וּבֵיאוּר הָעִנְיָן כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּזּוֹהַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ וְתִיקּוּנִים בְּכַמָּה מְקוֹמוֹת (זוהר חלק א עט, ב, חלק ג רטז, א ועוד), דְּבִינָה אִיהִי תְּשׁוּבָה עִילָּאָה ״וְהָאֵם רוֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרוֹחִים״ וכו׳.

The explanation of the subject of higher-level repentance is discussed in the holy Zohar and the Tikkunei Zohar in several places (e.g., Zohar 1:79b, 3:216a). They state that the sefira of Bina is the higher level of repentance, which is hinted at in the verse "And the mother, referring to Bina, is crouching on the fledglings or on the eggs" (Deut. 22:6). As mentioned above (in chapter 4), the higher level of repentance corresponds to restoring the upper, or first, letter heh to its place in the name of Havaya. This heh represents the sefira of Bina, which is consistently referred to as "the mother." A mother is someone who bears offspring. In the context of the divine sefirot and the human soul, those offspring are the emotive attributes of love, fear, and so forth, which correspond to Ḥesed and Gevura, as well as the rest of the six sefirot. They are generated by Bina, which literally means understanding through contemplation. Reflection engenders an emotional response; in this sense, Bina "gives birth" to the emotive attributes. These attributes born from Bina complete the structure of the soul: Its intellectual faculties are complemented by the emotive attributes. Higher-level repentance is the bonding of the entirety of the human soul – the mother together with her fledglings, the intellect of Bina together with its emotive offspring – to its source in the divine intellect and attributes.

דְּהַיְינוּ שֶׁעַל יְדֵי שֶׁמִּתְבּוֹנֵן בִּגְדוּלַּת ה׳ בְּהַעֲמָקַת הַדַּעַת

That is, this verse refers to reflecting on the greatness of God with deep concentration After clarifying the link between Bina and higher-level repentance, which is ostensibly a call on the heart to be roused to love of God and to connect with Him, the author of the Tanya expounds on the subject of higher-level repentance with an esoteric narrative drawn from hasidic teachings. His explanation is profoundly relevant in general human terms as well as to the path of divine service. For the attribute of Bina to be actualized, for it to produce its offspring of emotive attributes, a process of reflection and deep contemplation is required. Such contemplation will unearth ever more profound layers of understanding that deeply impacts the soul's emotional faculties. This rumination entails examining the subject of contemplation from every angle, focusing on it, and depicting it with the mind's eye until one formulates an emotional attitude toward that subject. The concept is no longer theoretical to him. He becomes personally invested in it and even identifies with it. To initiate this process, the author of the Tanya explains that this contemplation should constitute reflection on God's greatness. When a person reflects on God, he cannot focus on His abstract infinite essence, which is beyond the human intellect to fathom. But he can contemplate the greatness of God that he perceives in his world. This understanding, coupled with his past emotional experience of the Divine, then serves as a basis and anchor for internalizing the more abstract aspects of God, infusing them with emotional content with which he can resonate.

וּמוֹלִיד מֵרוּחַ בִּינָתוֹ דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ שִׂכְלִיִּים

and thereby generating from the spirit of one's understanding, that is, from Bina, cognitive fear and love of God As explained above, Bina, deeply mindful contemplation, not only cultivates understanding in its own intellectual realm but formulates layers of consciousness in one's emotional world as well. These emotions, born of understanding and contemplation, are called "cognitive love and fear." The author of the Tanya's use of this term includes the entire spectrum of the emotive attributes, with love and fear serving as the archetypal emotions. These cognitive emotions are generated through conscious contemplation, as opposed to the innate emotions of love and fear, which are embedded within the fabric of the soul from its inception. These innate emotions inform a person's natural, inborn reactions to the physical and spiritual phenomena of this world, as well as to God and His manifestation in the world, while the cognitive emotions develop and grow through reflection and conscious awareness. Though even innate emotions may require reflection in order for them to manifest, they are still intrinsic to the soul, and any contemplative work required serves only to evoke and focus these emotions. Conversely, cognitive emotions trailblaze new aspects of love and fear within a person as a direct consequence of the conscious intellect that engendered them. The distinction between innate attributes and cognitive ones does not lie in their depth or level of complexity but rather in their source. Does consciousness produce the emotion or merely awaken it?

