Q&A: Repentance
Repentance
Question
Hello Rabbi. It seems that repentance is meant for everyone. In Maimonides, and already in the Five Books of the Torah, this seems clear that everyone needs to repent. Many ethical teachers speak about “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again” and “There is no righteous person on earth who does good and never sins.”
And the question is: if no person can reach perfection, then apparently perfection is not actually expected of him either, so how can there be an obligation to regret that?
Answer
I didn’t understand the pilpul.
Discussion on Answer
First, there is a dispute whether repentance is a commandment. Second, there are conditional commandments that not everyone fulfills. Someone who didn’t steal does not need to make restitution, and someone who doesn’t want fledglings does not need to send away the mother bird.
There is a day designated for repentance, and there are prayers and halakhic obligations meant for everyone. That is not comparable to theft.
It seems that there is some fundamental element in repentance that everyone is obligated in, and seemingly if someone has reached the peak of his ability, it is not clear why he should have to repent.
Isn’t that so?
Repentance is a commandment. In order to repent, a person has to sin. How can someone who has never sinned fulfill the commandment of repentance?