Transcript
Siddur snippets, series as Genesis sponsored by the Sack Family. We're on the sixth Bracha of the Amidah: סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו. Why do we say avinu when it comes to chet, and מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו? When it comes to chet, we appeal to Hashem as avinu, our father. And when it comes to pesha, pashanu, we appeal to Hashem as malkenu, our king. And moreover, immediately afterwards we reverse it. First we say ki chatanu, we did chet, and ki pashanu, and forgive us כי מוחל וסולח אתה חנון המרבה לסלוח. So what is the order, what comes first? Channun, slicha, selach lanu then mechal lanu or mochel vesoleach? We reversed the very order a moment later. So what's the difference? So the Rabbeinu Yonatan Eybeschutz says that selach lanu and mechal lanu are talking about two different things. Selach lanu is on chet, it's on the mistakes that we made. So we're not asking Hashem to remove or eliminate or purge the consequence or the impact of the mistake that we made but simply to wipe out the punishment. To get us off the hook, off the punishment, off the accountability. Mechila, mechal lanu, is ימחק וימחול עון לגמרי. Not only should you offer a pardon or clemency from the punishment, but erase the act as if it never happened. Let us turn back the clock, let it be purged from our record to the extent that it never happened. That is the approach of Rabbeinu Yonatan Eybeschutz. The Chida in Sefer Birkei Yosef has a different approach. He says, notice it says selach lanu for avinu and mechal lanu for pashanu, malkenu for pashanu. What's the difference? So he says, אב שמחל על כבודו. If a person dishonors a father, disrespects a father, if a person violates the honor due the father, so they're forgiven. אב שמחל על כבודו כבודו מחול. A parent is entitled, a parent has license to forgo the honor that's due to them. So סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו. When it comes to a chet, a chet is a missed opportunity. The word chatanu, we often mistranslate the word chatanu. If I ask you what is chet, you'd say sin. What's sin? What's sin? Sin is a Christian concept. It's not a Jewish concept. We don't believe in a chet? I don't know what that word sin even means. If you open Tanakh and you see the word chet used, hu hichti, it means to miss the mark. The archer who shoots the arrow and misses, missed, missed the mark. And if you miss the mark, Jimmy Butler down the stretch in the final missed the mark, a chet, a chet. If you miss the mark, it's called a chet. A chet is a missed opportunity. Torah and mitzvot are invitations and opportunities to connect and get close to Hashem, and a chet, when we miss the opportunity, we missed the mark of that chance and of that opportunity. So when it comes to a chet, it's a missed opportunity, which is assumed to be beshogeg, by accident. It's because we were consumed, we indulged that voice of distraction, of temptation. So when we indulge the voice of chet, we appeal to our father. אב שמחל על כבודו כבודו מחול. A father who is forgiving, forgoing on the honor due, it's forgiven. So in your capacity as our father, a parent who loves a child unconditionally, forgive us and love us and let it go. But מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו. A pesha is more severe. A pesha is more severe. And in fact, somebody's a poshea who's mezalzel in the kavod of their parent, the parent can't be mochel. That level of zilzul, that level of pesha, the parent can't. So how do we appeal to Hashem in that circumstance? So we say mechal lanu malkenu. In the end of the day, you're our father and in your capacity as father, be flexible, forgiving, forgoing, love us unconditionally, even when we missed the mark. Ki chatanu, we missed the mark. But when it comes to pashanu, pesha, even more egregious, severe, horrific judgment, indiscretion, now we need to appeal to you as malkenu. You are the king of the universe and everything is under your control and you're the source of all. And if you want to be forgiving and forgoing, you can. So we begin selach lanu when it comes to chatanu, when we missed the mark. You're a father, you know we're kids, we're going to miss the mark, please forgive us. When it comes to pashanu, pesha, even more severe, then we say mechal lanu malkenu. Why do we use the word, we last left off last night, unusual, we use the word ki three times. סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו כי מוחל וסולח אתה. The word ki. What does the word ki mean? Because. Because, because, because. So in the bracha, which is reminding us that Hashem is forgiving, because, because, because. Why is the word ki used three times? So I saw a very beautiful idea based on a teaching of Rabbi Ephraim, Rabbi. Freifeld points out we begin our viduy with the phrase אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו, that we and our fathers have made mistakes, have missed the mark. Aval anachnu v'avoseinu. Why? Why do we begin? You're not supposed to start a sentence with the word but, however. And we start a sentence Aval anachnu v'avoseinu. Aval. Why are we starting a sentence with the word Aval? So Rabbi Freifeld suggests that the essence of Aval is taken from the case of Yosef's brothers. When they were accused of being spies, what did they say? They offer an admission. And they say Aval ashemim anachnu. We're guilty. However, but, there's no excuse. There is no one to point the finger at. There is no however, there is no but. Aval, the only thing is ashemim anachnu. So the prerequisite, the prelude, the introduction to any meaningful viduy is to say אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו. The bottom line is we came up short. We failed. We're not failures, we failed. We made a mistake. We made a mistake, we came up short, we missed the opportunity, and we're not going to point a finger. You know, there are apologies that end with the word but. I'm so sorry, but it's not really my fault. But if you would have done it differently. But if you wouldn't have spoken that way I wouldn't have reacted that way. But it's my parents' fault, it's the genetics, it's my grandparents, it's my... however. People make excuses left, right and center. So we understand there is no excuse. At the end of the day we're accountable, we take extreme ownership for our actions and our behavior. So the bracha of Selach Lanu has ki three times because we realize, we realize the foible, we realize the mistake of the however syndrome, of the but syndrome, of pointing a finger. So the answer is סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו. We, it's us, it's on us. מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו. There's no finger, there's no pointing, there's no excuse, there's no justification, there's no rationalizing, there's no excuse. Ki mocheil v'solei'ach. It's all us. And that is Selach Lanu, the prerequisite and the secret to indeed achieving forgiveness in this bracha is when we ultimately will take responsibility and ownership for our actions.