וּבְטוּב טַעַם וָדַעַת,

with intellectual discernment and awareness. A person who cultivates cognitive love and fear does so with a clarity that comes of discernment and awareness. He understands the reason behind his love or fear of a given thing. While they are still emotions, they are rooted in a firm base of conscious self-awareness.

כָּעִנְיָן שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר ״לְאַהֲבָה אֶת ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ״ מִשּׁוּם ״כִּי הוּא חַיֶּיךָ״ וגו׳ (דברים ל, כ).

This love corresponds to that of the verse "To love the Lord your God... " because "for He is your life... " (Deut. 30:20), This verse provides an example of the most basic point of contemplation that engenders love of God: One arrives at love of God by reflecting on the fact that "He is your life." One should contemplate how God is the source of one's life, how one would not exist without Him. When a person deeply contemplates this, his contemplation serves as a wellspring that fills his soul with devoted love for God. His cognitive love is not just awakened; it is continually renewed and intensified.

וְלֹא דַּי לוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה טִבְעִית הַמְסוּתֶּרֶת לְבָד וכו׳.

as innate, concealed love alone is not sufficient for him.... The innate love of God within every Jew is his inheritance by virtue of being born a Jew. All he has to do is discover it. Obviously it's easier to unearth a quality that is already present in the soul than to generate it from scratch. But such inborn love is not sufficient to achieve the higher level of repentance that constitutes the ultimate union with the Divine. Innate love is elusive by nature and is not felt as a full-fledged emotion. Rather, it manifests as that inner impulse that moves a person to live as a Jew. Since innate love is embedded in the very foundation of the soul, it is resilient and incredibly strong. Yet because it is not engendered from a person's own consciousness, it is somewhat detached from the inner workings of his soul, and it cannot be activated and developed at will. By contrast, cognitive love stems from a person's own mental processes, so it has the potential to evolve and mature. As it develops and intensifies, it enriches the totality of his soul, both intellect and emotions, bringing him ever closer to attaining oneness with God through higher-level repentance, as the author of the Tanya goes on to explain.

וְכֵן בְּיִרְאָה וָפַחַד

The same applies to fear and trepidation, To achieve higher-level repentance, a person must also cultivate the type of fear and trepidation that stems from the contemplation of topics that address the subject. Cognitive fear is not only instinctive; it is a deep-seated feeling that burgeons forth from one's consciousness. If a person works on developing fear of God, it intensifies and is increasingly integrated into his conscious awareness.

אוֹ בּוּשָׁה וכו׳, כַּנּוֹדָע.

or shame and so forth, as is known. There is a type of fear known as fear that stems from shame. A person is overcome by a profound sense of shame, not from having done anything wrong, but simply from being in the presence of God's infinite greatness. This sense of shame is related to fear and trepidation because they all involve emotions of constriction, recoiling, and retracting. Shame might be evoked from the more visceral fear induced by thoughts of "What will happen to me?" or, ideally, from an exalted and more all-encompassing awe, as described in the verse "For who is it whose heart dared to approach Me?... " (Jer. 30:21).

אֲזַי נִקְרֵאת הָאֵם רוֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרוֹחִים וכו׳.

Then, after generating cognitive love and fear, Bina is described as "the mother is crouching on the fledglings.... " When love and fear are born from Bina, from contemplation and conscious awareness, and they continue to be nurtured by it, depending on Bina to sustain their growth, they are likened to fledglings that were hatched and fed by their mother. Just as the mother bird crouches over her chicks to protect them, Bina continues to serve as the backdrop to the cognitive love and fear to nourish them and to protect them from the impure external forces that threaten to reroute them. Though originally directed toward God, they are in danger of seeping out and becoming invested in other objects of desire, such as love and lust for worldly pleasures or fear of anything other than God. "The mother crouching on the fledglings," then, corresponds to the higher level of repentance, where the primary faculties of the soul, the emotive attributes, are restored to their source in Bina and beyond. In terms of the name of Havaya, it entails restoring the final letters of the name, the vav and the final heh, which correspond to the emotive attributes, to their union with the first two letters, the yod and the first heh, which represent Ḥokhma and Bina, divine wisdom and understanding, the cognitive attributes.

