From the Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Zt”l
This week's Torah portion, Naso, contains the commandment: "Then they shall confess their sin which they have done." This is the mitzva of viduy (confession), about which Maimonides writes, "We are commanded to confess the sins and transgressions we have committed before G-d, after we have repented of them."
The mitzva of viduy is one of the Torah's 613 commandments, "Positive Commandment Number 73" in Maimonides' Sefer HaMitzvot. This raises a question: Why does Maimonides consider confession - which is only one component of teshuva (repentance) - a separate mitzva, whereas teshuva itself is not enumerated?
There are several explanations:
Repentance is not counted as one of the 613 mitzvot because there is no actual commandment in the Torah to repent. If a person wishes to do teshuva and rectify his sins the Torah shows him how, but he is not commanded to do so. Thus, confession is a mitzva, but teshuva is not.
Teshuva is an inner arousal and urge to return to G-d that arises in an individual. It therefore cannot be ordered from Above, for if it were, the command itself would compel the person to obey, and it would not be initiated entirely by the individual. Accordingly, the Torah does not command us to repent because G-d wants us to do it on our own.
Because teshuva is a "general" command, pertaining to the overall observance of Torah and mitzvot, it is not considered an individual mitzva, i.e., one of the 613. The Torah's 613 commandments are likened to the 613 organs and sinews in the human body. In the same way that only individual organs are counted in the total (whereas blood, which flows throughout the body, is not considered an organ), so too is repentance, an inner arousal of the heart, too generalized to be considered a separate mitzva.
Confession and repentance comprise a single mitzva. Maimonides writes that "Anyone who confesses but does not resolve to abandon [his sin] is like a person who immerses [in a mikva] while holding a rodent." Whenever a mitzva consists of two parts, one practical and the other emotional, only the practical component is included in the enumeration of mitzvot. For this reason, only oral confession is counted as a mitzva, whereas repentance, which involves the heart, is not.
According to this last explanation (which also follows Maimonides' interpretation) repentance is a mitzva, but it is included in the commandment of confession. Indeed, while teshuva is above all other mitzvot, we mustn't allow it to remain "up there," but must make sure that it permeates and enriches all of our observance.
Reprinted from the Parashat Naso 5761/2001 edition of L’Chaim, a publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Brooklyn. Adapted from Volume 38 of Likutei Sichot.
Thoughts that Count
The L-rd make His face shine upon you...the L-rd lift up His countenance to you (Num. 6:25-26)
It is written in the holy Zohar that the letters of G-d's Name engraved on the golden plate on the High Priest's headdress were luminous. Anyone looking at them was filled with awe; this created an arousal to return to G-d in repentance, and the person's sins would be atoned for. In other words, through the luminous letters ("the L-rd make His face shine") the Jews repented (allowing G-d's countenance to be "lifted up"), and their sins were forgiven. (Kotnot Or)
Reprinted from the Parashat Naso 5761/2001 edition of L’Chaim, a publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Brooklyn
