Over the past few weeks, several people have told me that they've read or reread my post on kaparah from earlier this year. Initially I intended to revisit this idea to reassess it and see if I can gain any new insights. I can't promise that I'll be able to do that before Yom ha'Kippurim this year, but I thought it would be worthwhile to repost it (with slight
edits), in case anyone would like to contribute their own insights, questions, comments, and problems.
Introduction
Every year - usually around Rosh ha'Shanah and Yom ha'Kippurim - I find myself bothered by the question: "What is
kaparah?" According to the Radak, the word
"kaparah" in this context refers to the removal of sin (see the
Sefer ha'Shorashim, כ.פ.ר.). But what, exactly, does this mean? Does it refer to some mystical notion of "erasing our sins" from Hashem's "record"? Does
kaparah pertain to the state of our souls in
Olam ha'Ba? Is
kaparah a type of
hashgachah that aids us somehow in
Olam ha'Zeh? We have an obligation and responsibility to engage in certain actions which are said to effectuate
kaparah, and yet, we often speak of
kaparah as though it must be "granted" to us - as though our role in obtaining
kaparah is passive. How does that work? And what is the relationship between
kaparah and
teshuvah? If a person does complete
teshuvah, why does he still require
kaparah? What more is there left for him to do?
Needless to say, this is a massive topic, and it would be unrealistic to expect any theory to answer all questions and to remove all doubts. That being said, our objective in this post will be to propose one theory of
kaparah based on several sources in the Ralbag and the Rambam. If this theory makes sense here then perhaps we will be able to apply it to other instances of the term
kaparah throughout the Torah system.
Smichah al ha'Korban
Our journey begins with the first instance of the term
kaparah in Sefer Vayikra, which occurs within the first several
pesukim:
He called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: Speak to the Children and say to them: When a man among you brings a sacrifice to Hashem: from animals - from the cattle or from the flock shall you bring your sacrifice. If one's offering is a burnt-sacrifice from the cattle, he shall sacrifice an unblemished male; he shall bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, voluntarily, before Hashem. He shall lean his hands upon the head of the burnt-sacrifice; and he shall attain favor through it, to provide kaparah (atonement) for him. He shall slaughter the bull before Hashem; the sons of Aharon, the Kohanim, shall bring the blood and throw the blood on the Altar, all around - which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting (Vayikra 1:1-5).
The
pesukim imply that the act of
smichah is a component of the
kaparah that is attained through the
korban. This implication is confirmed by Torah she'baal Peh. The Rambam writes in Hilchos Maaseh ha'Korbanos 3:12 (based on a Gemara in Yoma 5a):
We slaughter the animal in the same location as the smichah, and the shechitah (slaughtering) takes place immediately after the smichah. If one did smichah in another location or delayed [between the smichah and the shechitah], his shechitah is still valid. Smichah is an incremental aspect of the mitzvah. Therefore, if one did not do smichah, his korban still effectuates kaparah, and does not jeopardize his fulfillment of the mitzvah. Nevertheless, it is considered as if his korban did not effectuate kaparah.
This is a strange halacha. Apparently, if a person does not do
smichah, his
korban still fulfills the
halachic requirements of
kaparah - and yet, his
kaparah is considered to be lacking in
another sense (see Ritva on Yoma 5a). In what sense is it considered as if he did not achieve
kaparah? And why not? What makes
smichah such an integral part of the
kaparah process?
Ralbag's Explanation
The Ralbag answers this question, and in doing so, provides a fundamental insight into the purpose of
korbanos and lays the groundwork for a theory of
kaparah. In his commentary on the
parshah (1:4) the Ralbag writes:
He shall lean his hands upon the head of the burnt-sacrifice. Since this smichah is a sort of kaparah-device
in the same manner as the burnt-sacrifice itself provides kaparah, the
sinner therefore confesses his avonos (iniquities) at the time of smichah. We
learn this from what was said in Parshas Acharei Mos: “Aharon shall lean his
two hands upon the head of the living he-goat and confess upon it all the
avonos of the Children of Israel, [and all their rebellious sins among all
their sins, and place them upon the head of the he-goat, and send it with a
designated man to the desert]” (Vayikra 16:21). The smichah was for
this very reason: to demonstrate [that it is] as if he removed those avonos
from himself and transferred them to the head of that animal, in order to reassure
him in his heart that his avonos have already been removed. This provides a
tremendous benefit, for if a person does not think that his sins are removed
when he does teshuvah to Hashem (exalted is He), then a person who
committed terrible sins will think that he is utterly doomed, and he will
continue to sin even more, for he thinks that there is no benefit in doing teshuvah
to Hashem, since is already doomed by his sins [in his own mind]. This is the
general benefit in all of the korbanos which are brought for sins; they
will not bring kaparah without teshuvah.