וְהִנֵּה עִיקַּר הָאַהֲבָה הִיא אִתְדַּבְּקוּת רוּחָא בְּרוּחָא,

The essence of love is the fusion of spirit with spirit, The primary expression of love is the drive and desire to draw closer and closer to the object of one's love, to cleave to it and to become identified with it. To love God means desiring to cleave to Him, yearning to merge one's own spirit with His spirit, one's essence with the essence of the Divine.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״יִשָּׁקֵנִי מִנְּשִׁיקוֹת פִּיהוּ״ וגו׳ (שיר השירים א, ב), כַּנּוֹדָע.

as the verse states, "May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth... " (Song. 1:2), as is known. A kiss is essentially the merging and unification of spirit with spirit, breath with breath. It is the external expression of two spirits touching, of the intimacy of souls. In the language of Kabbala, the concept of a kiss is a metaphor for the union between the soul and the Divine. It is a loftier and more profound union than the coupling of two bodies. How does one achieve such a union? When a person loves another person, he can express the closeness through physical intimacy, but how does a person express his love and desire to cleave to God?

וְעַל זֶה נֶאֱמַר ״וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ״, שֶׁהֵם הֵם כָּל חֶלְקֵי הַנֶּפֶשׁ –

With regard to this, it states in the Shema, " You shall love the Lord your God... ​with all your soul" (Deut. 6:5), which refers to loving God with the totality of the soul's elements – The author of the Tanya interprets "with all your soul" as referring to every aspect of the soul. The way to fully actualize one's love and desire is through the connection of the entirety of one's being with the entire spectrum of divine revelation, leaving no facet asunder.

שֵׂכֶל וּמִדּוֹת וּלְבוּשֵׁיהֶם, מַחְשָׁבָה דִּיבּוּר וּמַעֲשֶׂה – לְדָבְקָה כּוּלָּן בּוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ.

both the intellect and emotive attributes, as well as their garments of thought, speech, and action – in order to fuse them all with God. Here the author of the Tanya explains what is included in "the totality of the soul's elements" and offers advice on how to fuse them with the Divine. The intellect and the emotive attributes together comprise all ten faculties of the soul: the three cognitive faculties, which are Ḥokhma, Bina, and Da'at, as well as the seven emotive sefirot. These faculties are expressed through the three garments of the soul: thought, speech, and action. When a person thinks about what he knows and feels, he is revealing his knowledge to himself and becomes conscious of his emotional attitude toward it, whether love or fear, attraction or repudiation. When he expresses his thoughts in speech, he reveals his awareness to others, and when he takes action based on his understanding and emotions, he invests the soul's faculties even within the physical realm. The channeling of "the totality of the soul's elements" so that they will express one's love for God, to the degree that the Torah prescribes – "with all your soul" – must necessarily include the entire soul, with each one of its faculties, in their every expression and manifestation.

דְּהַיְינוּ הַמִּדּוֹת בְּמִדּוֹתָיו יִתְבָּרַךְ, ״מַה הוּא רַחוּם״ וכו׳.

This means that one's attributes should be fused with God's attributes in accordance with the Sages' statement "Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful" (Shabbat 133b; Jerusalem Talmud, Pe'a 1:1). The way to bind human attributes to divine attributes is through emulating God's traits of mercy and compassion, as well as all His other attributes. The primary dimension in which one should do this work is the realm of action, since it would be impossible to emulate God's emotions, so to speak. The concept of divine pathos escapes our comprehension and certainly eludes any effort of imitation. By contrast, we can perform actions that God would perform as an expression of these attributes, by doing acts of kindness, being sensitive to others, and so forth. The realm of action is the same for both the great and the simple alike, granting every individual constant opportunities to emulate God. By mirroring His attributes in this way, through such deeds, the individual may unite with Him.

וְהַשֵּׂכֶל בְּשִׂכְלוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ הוּא עִיּוּן הַתּוֹרָה, דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא מֵחָכְמָה נָפְקָא, וְכֵן הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה בְּמַחְשַׁבְתּוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ.

And one's intellect should be fused with God's intellect and wisdom, which is accomplished through the in-depth study of Torah, since the Torah emerges from divine Ḥokhma. So too one's thoughts should be fused with God's thoughts through the study of Torah, The Torah stems from the supernal wisdom of the Divine, and it reveals this supernal wisdom in the worlds. When a person studies and contemplates the words and concepts of the Torah, attaching his intellect to the intellect of the Torah, he is essentially thinking the thoughts of God. Although the Torah is only an emanation from the divine wisdom, and could never encompass the totality of God's wisdom at any level of its revelation, the Torah still constitutes nothing other than the divine wisdom itself. The Torah is the embodiment of the divine intellect, assuming a form that can be understood at every level. One who studies Torah is in effect fusing the wisdom of his own mind with the wisdom of God's mind. In this way he fuses his cognitive faculties and the garment of the soul that constitutes thoughts with divine intellect and thought. This bond is illustrated by the classic parable of a son who lives a great distance from his father. One day he receives a letter from his father, whom he loves as much as he loves himself. Because he so longs to be reunited with his father, the son reads the letter over and over and engrosses himself in it, constantly thinking about it at every opportunity. By poring over his father's words, he is able to bond with him, or at least with one aspect of his father, namely, his intellect, which formulated the content and style of the letter.

