
 
כיצד מתודין? אומר: 'אנא השם, חטאתי, עויתי, פשעתי לפניך ועשיתי כך וכך, והרי נחמתי ובושתי במעשי, ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה'. וזהו עיקרו של וידוי. וכל המרבה להתודות ומאריך בענין זה, הרי זה משובח.
 
 How does one confess: He states: "I implore You, God, I sinned, I transgressed, I committed iniquity before You by doing the following. Behold, I regret and am embarrassed for my deeds. I promise never to repeat this act again." 
 
Here the Rambam adds אנא השם and an expression of regret for the past [והרי נחמתי] and an acceptance not to repeat the sin in the future [ולעולם איני חוזר] while in the second perek the Rambam omitted all of this and said that one can suffice with a simple declaration of the sin אבל אנחנו חטאנו. In the Sefer Hamitzvos [73] he also wrote [as in halacha aleph] that it is enough to say אנא השם without adding regret about the past or acceptance for the future.
 

Two Types Of Vidui

 
Based on what we explained [in the previous post] we can answer as follows: The Rambam [Maaseh Korbanos 3/ 15]  writes:
 
 כיצד מתודה אומר חטאתי עויתי פשעתי ועשיתי כך וכך וחזרתי בתשובה לפניך וזו כפרתי .
 
How does he confess? He says: "I sinned, I transgressed, I committed iniquity, and I did this-and-this, and I have repented before You and this is my atonement.
 
We see that for vidui at the time of atonement one need not say אנא השם and one may also omit regret on the past and acceptance for the future and the vidui is merely a declaration of the fact that he sinned and did teshuva [and of course we are talking about a case where he really did teshuva together with the full unabridged version of the vidui - including regret and acceptance for the future. Otherwise, his declaration that he did teshuva is meaningless.  We may use the same logic regarding Yom Kippur which is also vidui at the time of atonement [like vidui on the korbanos] and thus understand why a minimal decaration of sin without regret and acceptance suffices. That explains the Rambam in the second perek [הלכה ח]. However in the first perek where a longer vidui is required, the Rambam was talking about the very act of teshuva itself. There, a longer version of vidui including regret and acceptance, is necessary. 
 
I URGE all of my sweetest friends  to look in the sefer that is MASOIK MI-DVASH, She-eris Yosef [7/12] for further insight into this topic.