Ripping Up Evil Decrees

Now that we are in the midst of the week in between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur many people are thinking or are supposed to be thinking about repentance. The word repentance is one of those words that is loaded with connotations and associations. Does it mean entering the confession box at a Catholic Church? Does it mean fasting and other forms of self-denial? There is a fascinating piece of Talmud, and one particular comment within it, that I would like to focus in on for the purpose of this discussion. The Talmud in Tractate Rosh HaShanah 16b states:

ואמר רבי יצחק: ארבעה דברים מקרעין גזר דינו של אדם, אלו הן: צדקה, צעקה, שינוי השם, ושינוי מעשה
Rebbi Yitzhak said: Four things tear up the decree of judgment on a person, and they are: tzedakah, tza’akah (screaming, prayer), a change of name and a change of deed.

The term "tear up the decree of judgment" refers to someone who successfully repented and therefore has become a new person. If the judgment was issued for Joe but once Joe repents, he no longer is the same Joe the decree was issued for, then the decree of judgment is nullified.

Most of the items on the list seem to fit. Someone who commits acts of charity changes and becomes a person who is a giver. Someone who invests themselves in a life of serious prayer ("tza'akah) becomes a more reflective person. Someone who totally reinvents their persona with a new name starts all over. The last one on the list, change of deed, though is peculiar.

Should it not be obvious that the first and perhaps the most important step towards repentance is to change one's actions? Why should that even be on the list? All the other steps on this list are items that help craft a new and better person but before one can even start re-imagining themselves, don't they have to first change their actions, at the very least?

Rabbi Yom Tov Asevilli, a great 13th century Spanish rabbinic commentator on the Talmud, notes this difficulty and presents us with a resolution that contains great import for us today as people seeking to become better human beings. Rabbi Asevilli writes on his commentary to this passage:

והנכון שאפילו מעשים של רשות שאינם הגונים קצת הוא משנה
It is better understood that even optional deeds that are not all that respectable, these are changed.

The sort of deeds being referenced in the Talmud are not the obvious misbehaviors that anyone observing would condemn. Rather, we are referring to the sort of actions that fall within the gray area of life. The list of these sorts of actions can go on for a mile. In my opinion, the barometer for these actions is: if your mother called you asking what you were doing, would you tell her?

The obvious misdeeds absolutely need to be rectified before any sort of self-transformation can begin. But once the big hurdles have been overcome, the challenge becomes evaluating the little things, the small actions that we are not so entirely proud of. A person who does that can say that they have truly and profoundly changed for the better.