Reflections on Tachanun [Confession]
Come, my brothers, let’s talk straight.
We are all impure and have been for almost 2000 years since the Chorban [destruction of the Temple]. Without the Beis ha Mikdash [the Temple], the paroh adumoh [red heifer], and the sacrifices, our fathers and also we have no way to become tahor [pure].
Why did Ha-kodesh Baruch Hu give us the law of taharah [purity] and then abandon us to not be able to keep the law and to be impure for 2000 years?
Without sacrifices our sins lie unforgiven, heaped up against us, and have been for 2000 years. Even though some of us refuse to admit this, there is no denying the truth. As it is written in Parshoh Acharei Mos in Vayikro perek
יז
pasuk
יא
:
כִּי־נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם הִוא וַֽאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו לָכֶם עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְכַפֵּר עַל־נַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶם כִּֽי־הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּֽר:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to atone for your souls; for the blood by the life atones.”
You may say, “Tefillos [prayers], tzeduko [righteous deeds], and teshuvo [repentance] are enough to cleanse our impure souls [tumah] and our sins.” But let me tell you, my dear brothers, we all know this isn’t true.
Why else do we pray this at Mincho on fast days?
ועכשיו ישבתי בתענית ונתמעט חלבי ודמי. יהי רצון מלפניך שיהא מעוט חלבי ודמי שנתמעט היום, כאלו הקרבתיו לפניך על גב המזבח.
“...Now I have engaged in a fast, and my own fat and blood have been diminished. May it be your will that the lessening of my own fat and blood that was diminished today should be as if I had offered it upon the Altar.”
We pray this because we know that the blood of a sacrifice is required for our forgiveness and purification. But it is, of course, ridiculous to suppose that the diminishing of our own blood can bring forgiveness for our own sins or replace any sacrifice from the Beis ha-Mikdash. Sacrifices are supposed to be shalem [perfect], and we are not shalem. “We are not so brazen and obstinate as to say... that we are righteous and have not sinned- rather we and our forefathers have sinned.”
שֶׁאֵין אָֽנוּ עַזֵּי פָנִים וּקְשֵׁי עֹֽרֶף, לוֹמַר... צַדִּיקִים אֲנַֽחְנוּ וְלֹא חָטָֽאנוּ, אֲבָל אֲנַֽחְנוּ וַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ חָטָֽאנוּ.
So we have reached our dilemma. We have been impure and drowning in our sins for 2000 years, and we can do nothing about it on our own behalf. We could do teshuvo a hundred times or go to the mikveh [ritual bath] every day or say Tachanun until we have no more breath, and it would not be enough to cleanse ourselves.
Is the Ribbono shel Olam, Who has mercy on His children going to abandon us to this state of impurity [tumah] for so long and leave His people without a sacrifice? Will he not forgive our sins? Of course. Ha-kodesh Baruch-Hu is rachum v’chanun. But he will only forgive us if we repent in the manner he prescribed- the Beis ha-Mikdash.
But there is no Beis ha-Mikdash, “v’anachnu lo nedo mah ne’aseh”
וַאֲנַֽחְנוּ לֹא נֵדַע מַה
נַּעֲשֶׂה
[and we do not know what to do]. He would not ignore our pleading to “hatzilenu v’chaper al chatoseynu”
וְהַצִּילֵֽנוּ וְכַפֵּר עַל חַטֹּאתֵֽינוּ לְמַֽעַן שְׁמֶֽךָ.
[save us and atone for our sins].
Is it not logical then to suppose that the Ribbono shel Olam would provide another way for us to be pure [tahor]? This new way would have to have been given sometime before or shortly after the Chorban so that our forefathers would not be left bereft of forgiveness when the Beis ha-Mikdash fell into flames.
We find in the Scriptures (Writings) that Yeshua, who walked in Eretz Yisroel forty years before the Chorban told the people that
he
had forgiven their sins! How could this be? No ordinary man has any right to say such a thing. But he was no ordinary man. He was the the one who fulfilled what the Tenach predicted about the Moshiach, who was sinless and who was sent from Hashem to be our atonement, and then rose from the dead in victory over sin and death. He was the Moshiach!
As Yeshayohu ha-novi wrote about him in perek
נג
posekim
ד-ו
: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by G-d, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and Hashem has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
אָכֵן חֳלָיֵנוּ הוּא נָשָׂא וּמַכְאֹבֵינוּ סְבָלָם וַֽאֲנַחְנוּ חֲשַׁבְנֻהוּ נָגוּעַ מֻכֵּה אֱלֹקים וּמְעֻנֶּֽה: וְהוּא מְחֹלָל מִפְּשָׁעֵנוּ מְדֻכָּא מֵֽעֲוֹֽנֹתֵינוּ מוּסַר שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ עָלָיו וּבַֽחֲבֻֽרָתוֹ נִרְפָּא־לָֽנוּ: כֻּלָּנוּ כַּצֹּאן תָּעִינוּ אִישׁ לְדַרְכּוֹ פָּנִינוּ וַֽיהֹוָה הִפְגִּיעַ בּוֹ אֵת עֲוֹן כֻּלָּֽנוּ:
We must not let our pride prevent us from at least considering these words because we need this forgiveness that ha-Kodesh Baruch-Hu has provided for us. Yeshua, the Moshiach of the Yiddin (the Jewish Messiah), calls us to put our trust in him to forgive our sins and purify our souls. Ask Hashem to open your eyes and show the truth about atonement and forgiveness and the Moshiach, for he hears our prayers and will answer us. Ask him to show you if Yeshua could be the Moshiach, and don’t be afraid to hear and believe his answer, whatever it might be.