וְהַדִּיבּוּר בִּדְבַר ה׳, זוֹ הֲלָכָה,

and one's speech should be fused with the word of God, which is halakha , Halakha is the expression of God's will as it is manifest in this world. When a person states a halakha as recorded in the Mishna or Shulḥan Arukh, he is saying, in essence, "This is what God wants or doesn't want to be done," and in so doing articulates God's will. It is not an assertion of his own self and what he has to say but rather a revelation of the inner divine will. The person merely functions as the conduit through which the statement is uttered, but the words are not his own. In this way, he fuses the garment of his soul called speech with divine speech. The author of the Tanya refers specifically to the sublime union achieved by articulating the halakha as opposed to performing it. This is because one who performs God's command acts as a servant carrying out his master's will. While that is certainly very powerful, someone who verbalizes the will of the master becomes unified with the master himself, who expressed his desire through his command.

וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״וָאָשִׂים דְּבָרַי בְּפִיךָ״ (ישעיה נא, טז). ״וּדְבָרַי אֲשֶׁר שַׂמְתִּי בְּפִיךָ״ (שם נט, כא).

as the verse states, "I placed My words in your mouth" (Isa. 51:16), and "My words that I have placed in your mouth" (Isa. 59:21). It is as if God says to a person, "When you say words of Torah, you are not uttering your own words. You are verbalizing My words." This idea is also echoed in the introductory verse to the silent Amida prayer: "Lord, open my lips so my mouth may declare Your praise." The supplicant is essentially asking, "You, God, open my lips so that they will articulate Your praise, in order that the Divine Presence can speak through me." The wonder of the deep unification that happens between a person who speaks words of Torah and God can be contrasted with the natural phenomenon of rainfall. The bringing of rain is an external act of God, so to speak, within the natural order of cause and effect. There is no element of free choice involved. However, when a person could use his power of free choice to talk about any topic, and he chooses to verbalize words of Torah, this sparks a bond on the deepest level of one's being. Then, when the person utters the words of Torah, it is as if God Himself appears and speaks through the person's mouth.

וְהַמַּעֲשֶׂה הוּא מַעֲשֵׂה הַצְּדָקָה לְהַחֲיוֹת רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים,

Likewise, the action that is fused with God's actions is the act of charity, to revive the spirit of the humble, Although action in the broadest sense encompasses all mitzvot that can be performed through a physical act, here the act of charity is singled out. One reason for this is that charity is equivalent to all the other mitzvot combined. In fact, the Jerusalem Talmud uses the generic term "mitzva" to refer to charity. Elsewhere, the author of the Tanya explains that an act of charity encompasses the totality of the faculties of one's body and soul in the same way that all 613 mitzvot together represent all the limbs of a person. Another facet to the uniqueness of giving charity is that it is the only action-based mitzva that encapsulates the entire spectrum of an individual's life from the perspective of both time and space. While all other mitzvot can be performed only under certain circumstances, at particular times and in specific places, charity can be given at any time and in any amount, either from material resources or spiritual ones. When a person wants to quench his thirst for connection to God through his actions, at any moment and in any situation, the one mitzva that is always applicable is giving charity. The author of the Tanya adds that the act of charity serves to "revive the spirit of the humble." Charity is about filling the needs of those who lack. This is what God does in the broadest sense. By creating the world and sustaining it, He "revives the spirit of the humble." He grants existence, life, and meaning to that which has nothing of its own, to all of creation. In essence, the purpose of the mitzvot is to emulate the acts of God and, in so doing, to cleave to Him. This is why charity, which revives the spirit of the humble, is the quintessential mitzva that serves as a vehicle for unifying with the Divine.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה ה׳״ וגו׳ (שמות כ, יא), כַּנּוֹדָע בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר.

as it is written, "Because in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth... " (Ex. 20:11), which is explained elsewhere. The six days referred to in this verse can be interpreted, not as units of time, but as a metaphor for six lights or kindnesses, which represent the divine creative forces. In this light, the verse can be interpreted as saying that God made the heavens and earth with six illuminations of kindness. The entire act of creation is in its essence an act of divine charity and kindness. A person who performs an act of charity, then, is performing a divine act, serving as a conduit to draw God's lovingkindness into this world. In this way, he unites with God through the garment of the soul called action.

