Vayelech - 5773

The Rambam opens his Hilchos Teshuvah with the laws of Vidui – verbal confession – stating that anyone who violates one of the Mitzvos of the Torah is obligated to say Vidui when he repents. (It is noteworthy that Rambam does not consider Teshuvah itself to be a Mitzvah; only the Vidui which concludes the Teshuvah process is counted as one of the 613 commandments.) In the Rambam’s formulation, the Vidui is more than an admission of guilt. The Vidui must also contain an expression of regret (Charata) and an expression of resolve not to repeat the sin (Kabbala L’haba). In other words, Vidui is a verbalization of the entire Teshuvah process.

Why is this necessary? Why must Teshuvah be put into words? Why can’t Teshuvah simply be a state of mind?

One possibility is that words are more firm than mere thoughts which are often vague and cloudy. Putting the Teshuvah steps into words makes the repentance solid.

There may be however another idea behind this mandated verbalization:

The Rambam writes that the Vidui must be said “Before Hashem”. To put it differently, in Vidui we are communicating with Hashem. (Perhaps it is for this reason that on Yom Kippur the Vidui is inserted into the silent Amidah. Prayer too, as the Rambam explains in Hilchos Tefillah, must be said “Before Hashem”. While engaged in the one, we are in the necessary state of mind for the other.)

Teshuvah without Vidui can cut Hashem out of the picture entirely. You see, the very concept of sin can be understood without reference to a Supreme Being. A person can sin against himself by contravening his most deeply held principles or by failing to achieve his own potential. Teshuvah then would just be another form of self-improvement akin to stress reduction, time management, or goal-setting. By requiring that the penitent speak to Hashem, he is forced to acknowledge that sin is first and foremost a violation of a relationship with the Divine Other. A damaged relationship cannot be repaired unilaterally; the guilty party must face the other and speak words of apology and appeasement. This is the meaning of Vidui.

Perhaps this explains the apparent redundancy in the opening line of the special Haftarah for this Shabbos (Hoshea 14:2-3), “Return, Israel, to Hashem, your Lord, for you have stumbled in your sins. Take for yourself words and return to Hashem…” Why is the admonition to return repeated?

The initial return refers to the process of Teshuvah; regret for the past and resolve for the future themselves constitute a return to Hashem in the sense that the person has returned to compliance with the Divine Command. The “taking of words” is a reference to the words of Vidui (see Shaarei Teshuvah, Part 1 on his discussion of the Fifteenth Fundamental of Teshuvah). This is a return of a different kind. Here the penitent returns to face Hashem in addressing the words of Vidui to Him.

In the Hebrew, the two “returns” are expressed differently. The first is “Ad Hashem”; the second is “El Hashem”. While both “Ad” and “El” are translated as “to”, there is a subtle difference in connotation. By way of illustration: A person traveling to a border but not crossing can be said to have traveled “to” the border. Here the Hebrew “Ad” would be more appropriately used in the sense of “up to”. A person traveling to New York and entering the city would be said to have traveled “El”. Thus, in speaking of the approach of one person to another – or to Hashem – “El” would imply a greater closeness than “Ad”. It is only in Vidui that this higher level is attained.