Apologizing Before Yom Kippur

In this short Elul series of shiurim, we will explore the gemara’s text concerning the need to appease someone we have wronged, before we can deserve the atonement of Yom Kippur.

In this first shiur, we will review, and make sure we understand in a precise way, the atonement that Yom Kippur brings for various kinds of transgressions. Then we will see the gemara’s explanation of verses from Tanach that either support, or need to be reconciled with the limitation of Yom Kippur’s atonement power when it comes to sins between man and man.

Shalom, I sincerely apologize to all interested students for forgetting to push the “record” button for this shiur! So there is no recording. Sorry..

I will report here on what we covered in this class, so that you can follow it together with the presentation that I will post here.

In the previous shiur, we began reading the mishna found in the middle of the page of the gemara at Masechet Yoma 85b. We discussed the power of atonement of Yom Kippur, and the limits to that atonement power, first from the beginning sentences of the mishna itself and then from the Rambam Hilchot Teshuva ch. 1.  We then discussed the statement in the mishna relevant to our present Elul study, regarding the conditional power of Yom Kippur to atone, when it comes to transgressions between man and fellow man.

In this shiur, we read the first 3-4 lines of the gemara that discusses the above line of mishna (17 lines up from the bottom of Yoma 87a) and translated and broke it into its sequential parts. Since the difficulty with the mishna raised by Rav Yosef ben Habo is from a verse in Shmuel I chapter 2 (v. 25), we read together the verses of that chapter that provide context for the above verse. Then we went back to the gemara and gave an understanding of the first exchange in the discussion between Rav Yosef bar Habo and Rabbi Abahu on the apparent contradiction between that verse and our mishna. In the next shiur we will continue to the end of this discussion and read Rashi’s explanation of it, before we move on to the next part of the gemara.

The summary of what was done in the previous shiur is in the notes for that session, above, and the source material to be used in this shiur is posted there also,

At the beginning of this shiur, we will continue with the dialog between Rav Yosef ben Habo and R. Abahu concerning the verse in Shmuel I chapter 2, and reach a clear understanding of how in the end R. Abahu explains the verse. We will read the comments and explanations of Rashi on this piece. Then we will continue on to the following segments of the gemara, which define the extent of the requirement to appease the wronged party. Finally, and time allowing, we will read the first stories brought in the gemara which help us understand the way the amoraim view this requirement and its boundaries.

In this shiur, the final one of this series for Elul, we will read and discuss a few stories brought in the gemara about amoraim that teach us a surprising and perhaps unexpected degree of sensitivity towards the party that committed the wrong and needs to apologize.