Wednesday, September 19, 2007

What sin?

Why do we say "vehu rachum yechaper avon" immediately after Yom Kippur, right at the moment when our sins have just been forgiven?

Perhaps this is because you cannot really ask for forgiveness until you realize the magnitude of what you have done. Once you reach this point, even if you have formal atonement, you will run to ask for forgiveness on your own initiative.

We fully reach this point only at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

(R' Haim Druckman, Hoshana Rabba '06)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard we say it because when we say "next year in Jerusalem" we don't really mean it, and that's a sin.

But then there might be someone who does mean it, so perhaps they're atoning for something else.

Beisrunner said...

I've heard that too; it's possible there is more than one reason why we say it. Multiple reasons may even apply to the same person.