Repentance
Hello, Your Honor. I wanted to know about repentance. Do I repent so that God will forgive my actions or do I repent for myself, to do soul-searching? If it is so that God will forgive me, what virtue is there in that? Am I preventing myself from any kind of judgment? And in general, if the entire Torah is not intended for reward and punishment but only to be a law of life and to correct a person, then what does it matter to repent before God? It is enough for a person to understand his actions for himself and correct his ways out of the insight that the Torah is the correct path to perfection.
If there is no private providence, does God, the Blessed One, at least “hear”? And should we address Him in the second person in prayer? And what virtue is there in addressing God during repentance or prayer?
Are you asking me why you are repenting? I assume you meant to ask why it is appropriate to repent.
I think because it’s the truth.
What you described at the end is exactly what is called repenting: “It is enough for a person to understand his actions for himself and correct his ways out of the insight that the Torah is the correct path to perfection.”
Thank you Rabbi for the answer. Regarding the second issue of the question - is there any significance in personally addressing God? Is it appropriate to say that He hears prayers? What does it mean if in the end He does not act? After all, a person will not be strengthened in faith by prayers because he understands that God is not responsible for what happens.
This is a question that arises in relation to prayers, and in particular requests. Not necessarily in matters of repentance. On the contrary, in relation to repentance there is no problem. I have explained this several times here and in detail in the second book of the trilogy.
1. I will start by saying that no one assumes that the purpose of prayers is to strengthen faith. Therefore, this is not relevant here.
2. There is no problem with prayers that are not requests (including repentance). I also assume that God is certainly watching and listening, even if He is not involved in what is happening in the world (passive rather than active providence). I explained that even confessions can be understood (this is an opportunity to thank Him for creating the world and everything in it).
3. Regarding requests, this is indeed a problem, since the person requesting expects divine intervention and a change in nature for him (which, in simple terms, is even forbidden. As in praying for the former). Here I wrote that if I were indeed convinced that there is no involvement in any situation, I would stop saying requests. But there is no way to know for sure, and there may be sporadic involvement in rare cases. That's why I really don't add requests beyond what is required, and certainly not for a situation for which I have a natural solution. I say the mandatory requests assuming that there may be occasional involvement, at least in extreme cases (and I mean those cases where involvement is required. Maybe there he does intervene occasionally, although I highly doubt it).
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