וְזוֹ הִיא אִתְדַּבְּקוּת דְּרוּחָא בְּרוּחָא בְּתַכְלִית הַדְּבֵיקוּת וְהַיִּחוּד

This constitutes the fusion of spirit with spirit in the ultimate attachment and unification A person can attain true oneness with God only when every element and facet of his soul is connected with Him. As in all reciprocal relationships, this kind of union is only possible when the other, in this case God Himself, offers His hand and extends an invitation to join together in oneness. This invitation comes in the form of the Torah and mitzvot, which express God's will. Therefore, it is only when a person studies the Torah and fulfills the mitzvot that he can form this bond.

כְּשֶׁהִיא מֵחֲמַת אַהֲבָה וכו׳.

when engendered by love and so on. A person must be motivated by love and a deep desire to connect with God for the oneness to be complete. If he is moved by habit, duress, or even fear, then he cannot engage the complete constellation of his soul's faculties in the bond. He may garner his intellect but not his emotions, his emotions without his intellect, or solely his actions without either of the former. That is why he must be propelled by love, specifically the cognitive love born of contemplation, which, as explained above, draws all the soul's elements together, both the intellect and the attributes. Until this point, the author of the Tanya has explained both the theoretical and more practical aspects of the Zohar's statement cited in the previous chapter – that the higher level of repentance consists of "studying Torah with fear and love of the Holy One, blessed be He.... " The rest of the chapter will be devoted to explaining a statement the author of the Tanya made in chapter 4, that lower-level repentance without the higher level is not effective for the sin of emitting semen in vain.

וּלְפִי שֶׁפְּגַם הַבְּרִית בְּהוֹצָאַת זֶרַע לְבַטָּלָה, וְאֵין צָרִיךְ לוֹמַר בַּעֲרָיוֹת אוֹ שְׁאָר אִיסּוּרֵי בִיאָה דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא אוֹ דְּרַבָּנָן (כִּי חֲמוּרִים דִּבְרֵי סוֹפְרִים וכו׳),

Since marring the covenant, by wasteful emission of semen and, needless to say, by committing incest or other forbidden sexual relations, whether prohibited by biblical law or rabbinic law (as injunctions of the Sages are more severe than prohibitions of the Torah), Transgressions of a sexual nature are referred to as "marring the covenant" because they enlist the body part bearing the covenant of circumcision. The author of the Tanya also emphasizes that a transgression that is prohibited only by rabbinic law does not mean that the blemish it causes is any less grave.

פּוֹגֵם בַּמּוֹחַ‌,

blemishes the mind, the seat of wisdom, According to the Kabbala, sexual transgressions are associated with the sefira of Yesod (Foundation), which is the attribute of connection, serving as the conduit for the divine life force and vitality that originates from the attribute of Ḥokhma. Like the reproductive chromosomes, which contain all of a human being's genetic material, this attribute encompasses all the attributes. Therefore, the life force that is channeled through Yesod is not confined to any specific manifestation or level. Rather, it flows from Ḥokhma, from the attribute of wisdom that is present in the innermost essence of a person and is the point of origin for all other types of sustenance.

לָכֵן תִּיקּוּנוֹ הוּא דְּיִתְעַסֵּק בְּאוֹרַיְיתָא דְּמֵחָכְמָה נָפְקָא.

therefore his rectification is to study Torah, which emerges from Wisdom. The path of rectification always corresponds to the nature of the blemish. Since marring the covenant of Yesod defiles the connection with God that is engendered through the sefira of Ḥokhma, the rectification of that relationship is also achieved in the cognitive sphere of Ḥokhma. In our world, the realm of divine wisdom lies in the Torah, so the rectification is Torah study.

וְזֶהוּ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּתָנָא דְבֵי אֵלִיָּהוּ: ״אָדָם עָבַר עֲבֵירָה וְנִתְחַיֵּיב מִיתָה לַמָּקוֹם, מַה יַּעֲשֶׂה וְיִחְיֶה? אִם הָיָה רָגִיל לִקְרוֹת דַּף אֶחָד יִקְרָא ב׳ דַּפִּים, לִשְׁנוֹת פֶּרֶק א׳ יִשְׁנֶה ב׳ פְּרָקִים״ וכו׳.

