Chapter 8: Rippling Out, Owning Up
On “The Good Place” Eleanor has to own up in front of Michael to all the details about the “T-Shirt Bitch” story. On the podcast, Jon and Rebecca revisit many threads that seem to be coming together just as they do in the episode — and we explore among other things confession, and how the impact of an action or a confession can’t be measured right away.
Texts
(Go to Jewish Lexicon on this site for more on Jewish terminology, names of texts and other background. The links here in the citations take you to the specific quotes in their full contexts.)
All mitzvot of the Torah, whether they be do’s or don’ts — if a person violates any one of them, either intentionally or unintentionally, when one does teshuvah and returns from wrong must confess before God, who is blessed… this is verbal confession/vidui of words, and this confession is a do-it mitzvah. How does one do vidui? One says: “Ana, O Divine, I have missed the mark, I have done wrong, I have neglected in Your presence and I have done this particular thing. And I regret and am ashamed of what I have done, and I will never go back to that.” That is the essence of viddui. And anyone who does more viddui and elaborates is praiseworthy…
Even one who injures another person or causes monetary damages, even if one repays what one owes, is not atoned/cleansed/restored until one does vidui and teshuvah from acting in such a way….
A reciter of Mishnah taught in front of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak:
One who humiliates another person
(literally: one who causes another person’s face to become white)
in the presence of many — it is as if one is shedding blood.
He said back to him: You have spoken well,
as we see that the red goes away and the white comes [to the other’s face].
Relevant almost always! Rabbi Moses Maimonides,
Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 3:4
Every person should see oneself the entire year as though perfectly balanced between merit and guilt, and also the entire world as though perfectly balanced between merit and guilt.
If a person does one more wrong, that person tilts the balance personally and tilts the balance for the whole world to the side of guilt...
If a person does one mitzvah, that person tilts the balance personally and tilts the balance for the whole world, all of it, to the side of merit, and saves and rescues both oneself and the whole world.
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