Quotes From Tanya on Teshuvah

The Letters – Chapters Explaining Teshuvah – Repentance / Returning To God

Chapter 1

The Talmud states there are three types of sins with three types of repentance – if one does not do a commandment (a do commandment) of the Torah – as soon as one does Teshuvah (regrets, resolves to do it and expresses an apology) one is immediately forgiven – if one transgresses a prohibitive commandment, then Teshuvah is the first step and Yom Kippur erases the sin – if one transgresses a prohibition which the Torah says the punishment is death either through a court or Divine excision (kares) then Teshuvah is step one, Yom Kippur is step two, and pain/suffering is step three (it should be mentioned, the only reason for suffering is not to punish rather to remove the stain one causes as will be explained.)

A Do commandment from the Torah supersedes a “don’t do” for the latter adds a Divine light (while the former only prevents that the light shouldn’t go to the forces of darkness.)

When we sin we cause that the purity of our soul becomes defiled, like putting black ink on a white paper.

The Torah says that Teshuvah – repentance is the acknowledgment and regret that one has transgressed the will of the king of kings and currently desires to fulfill God’s will.

The only reason there is the notion of fasting (as repentance) is to substitute a possible Divine retribution (with the fast.)

Chapter 2

The reason there was a notion of fasting (for example the Arizal mentioned many different amount of fast for different sins) is an example of a person who angered a king but manged to clam his anger, from a friend of his, who placated the king (for example by saying “he didn’t realize” etc.) However the king’s heart does not feel the same level of love as before his anger,  so in order to get the king’s heart to love him again, he sends him a gift – similarly, is the notion of fasting, which substitutes today our previous obligation to bring a sacrifice in the holy Temple.

Chapter 3

There is a disagreement amongst the Kabbalists if one sin (for example, the sin of emitting wasteful semen where the amount of fasts is 84) does one need to do so, for each time sinned, or does three times 84 cover the sin. The reason for this is, as it states, “when a person sins they create a stain in heaven and when they sin three times they darken the whole heaven” – hence the three repentance.

However fasting was only permissible in the olden days when people’s stamina was much greater and the fasting did not effect them – this is particularly true of a person who studies Torah hence his fasting will create a lack of ability to focus.

Today the mechanism to rectify one’s sins, because one cannot fast is to substitute the fast with charity (generally we consider the cost of a meal $3.00 and considering there are three meals a day it would mean spending @9 per day.)

The bottom line is, that to rectify one’s sins one should give today as much (if not everything) they can to charity.