Rabbi Fruchter asked me to give a 3-minute talk on a perek of Rambam's הלכות תשובה, and at the moment he asked me, I was learning the third chapter of Rav Shagar's שובי נפשי, on the philosophy of תשובה, which deals Rambam's פרק ג׳.
>None of this was a coincidence because nothing was ever a coincidence.
--Scott Alexander, [_Unsong_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D57BYS3Y/)
Hello, Young Israel community and I hope you are having a meaningful fast.
The third perek of Rambam's הלכות תשובה doesn't start with תשובה, but with the idea of reward and punishment. He says that someone whose merits outnumber his sins is a צדיק and one whose sins outnumber his merits is a רשע, but one whose merits and sins are exactly equal is a בֵּינוֹנִי, someone in the middle.
The second halacha says that, while the צדיק will be rewarded and the רשע will be punished, we have no idea how ה׳ counts merits and sins, and we have no possible way of knowing. Therefore, in the fourth halacha, he says that we need to consider ourselves בֵּינוֹנִים, and that every thing we do, every action and every word, could be the one that tips the balance to being accounted a צדיק or a רשע. As Rav Shagar says in שובי נפשי,
{:he}
>[האדם חי] במתח הגורלי של ההליכה על חבל דק.
--הרב שג״ר, _שובי נפשי_, עמ׳ 72
"We are fated to always walk in tension, on a tightrope". But we usually don't think about that. We spend most of our time sleepwalking, paying no attention to what we are doing or to the consequences of our actions. The shofar on Rosh Hashana serves as an alarm clock, to wake us up from our stupor and to inspire us to the kind of mindfulness it takes to move into the category of צדיק. As Rambam says,
{:he}
>עוּרוּ יְשֵׁנִים מִשְּׁנַתְכֶם וְנִרְדָּמִים הָקִיצוּ מִתַּרְדֵּמַתְכֶם וְחַפְּשׂוּ בְּמַעֲשֵׂיכֶם וְחִזְרוּ בִּתְשׁוּבָה וְזִכְרוּ בּוֹרַאֲכֶם.
--הלכות תשובה ג:ד
"Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator". And it's here that תשובה, repentance, appears. Because while the past is fixed, the way ה׳ accounts for our actions is not. Our attitude now toward what we've done determines our fate. Rambam says we can erase our merits, חס ושלום:
{:he}
>כָּל מִי שֶׁנִּחַם עַל הַמִּצְוֹת שֶׁעָשָׂה וְתָהָה עַל הַזְּכֻיּוֹת וְאָמַר בְּלִבּוֹ וּמַה הוֹעַלְתִּי בַּעֲשִׂיָּתָן הַלְוַאי לֹא עָשִׂיתִי אוֹתָן הֲרֵי זֶה אִבֵּד אֶת כֻּלָּן וְאֵין מַזְכִּירִים לוֹ שׁוּם זְכוּת בָּעוֹלָם.
--הלכות תשובה ג:ג
"Anyone who changes his mind about the mitzvot he has performed and regrets the merits [he has earned], saying in his heart: "What value was there in doing them? I wish I hadn't performed them"--loses them all and no merit is preserved for him at all". But תשובה, as described in the previous פרקים, involves regretting past *sins* and resolving to do better in the future. It wipes away the demerit side of the balance sheet, guaranteeing that we are accounted צדיקים and our verdict is נֶחְתָּם לְחַיִּים, sealed for life.
{:he}
>אִם שָׁב מֵרִשְׁעוֹ...הֲרֵי זֶה מִבְּנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא שֶׁאֵין לְךָ דָּבָר שֶׁעוֹמֵד בִּפְנֵי הַתְּשׁוּבָה.
--הלכות תשובה ג:יד
"[I]f...a person repents from his wicked deeds...he will merit the world to come, for nothing can stand in the way of Teshuvah".
Have a mindful עשרת ימי תשובה and a גמר חתימה טובה.
[Translations of the /Mishneh Torah/ are from Eliyahu Touger, Moznaim Publishing, via [Sefaria](https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Repentance.3?lang=bi)]