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

In partnership with Case Western Reserve University

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