כי אין לנו מלך מוחל וסולח אלא אתה - “For We Have No King Who Forgives and Pardons But You”
In the Yom Kippur Shemonah Esrei we declare: כי אין לנו מלך מוחל וסולח אלא אתה - “For we have no King who forgives and pardons but You."
At first glance, this is puzzling. Do human beings not forgive one another? Do honorable people not pardon insults and overlook offenses? What, then, is the meaning of the statement: כי אין לנו מלך מוחל וסולח אלא אתה - “There is no King who forgives and pardons except You"?
Rav Nachum Bergman zt"l heard from someone who walked with the Brisker Rav zt"l after Yom Kippur, that to answer this question the Brisker Rav said:
“A person forgives... and forgives... and forgives - but he does not truly forgive.”
Meaning: Human forgiveness is never complete. Even after forgiving, a person still feels the sting of the insult. If the offender wrongs him again, he immediately feels: "How can you hurt me a second time?” He does not say: “This person has never hurt me," even though he “forgave” the first offense.
But Hashem is different.
Hashem forgives... and forgives... and forgives and truly forgives. When He forgives, the sin is not remembered at all.
I heard another explanation: Hashem's forgiveness is unique because it erases the sin entirely. No trace remains. Every sin creates a destructive spiritual force — a mashchis — and leaves a blemish on the soul. But through kapparah, the sin is wiped away completely, like we find in the pasuk: מחיתי בעב פשעיך וכענן חטאותיך “I have erased your sins like a cloud.” And in the pasuk: וכן אנכי אנכי הוא מוחה פשעך למעני וחטאותיך לא אזכור - “I, I alone, erase your transgressions for My sake, and your sins I will not remember."
No human being can erase a sin from existence. Only Hashem can do that.
Yet one may ask on this explanation: Normally mechilah and selichah don't mean complete forgiveness, as complete forgiveness is normally referred to as kapparah. The specialty of the day of Yom Kippur, is that it is a day that Hashem wipes our slate clean. So, if the explanation was that the special quality of Hashem is that he wipes away our sin completely, we should say: אין לנו מלך שמכפר אלא אתה and we don't, we say אין לנו מלך מוחל וסולח אלא אתה.
R' Naftoli Kopshitz shlita suggests a third explanation in the tefillah: No one in the world has bestowed kindness upon us as Hashem has. Every sin we commit is done with the very strength, limbs, and abilities that Hashem Himself grants us. Every sin is an act of ingratitude - using His gifts against Him. And yet He forgives even that.
This is the meaning of the tefillah: אין לנו מלך מוחל וסולח אלא אתה - “There is no King who forgives and pardons but You." Only Hashem forgives even the betrayal of His kindness.