Twenty-Four Things That Hinder Teshuvah

As we  approach Yom Kippur and the communal repetitions of our litanies of confession, the Vidui and the Al Chet, it is good to deepen the self-examination we have been practicing throughout Elul and the Days of Awe. One way to do this is by taking to heart some of the rabbis’ “Twenty-Four Things That Hinder Teshuvah.” Of these, four are great sins, five close teshuvah in the face of the sinner,  five prevent a person from turning in complete teshuvah, and five are sins toward which the sinner will always be drawn and will find it hard to leave off.

There is one more set and it is this set of five I want to focus on: the “sins for which the sinner may be assumed not to do teshuvah, because they are trivial in the eyes of most [people].  The result is that the sinner imagines she or he has committed no sin.” (See translation and full text in  S.Y. Agnon, The Days of Awe, pp. 111-115.)   Meditating on these may help us enter the public, communal confessions in new ways.  Who are these “trivial” sinners who sin by imagining they have not sinned? We might call these sins sins by way of abusing the imagination.

1. One who eats a meal where there is not enough for the host; this act is a minor form of theft. The guest imagines that he has not sinned, and says to oneself, But I ate with the host’s permission. [This applies to more than food.  But she said it was fine for me to..]

2. One who makes use of a poor person’s pledge, which may be merely an ax or a plow.  The borrower will generally say in her or his heart, They have not lost their value.  Why, I have stolen nothing from that person!  [This applies to more than tools.]

3.  One who looks at a person they may not marry and imagines to themself that they have done nothing wrong.  For they say, Did I lie with her/him, or even come near her/him?  They do not know that even eying a man or woman lustfully is a serious iniquity, for it leads to the act of lust itself, as it is said, “and that ye do not about after your own heart and your own eyes.” (Numb. 15:39)

4. One who tries to gain honor through disparaging another.  They say in their heart that what they have done is not a sin, since the other person was not there at the time, and could not suffer from any shame.  Moreover, they think that they only contrasted their own good deeds and wisdom with the deeds and lack of wisdom of their fellow human being, so that people might gather that they were to be honored and the other to be despised.

5. One who is suspicious of innocent people says in their heart, I am committing no sin, because (they say), What harm have I done to that person?  I only suspect them; perhaps they are guilty, and perhaps they are not.  This person does not realize that thinking of an innocent person as a possible transgressor is an iniquity.

May our self-flattering imaginations not lead us astray as we complete the Days of Awe and teshuvah.