• February 9, 2025
  • 11 5785, Shevat
  • פרשת יתרו

The Vidui Confession

The Vidui Confession

The Vidui is the essential prayer of the Yom Kippur service. The Rambam explains that the mitzvah of teshuvah is based on the act of confessing our sins. Join Rabbi Dr. Stuart Fischman as he discusses it’s origins and spiritual applications.

August 25, 2021 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The Vidui Confession: The Vidui Confession
Class description

There is a popular saying that goes “confession is good for the soul.” The words “good” and “soul”  are obviously full of all sorts of theological and philosophical intimations but in these two sessions we will discuss the Halacha of confession specifically  as it relates to repentance-teshuvah.

Perhaps as we finish the discussions of confession and teshuvah we will acquire a better idea of what “good” and “soul” mean to us as Jews and whether the popular saying has any validity from the Jewish perspective.

September 1, 2021 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The Vidui Confession: The Vidui Confession
Class description

Last week we learned about “vidduy”-“confession” Vidduy is a necessary step in our return to Hashem.  Vidduy is admission to Hashem of our failures. The act of admission is not an easy step to take. The failure to acknowledge one’s failures is a sign of both immaturity and arrogance.

Today we will discuss the necessity of confessing our shortcomings not to Hashem but to people. The Gemarah teaches that when we sin against a fellow human being we must seek our victim’s forgiveness before we seek Hashem’s.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Fischman graduated from Yeshiva University in 1980 and the dental school of Columbia University in 1985. In 1989 he began studying and teaching at Yeshivat Hamivtar and now studies and teaches at Yeshivat Machanaim in Efrat. He has rabbinic ordination from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.