Part 2 of 8 on Inyaneh Teshuvah. Focus of this class is how the Rambam/Maimonides deals with Teshuvah/Repentance.
The below are some of the sources used in this class. These are not exact quotes with exact chapters and so on. Please listen to the class while reading the below to understand this fully.
Repentance is not emphasized in the Chumash/5 Books of Moses. However, the Nevi’im/Prophets discuss it extensively.
[Jeremiah, Chapter 3:1]- The word of the Lord came to me as follows: If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and marries another man, can he ever go back to her? Would not such a land be defiled? Now you have whored with many lovers: can you return to Me? – says the Lord.
Talmud- Masechet Yoma 85b: The Essence of the day of Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement atones with no Teshuvah/Repentance.
Talmud- Masechet Yoma 85b: “Teshuva Doche Lo Ta’aseh” (repentance is greater than a negative commandment), which means one can violate a negative commandment in order to bring a person back in repentance.
Talmud- Masechet Berachot 34b: Discusses the issue of how the Ba’al Teshuvah/sinner that returns- being on a higher level than someone that has been righteous throughout.
Rambam/Maimonides- He gathered, classified, conceptualized all of the scattered isolated statements into a coherent whole and philosophy of what all Teshuvah/Repentance is about. He was the first and only to include Teshuvah/Repentance in his Mishneh Torah/Code of Jewish Law. He saw the idea of Teshuvah/Repentance as not only psychological, spiritual, metaphysical concept, but rather it’s item, a datum of halachic practice as well, hence you include it in a work of Jewish law.
Saadiya Gaon- Teshuvah in Emunot ve-De’ot, 5:5
Ḥovot ha-Levavot- (7:9)
Rambam/Maimonides- Says one must atone in order to be forgiven, even though we have the statement above that says “The Essence of the day of Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement atones with no Teshuvah/Repentance”.
Rambam/Maimonides- The 10 chapters of Teshuvah/Repentance. Chapter 8 was the reason the Rambam’s books were burned.
Ra’vaad- was mystically inclined who challenged much of what the Rambam/Maimonides says. In chapter 3, the Rambam/Maimonides says that anybody that believes G-d is physical is a heretic. The Ra’avaad says on this, their were greater people than the Rambam that believed G-d was physical and for you to say they have no place in Heaven. The Ra’avaad also attacks the Rambam’s concept of Olam Habah/ Heaven in Chapter 8 and the fact that the Rambam does not discuss the physical resurrection of the dead.
Rambam/Maimonides- Chapter 9 of Teshuvah/Repentance speaks about those chapters in the bible that could be misinterpreted or challenge or question a philosophical concept. Here the Rambam/Maimonides acts as the Parshan, so he feels an obligation to interpret them for us. One of the most glorious and grandest chapters in all of Rabbinic Literature is Chapter 10 in Laws of Repentance. Here he discusses and explains what the following are: Ovodat Hashem/ Serving G-d, Ahavat Hashem/Loving G-d, Yirat Hashem/Fearing G-d. In Chapter 8, he speaks about reward and punishment, because it is almost a motivating factor. The great good that is in store for righteous people is the world to come. The world to come is here and now, but the world that is going to follow death. This is a life that their is no death within, and nothing negative about it. The righteous reward will merit and the punishment of evil people will not merit this great wonderful life, but will be cutoff and die. It seems as though the Rambam does not mention Gehinam/Hell.
Podcast: Play in new window
