Yoma 86 a, b

Repentance is the theme of today's daf.  Does it work?  How does Yom Kippur offer us opportunity to change after we have made mistakes?  A long-standing practice of mine is addressed, as well: we should always be on our best behaviour.  For example, as a prominent Jew in my community, if I am to eat non-Kosher food, I am modelling that eating non-Kosher food is generally acceptable.  Similarly, if I shop on Shabbat or if I steal something, I might inadvertently alter people's ideas of what it means to be a Jewish leader.  Now, I'm not a leader in any official capacity - and as a child, when I also practiced this way of being, I was not a leader by any means - but that tradition of social responsibility was a strong Jewishly informed value that continues to influence my behaviour.

To sin is to transgress; either to not perform a positive mitzvah or to perform a negative mitzvah.  The rabbis disagree: is it worse to break a positive mitzvah or to break a negative mitzvah?  The first asks that we act, the second asks that we do not act.   Repentance atones for positive mitzvot and for negative mitzvot that can be corrected (through performing appropriate positive mitzvot).  Repentance suspends punishment and Yom Kippur atones for sins that are punishable by karet, the death penalty, and "full fledged negative mitzvot" (ie. those that cannot be corrected by performing positive mitzvot).

We learn in Exodus 20:6 that G-d does not absolve us when we take the name of the Lord in vain. All other similar prohibitions, therefore must be absolved.  Any sin worse that this (and including taking G-d's name in vain), is absolved by Yom Kippur.

Taking G-d's name in vain is serious business. We learn that when we repent, we are absolved from punishment either on the spot, on Yom Kippur, or on Yom Kippur with a mitigated punishment - depending on the sin.  For example, a sin that is punishable by karet can be atoned if one repents on Yom Kippur; suffering will serve as the punishment instead of death. But Isaiah is unequivocal: we will not be atoned for desecrating G-d's name until we die.

Taking G-d's name in vain does not refer to swearing alone.  I tend to think of desecrating G-d's name as using G-d's actual name or as using G-d spoken names in non-sacred contexts.  But that is not what our Sages are talking about when they speak of taking the Lord's name in vain.  For a Torah scholar, any prohibition of a Torah law is considered to be a manner of taking G-d's name in vain.  Abaye is careful to pay both butchers half of his payment in the butcher shop, for example.  Before he leaves, he brings both butchers together to show them payment has been made and to settle any change owed.  If others saw Abaye leave without paying - even though he was paying on credit - they might think that it was alright to steal.

The rabbis tell us that we must read Torah, learn Mishna, serve Torah scholars, be fair in business dealings, and be pleasant to people.  If we do not do these things, we desecrate G-d's name.  However, if we do these things that are asked of us, we demonstrate G-d's love here on the earth.

We can repent based on love, fear, or suffering.  Suffering is the lowest of these three options: almost all people will repent when we are suffering, for we are eager that the suffering end.  But to repent based on love of G-d or fear of G-d is said to be rare.

Jeremiah (3:22) says, "Return, you backsliding children I will heal your backsliding", which implies that repentance is open to all of us.  However, in (3:14) Jeremiah clarifies: only certain people will be able to repent ("one from a city and two from a family").  This is resolved through understanding that the first phrase is speaking of repentance through love and fear while the second is through suffering.  And then Rabbi Levi uses Hosea (14:2) to remind us that we are told to "Return, Israel, to the Lord your G-d".  Rabbi Levi reminds us that repentance is sent directly to G-d.

Amud (b) continues with the theme of repentance.  A number of rabbis share their thoughts.

• Rabbi Yochanan tells us that G-d hears our repentance even if we commit a sin as terrible as adultery - a first husband should not take back his adulterous wife, but G-d will take us back.   
• Rabbi Yonatan tells us that when we repent in Jacob's (sins?), we will be redeemed when Moshiach comes (Isaiah 59:20).  
• Reish Lakish teaches that intentional sins are treated as unintentional.   Iniquity (from Hosea 14:2) refers to an intentional sin, but it is referred to as 'stumbling'.
• The Gemara tells us that Reish Lakish goes so far as to say that repentance turns intentional sins into 'merits': repenting out of love turns sins to merits.  Sins remain unintentional when we repent out of fear.  
• Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani tells of Rabbi Yonatan: Repentance makes us live longer.  The proof text is Ezekiel 18:27 where we learn that when a wicked man turns from his wickedness, he will preserve his life.
• Rabbi Yitzchak tells us in the name of Rabba bar Mari: People may or may not be appeased by words of repentance.  G-d, on the other hand, will always be appeased by our words - G-d considers our repentance a favour.
• Rabbi Meir tells us that all people are forgiven when just one person repents (Hosea 14:5 tells us that G-d will heal their backsliding when hearing repentance from one person)

How do we know when a person has truly repented?  Rav Yehuda suggests that when a person does not sin when presented with a perfect opportunity to sin (especially when s/he has sinned in that way in the past), s/he has fully repented.  A publicized sin requires a public repentance.  A sin against G-d, not known to the public, should not be repented publicly.   

Rabbi Ysei bar Yehuda quotes Amos 2:6 and Job 33:29 to prove that a person can sin and be forgiven three times.  The fourth time that s/he commits that sin, s/he is not forgiven.  

The Tosefta note that we do not confess a sin that we confessed last year on Yom Kippur.  Instead, we confess if we have repeated them.  A lovely quote from Proverbs 26:11 is used as a proof text: As a dog that returns to its vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly."  Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya'akov disagrees.  We are praiseworthy if we confess a sin again, for we always see our faults (Psalms 52:15).   When that idea is challenged, Rav Huna tells us that a sin committed again is permitted.  The Gemara reinterprets: it must be that Rav Huna means that sins seem as if they have become permitted when we repeat them.  In confessing our sins on Yom Kippur, we are not meant to be general.  We are to look at our own individual sins.  

The rabbis tell us that Moses and David good leaders of the Jewish people as they both speak of their disgraces in terms of writing: Moses wants his sins to be written explicitly.  David does not want his sins to be written at all, for private sins are forgiven.  Each of them has a proof text for his view.

The Gemara compares Moses and David to two women who are being flogged in court as punishment for their sins.  The first engaged in a forbidden sexual relation while the second ate the forbidden, unripe figs in a Sabbatical year.  The second woman asked that her sin be publicized - she did not want people to think that they were both being flogged for a sexually-based sin.  The court hung unripe figs from her neck and announced her sin before the flogging.  In turn, Moses wanted his sin to be announced publicly so that people would not think he was being punished for the sin of the golden calf; the report of the spies.  

The rabbis are concerned that people who sin grievously might be seen as 'just another person who has sinned'.   Our daf ends with another concern of our rabbis: those who are wicked - people who continue to sin without repentance - cause their own destruction.  They think about things that are forbidden, leading to karet.  And, in fact, people who are in positions of authority cut their lives short.  Judges and others in authority have ample opportunity to err in every judgement, and misjudgement is punishable by death at the hand of heaven.