Parsha Points- Naso by Ariel
Freda, a student at Midreshet Devora
Everyone makes mistakes.
Everyone in their life time at some point or another will do something wrong. By
nature, we as human beings are built to fail sometimes, and that is exactly
what we do. However, part of the beauty in Judaism is the concept of tshuva,
which allows us to come back from things that we have done wrong.
In Parshat Naso, God tells
Moshe: “When a man or
woman commits any of the sins against man to act treacherously against God, and
that person is [found] guilty, they shall confess the sin they
committed…” This seems very clear. Anyone who sins and is proven to be guilty needs
to admit that they have done wrong. When we study the concept of tshuva
, we see different steps such as recognition of the sin, repentance, correcting
the wrong of the sin, sacrifice, mikvah, and confession (vidui). You
would think that after having already corrected one’s behavior and making
things better it would be enough. Why does one need to verbally admit the sin
committed?
It is very easy for people to just say the words “I’m sorry” and
be done with the situation. However, when we are forced to verbalize something,
we reach a whole new level of reality in which the sin that has been committed
becomes something a little more tangible for us to deal with. We admit things
so that we know that they are real. By not verbalizing or confessing the sin or
wrongdoing, it is as if we ignore it entirely and don’t apologize, specifically,
for that sin. When we verbalize what we have done, our sincerity increases.
What does all of this mean?
Why do we confess our sins? Why does God need to hear our sins being
confessed? He is God after all, He knows everything. He knows how sorry we are
for the sins we commit whether we admit it or not. But we do not do vidui
for His sake, we do it for ours. Doing vidui helps us understand the
wrongs we have committed so that we are able to complete full tshuva and
recognize the essence of what was done wrong.
We live in a world where many people say “I’m sorry” whenever they
can and think that is enough. We need to be able to truly see what sins and
wrongs we commit as well as admit our wrongdoings not just to the other person
and not just to God, but to ourselves. In this way we can have a complete tshuva
and get just that much closer to making this world an even more suitable
dwelling place for God.
Ariel Freda is from
