Elul 5784 – Hilchos Teshuva 18: Saying Viduy on the Doorstep of Death – A Yom Kippur Mindset

פרק א' הלכה א', the Rambam writes,

כיצד מתוודה אומר אנא השם חטאתי עויתי פשעתי לפניך ועשיתי כך וכך והרי ניחמתי ובושתי במעשי ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה זהו עיקרו של וידוי.

The Avodas Hamelech asks that later in פרק ב' הלכה ח', the Rambam quotes the Gemara in the end of Yoma. The Rambam writes the vidui in the context of talking about Yom Hakippurim that חייבין הכל לעשות תשובה ולהתוודות ביום הכפורים, so the Rambam follows up that in פרק ב' הלכה ח', based on the Gemara at the end of Yoma and says הוידוי שנהגו בו כל ישראל אבל חטאנו, and in case we didn't pick up on the stira, the Rambam then uses the same phrase vehu ikar havidui. The very same phrase of vehu ikar havidui. That's the question the Avodas Hamelech raises. So just very briefly, indicating two possible approaches. In the end of perek gimmel of Maaseh Hakorbanos, when the Rambam is talking about the vidui before the hakravas hachatas or asham, so the Rambam writes,

כיצד מתוודה אומר חטאתי עויתי פשעתי ועשיתי כך וכך וחזרתי בתשובה לפניך וזו כפרתי.

So it's clear that the vidui on the occasion of the imminent kapara when the mechaper is ready to be chal, that that's a different din of vidui than the vidui which follows up the teshuvah. That there's a vidui which is the as it were the second stage of teshuvah, which is פרק א' הלכה א', and then there's the vidui in conjunction with kapara. And it clearly has a different standard and different definition. Here too you don't have the nichamti uvoshti, you don't have the kabala al ha'osid. That's one possible approach again, it needs to be elaborated. The other one is that the Mishna says in Sanhedrin that kol hamumatin misvadin and quotes the psukim from Yehoshua by Achan where Yehoshua says to Achan תן תודה לה' אלהי ישראל, toda מלשון הודאת בעל דין acknowledgment. And then Achan proceeds to say that kazeh vechazeh asisi. And this is the paradigm for a vidui not only if one is receiving misas beis din, but a vidui besha'as misa. And the Mishna says that אם איני יודע להתוודות, if the person doesn't know on his own how to express in a vidui, so then they teach him to say תהא מיתתי כפרה על כל עונותיי. And that's the nusach havidui. So there too that nusach havidui doesn't in any way correspond to the Rambam פרק א' הלכה א'. So apparently a vidui besha'as misa has also has its own definition. So yitachen as follows: On Yom Kippur, on the where we stand before the chasima, ביום צום כיפור יחתמון, so the attitude the reality and therefore the attitude a person's supposed to have is that every year a person gets a renewal, hopefully be'ezras Hashem, his lease on life is renewed for a year. And that lease expires on Yom Kippur and we beseech Hakadosh Baruch Hu that that lease be renewed. But the vidui on Yom Kippur corresponds to the definition of a vidui besha'as misa as opposed to פרק א' הלכה א' where the Rambam is talking about a person does teshuvah any any day of the year. Gmar chasima tova.