Ralbag elaborates on this in the
toeles section of his commentary:
[This parshah] guides men towards perfection by teaching that when
they sin, they should return in teshuvah to Hashem (exalted is He) and
He will provide kaparah of their avonos for them. The reason for this is that “there
is no righteous person on earth who does only good and does not sin” (Koheles
7:20). If those who committed certain sins believed that their avon would be a permanent stain before Hashem (exalted is He), they would continue
to sin, since they would believe that they are already doomed on account of
their sin, and they would miss out on the benefits of guarding against sinning in
the future. If, however, they know that by doing teshuvah from their
evil path and returning to the paths of Hashem (exalted is He) that He will remove
their avonos for them, then they will be careful not to sin in the future,
and they will do teshuvah to Hashem so that He will have mercy on them
and provide kaparah for their sin. Hashem wanted teshuvah to be accompanied by the
bringing of a korban in order to reassure the sinner that his sin has
already received kaparah. The reason for this is that to the masses it is
inconceivable that a man can be wicked and subsequently be cleansed of his
wickedness through doing teshuvah in his heart, without any action
whatsoever. It is for this reason that Hashem (exalted is He) commanded us to
do these korbanos in the revered sanctuary, which houses His shechinah,
through the kohen who is set aside for avodas Hashem – in order
to complete the kaparah for the sinner along with teshuvah. For this reason there is a mitzvah [for the sinner] to
lean with his two hands on the head of his korban and to confess all of
his iniquities upon it, in order that his heart may be reassured that it is as
if those sins have been removed from him and placed onto the head of that
animal. By doing the korbanos in this manner in the order specified in
the Torah, man is guided along the path of perfection to avodas Hashem
and is distanced from following his yetzer ha’ra.
Ralbag's explanation can be summarized as follows.
Kaparah cannot occur without
teshuvah. However, even
teshuvah is insufficient, for the sinner will still feel that his
avon is "a permanent stain before God," and that he is forever tainted by his
avonos. This line of thinking is dangerous, for unless a person believes that
teshuvah can completely eradicate his
avonos, he is prone to give up on
teshuvah altogether and to persist in or increase his
avonos. To overcome this psychological roadblock, Hashem commands the sinner to complete his
teshuvah process by engaging in symbolic actions - actions which appeal to the imagination and speak to the psyche in its own terms - in order to "reassure his heart" that his
avonos have been completely removed, and that no trace of them remains. These symbolic actions include the bringing of a
korban in the
Beis ha'Mikdash, performing
smichah on that
korban, and verbalizing a
vidui (confession) on that
korban - as if one is transferring one's
avonos to the head of the animal - whereupon the animal will immediately undergo
shechitah (slaughtering) and
hakravah on the
mizbach kaparah (altar of atonement).
This is the manner in which
teshuvah, combined with the bringing of a
korban - complete with
smichah,
vidui, and
shechitah - effectuates full
kaparah (i.e. complete removal of the
avon). Full
kaparah cannot occur until one has completely abandoned the
avon, not only in one's actions, but even from one's psyche. This psychological dimension of the
kaparah is difficult to achieve through
teshuvah alone. Man requires an symbolic action to impress upon his psyche that his slate is clean and his sin has been erased.
I believe that this is meaning of the halacha that if one fails to do
smichah, his
korban still effectuates halachic
kaparah, but "it is considered as if his
korban did not effectuate
kaparah." In other words, the
korban itself received the requisite "processing" in
Mikdash to satisfy the requirements for
kaparah, but the
gavra - the individual who sinned - will not receive full
kaparah since his psyche did not undergo the catharsis which the
smichah was designed to facilitate.
