58 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020
Spirit
torah portion
R
osh Hashanah always
contains the emphasis
that we consider our
faults, our misdeeds of the
prior year and how to grow
from those.
Among the major themes
of the Jewish High Holidays is
the theme teshuvah, of
repentance and trans-
formation into our best
selves.
In 10 days’
time on
Yom Kippur, we will
acknowledge our mis-
takes and strive to do
good. On Yom Kippur,
we beat our chests as
we recite a litany of sin,
al cheit shchatanu l’
fanae-
cha … “For the sin we
have committed against
you…
” Yet, the concept
of sin, in Hebrew, cheit,
is among the most misunder-
stood in our tradition.
Sin is one of those words we
tend to find repellant. Many
of us grew up thinking of sin
as some horrible evil, connect-
ed with endless guilt, eternal
damnation and a host of other
associations.
Does sin, does cheit really
mean that? No. In the Bible,
the far more common usage is
describing the area of a target
outside the bullseye. Thus, cheit
often is said to be failing to “hit
the mark,
” literally, “a mistake.
”
Even the so-called “sin offer-
ing” (in Hebrew, chatat) of the
Bible can only be offered by
a person who acted b’
shgagah,
inadvertently. Those who do
wrong intentionally, b’
zadon,
are forbidden from bringing
forward chatat offering; chata-
tim were so common that this
type of offering is mandated to
be brought in circumstances
of impurity or following an
accident.
Literally, every person at
some point in their lives will
encounter a circumstance
requiring a so-called “sin”
offering. No one who has or
ever will live will succeed in
escaping failure. In fact, Torah
tells us that this type of
offering, which acknowl-
edged our imperfections
was to be presented
on this very day, Rosh
Hashanah, as well as Yom
Kippur, and that these
offerings were made in
light of our communal
failings.
The message is defini-
tive. Mistakes are a com-
mon, frequent, healthy
and necessary part of life.
American political
scientist Benjamin Barber
writes: “I don’
t divide the world
into the weak and the strong or
the successes and the failures,
those who make it or those
who don’
t. I don’
t even divide
the world into the extroverted
and the introverted or those
who hear the inner voice or
the outer voice because we all
hear some of both. I divide
the world into learners and
non-learners.
“There are people who learn,
who are open to what happens
around them, who listen, who
hear the lessons. When they do
something stupid, they don’
t
do it again. When they do
something that works a little
bit, they do it even better and
harder the next time. The ques-
tion to ask is not whether you
are a success or a failure, but
whether you are a learner or a
non-learner.
”
Rabbi Brent Gutmann is rabbi at Temple
Kol Ami in West Bloomfield.
Parshat Rosh
Hashanah:
Genesis
21:1-34;
Numbers
29:1-6; Isaiah
1:1-2:10.
Rabbi Brent
Gutmann
On Sin And Failure
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