Elul 5784 – Hilchos Teshuva 1: Teshuva for Non-Aveiros

Rambam begins Hilchot Teshuva:

כל המצוות שבתורה בין עשה בין לא תעשה אם עבר אדם על אחת מהן בין בזדון בין בשגגה שיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו חייב להתוודות לפני הקל ברוך הוא.

The double phrase שיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו is very much omer darsheni. If the Rambam would have written either alone, so we would not have noticed that anything was missing. If the Rambam would have said שיעשה תשובה חייב להתוודות, we would have been fine. If he would have said kesheyashuv mechato. So why that double lashon שיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו? Later in Perek Gimmel, the famous Rambam about tekiat shofar, the Rambam writes:

אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו כלומר עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל הביטו לנפשותיכם והטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.

So famously the Rambam interprets that the tekiat shofar is a wake up call for teshuva. So I heard once a remarkable, just so truthful insight into this Rambam from my father zecher tzadik livracha. We would have expected if a wake up call for teshuva is being issued, so who's the audience? To whom is the wake up call for teshuva addressed? So we would have said for choteh, right? Hear ye sinners, right? That's going to be the wake up call for teshuva. But when the Rambam identifies who his audience is, who the Torah's audience is for this wake up call for teshuva, initially he doesn't say anything about chet. Ultimately he does, but initially:

אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל.

So to whom is the wake up call for teshuva addressed? People who are busy tailgating. Life is one big party, they're busy tailgating, they're busy with nonsense, they're busy with pettiness, they're busy with frivolity, they're busy with everything that's ephemeral and transient. Not necessarily inherently sinful, leaving aside bitul torah, not necessarily something which is inherently sinful. Ultimately, ultimately, if a person lives such a shallow, empty existence, of course that breeds chet. That's the soil is fertile for chet. But initially again there's an emptiness, there's a superficiality, there's just his life is just devoid of anything which is meaningful, of focus which is anything on enduring. That's the context or the mindset of this person. And lich'ora that's what the Rambam means here as well. When the Rambam has that double phrase of שיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו, so the beauty of the phrase sheya'aseh teshuva is that the Rambam speaks of teshuva without referencing a specific chet. That's the genius of that phrase. sheya'aseh teshuva because the Rambam again he's talking about the person needs a paradigm shift. It's the context of chet was a certain again, usually, I find confirmation for the Rambam when I look in the mirror, I don't know, I can't speak for anyone else. But usually the context of chet again is this it doesn't begin as chet, it begins with again just misplaced focus and emptiness and hollowness and superficiality and pettiness. So that what the Rambam says sheya'aseh teshuva, a person needs to change that paradigm, there needs to be a paradigm shift, and then he proceeds to the veyashuv mechato.