Rambam's Explanation
The Rambam seems to agree with this idea as well. In the
taamei ha'mitzvos section of the
Moreh ha'Nevuchim, the Rambam divides all 613 mitzvos into fourteen categories and attempts to identify the reasons and/or benefits for each and every mitzvah. The first category is that of
yesodei ha'Torah: mitzvos which are designed to teach and strengthen our conviction in the foundational principles of Torah. The Rambam (3:36) concludes his exposition on this category by discussing the mitzvah of
teshuvah:
It is obvious that teshuvah is likewise included
in this category; that is to say, it is one of the doctrines which are indispensable
in maintaining the existence of Torah adherents, for it is impossible for any man
not to err and sin – either because he mistakenly adopts a wrongful doctrine or
character trait, or else he is overcome by desire or anger – and if man were convinced
that he could never make his crooked ways straight, he would forever continue
in his errors, and maybe even increase his disobedience if he believed there was
no alternative. But with the belief in teshuvah, he will come back to
the good and will return to an even more perfected state – even more perfected
than he was before he sinned. For this reason, [the Torah commands us] in many
actions which strengthen our belief in this very beneficial principle: for
example, the confessions, and the korbanos for sins committed
unknowingly – and in some cases even for sins committed intentionally – and the
fasts. The general principle behind teshuvah from any sin is the
complete removal of sin, and this is the purpose of this doctrine.
The Rambam is clearly talking about the same phenomenon as the Ralbag, namely, the sinner's feeling that he is "doomed by his sins." Like the Ralbag, the Rambam maintains that the institutions of
vidui and the
korbanos are designed to strengthen one's conviction in the efficacy of
teshuvah. Moreover, the Rambam implies that the sinner is prone to fall into this type of despair both before and after he engages in
teshuvah. We see this from the fact that
taaniyos (fast days) and
chatzotzros (the sounding of the trumpets, which accompany every
taanis) are designed to stimulate and initiate
teshuvah whereas
vidui and
korban occur at the very end of the
teshuvah process - and yet, the Rambam states that the purpose of all of these mitzvos is "to strengthen our belief" in the efficacy of
teshuvah.
Does the Rambam agree with the Ralbag's idea that the Torah commands us in symbolic actions which are designed to speak to the psyche in its own language? It seems so. In his explanation of the reasons behind the
korbanos, the Rambam (3:46) writes:
But the intent
behind the burning of these chataos (sin-offerings) is that the memory
of the sin [for which the offering is brought] has already been erased and no
longer exists, just as the body that is being burnt no longer exists, and no
trace will be left of that [sinful] action, just as no trace is left of this chatas,
which is utterly destroyed by fire . . . And since the seir ha’mishtaleach
(the goat that is "cast off" on Yom ha’Kippurim) served as the ultimate kaparah
for all major transgressions, more than any other communal-chatas,
therefore we do not slaughter it or burn it or bringing it to the altar at all;
rather, we remove it as far as possible and cast it off to a desolate,
uninhabited land. There is no man who will doubt the fact that sins are not
actually an entity that can be transferred from the back of one being onto another.
Rather, these are all symbolic actions which impart an impression to the
soul in order to arouse it to teshuvah – as if to say, “We have cleansed
ourselves from all of our previous deeds, and we have cast them behind our
backs and rejected them with the utmost degree of rejection.”
Here the Rambam explicitly acknowledges the symbolic character of these
korbanos which are intended to have a psychological affect (התפעלות - in both the Qafih and Ibn Tibbon translations) on the sinner to spur him to do
teshuvah and to strengthen his belief in its efficacy. Although the Rambam does not discuss the specific reason for
smichah on
korbanos, it is reasonable to interpret it in the same vein as the other aspects of the
korban-chatas which he spelled out in the excerpts cited here.
Conclusion
As we stated at the outset, there still remain numerous questions that have yet to be answered. For instance, the Rambam devotes the bulk of
Hilchos Teshuvah, Perek 1 to explaining how and when
kaparah is attained for various types of transgressions. This hierarchy begs for an explanation. Likewise, our
tefilos are filled with requests for Hashem to grant us
kaparah. What do all of these requests mean? And what does it mean to ask Hashem for
kaparah anyway?
B'gzeiras ha'Tzur,
we will take up these questions in the future. In the meantime, I would love to hear any thoughts, questions, and critiques on this idea of
kaparah.
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