This is the meaning of Tanna deVei Eliyahu 's statement "If a person committed a transgression and is liable to be put to death before God, what can he do to live? If he was accustomed to studying one page of Torah, he should now study two pages; if he was accustomed to learning one chapter of Torah, he should now learn two chapters.... " The path to repentance offered in Tanna deVei Eliyahu to someone who has committed a severe, all-encompassing transgression, severing his connection to the root of his divine soul, is to increase his Torah study. He is called upon to double the amount of material that he is currently accustomed to studying, according to his individual level and pace.

וְהַיְינוּ כִּמְשַׁל חֶבֶל הַנִּפְסָק וְחוֹזֵר וְקוֹשְׁרוֹ, שֶׁבִּמְקוֹם הַקֶּשֶׁר הוּא כָּפוּל וּמְכוּפָּל. וְכָכָה הוּא בְּ״חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתוֹ״ וכו׳.

This corresponds to the allegory of a severed cord that one reties ; the place of the knot is doubly reinforced. So too with "the allotment [ ḥevel ] of His inheritance... " (Deut. 32:9), which we translate as referring to a cord. In previous chapters, the author of the Tanya presented the image of a cord woven of 613 strands that extends directly from God to the human soul. As explained there, every transgression nicks the cord, while severe transgressions punishable by karet and the like can even sever it altogether. In light of this imagery, repentance entails the retying of this lifeline. Once rejoined, this spiritual rope, like a physical one, will not be as smooth as it was before the sin. The two segments must be tied together with a knot. The knot increases the girth of the rope, making it "doubly reinforced," thicker and stronger than the rest of its uninterrupted length. The author of the Tanya then notes that a double knot is permanent and cannot become untied by itself. Repentance has the same effect. When a person must rebuild his relationship with God, behaving as he did before he sinned is not enough. He must intensify and deepen the relationship, specifically in the area of his life where he previously fell.

וְזֶהוּ שֶׁאָמַר הַכָּתוּב: ״בְּחֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת יְכוּפַּר עָוֹן״ וגו׳ (משלי טז, ו), וְאֵין אֱמֶת אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה וכו׳.

Thus the verse states, "With kindness and truth iniquity is atoned... " (Prov. 16:6). The word emet , truth, in the verse means nothing other than Torah.... The Talmud states that "kindness" refers to acts of kindness and "truth" refers to the Torah. Therefore, a person's sin is atoned for by increasing and expanding his performance of acts of kindness and Torah study. 

וַעֲוֹן בֵּית עֵלִי בְּזֶבַח וּמִנְחָה הוּא דְּאֵינוֹ מִתְכַּפֵּר אֲבָל מִתְכַּפֵּר בַּתּוֹרָה וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, כִּדְאִיתָא בְּסוֹף פֶּרֶק קַמָּא דְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה.

Likewise, with regard to the sin of Eli's house, "with sacrifice or offering it is not atoned, but it can be atoned through Torah study and the performance of acts of kindness," as it is taught at the end of the first chapter of Rosh HaShana (18a). God punished Eli's house with the decree that "the majority of your house will die as men" (I Sam. 2:33). The members of the family would die in their prime, close to the age of twenty. Their sin was so great that the verse states, "Therefore, I have taken an oath concerning the house of Eli that the iniquity of the house of Eli will surely not be atoned for with feast offerings or with meal offerings ever" (I Sam. 3:14). It was not like other sins where the transgressor could seek atonement through sacrifices. The talmudic statement cited here goes on to relate that the Sages Abaye and Rabba were both descendants of Eli's house, yet they lived beyond the age of twenty. Rabba explained that the reason that the punishment did not befall him is because the verse says, "The iniquity of the house of Eli will surely not be atoned for with feast offerings or with meal offerings" – but it can be atoned for through Torah study. Abaye added that the punishment can also be evaded through acts of kindness in addition to Torah study. Rabba, who focused on Torah study, was able to live to the age of forty, while Abaye, who stressed both Torah study and acts of kindness, lived sixty years. This indicates that sins too severe to be atoned for by regular means can be rectified with kindness and truth, by performing acts of kindness and studying Torah. In this chapter, the author of the