Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

September 20, 2023

To Moses Maimonides, No Penitent Is an Island

Repentance as a communal pursuit.

The section of the Mishneh Torah—Moses Maimonides’ compendium of talmudic law—titled Hilkhot T’shuvah, or the Laws of Repentance, is one of Judaism’s most profound works of moral theology. In the fourth chapter of this section, Maimonides enumerates and examines 24 sinful behaviors that “prevent repentance,” drawn from the work of the 11th-century North African sage Isaac Alfasi (a/k/a the Rif). Alan Jotkowitz subjects this passage to a close reading:

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