204. How Sins are Counted

Teshuvah 3:5

When counting a person's sins against his merits, God does not count a sin that the person only committed once or twice. A sin is only included if it was committed three or more times. If the sins that were committed three times or more outnumber a person's merits, then the sins that were only committed once or twice are added and he is judged for all of them. If a person’s merits are equal to the sins committed three or more times, God forgives the sins sequentially. That is to say that the third sin is forgiven because it is seen as if it were the first sin because the first two times weren’t included. After the third sin is forgiven, the fourth sin takes its place as the first sin and is forgiven, and so on and so forth until his sins have all been forgiven.

This applies to an individual as we see from Job 33:29, “God will do these things two or three times with a person.” When it comes to a community, the first three sins are held in abeyance. We see this from Amos 2:6, “For three sins of Israel (I will tolerate) but for the fourth I will not refrain.” When the merits and sins of a community are calculated, God begins with the fourth sin.

Regarding a person in the middle, if his sins include having never put on tefillin, he is judged according to his sins. However, such a person will still merit a share in the Next World. Similarly, all those whose sins exceed their merits are judged according to their sins but they still merit a share in the Next World. This is because all Jews have a share in the Next World as per Isaiah 60:21, “Your people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever.” “The land” here refers to “the land of life,” i.e., the Next World. Similarly, the righteous of all nations have a share in the Next World.

Teshuvah 3:6

The following do not have a share in the Next World. Instead, they are cut off and they are judged for their sins forever: a min, an apikores, a kofer (different types of heretics – see 3:7 and 3:8), one who denies the resurrection of the dead and the coming of Moshiach, one who rebels against God, one who causes the masses to sin, one who separates himself from the community, one who haughtily commits sins publicly as King Yehoyakim did, one who betrays his fellow Jews to the secular authorities, one who instills fear upon the community not for altruistic spiritual purposes, a murderer, a slanderer, and one who cosmetically alters his foreskin in order to appear uncircumcised.