#vidui

וְהִתְוַדָּה עָלָיו אֶת כָּל עֲוֹנֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (ויקרא טז, כא)AND HE SHALL CONFESS UPON IT ALL THE WILLFUL TRANSGRESSIONS OF BNEI YISRAEL... (VAYIKRA 16:21) 

One of the essential components of the Yom Kippur service—the Kohen Gadol’s as well as the individual’s—is vidui, to confess one’s sins verbally before G-d and ask for His forgiveness.

Obviously, confession alone is not enough. Per the Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah 2:3), “One who confesses verbally without resolving in his heart to abandon [sin] can be compared to one who immerses [in a mikvah] while in his hand he holds a sheretz, the impure carcass of a crawling creature. His immersion is of no avail until he casts away the sheretz.”

The Rambam’s analogy, however, seems to give the insincere “penitent” more credit than he deserves. Ostensibly, the singular value of confessing one’s sins before G-dis the remorse that confession conveys. Absent of any intention to improve, of what worth is an admission of guilt? Accordingly, how can a person who has no remorse be compared to an impure person who actually immerses in a mikvah but remains impure only because additional sources of impurity stop his purification from taking effect? To recite vidui without remorse should be equivalent to not immersing at all!

Clearly, there is some value to vidui even when the confession is insincere.

A person is unavoidably sensitive to the things he verbally articulates, for it is our ability to communicate verbally that defines us as human (Jewish philosophers aptly refer to the human being as “the speaker”). As a result, saying things that conflict with our inner feelings is inherently uncomfortable, hence one’s verbal admission of guilt and stated remorse for his past inevitably affect him to some degree (including a sense of shame for his insincerity).  The Rambam therefore intimates that although complete forgiveness requires that the penitent commit to long-term change, the potential for teshuvah lies even in the very act of vidui alone.

ודוי | Vidui by Rabbi Avi Weiss

אָהַבְנוּ, בֵּרַכְנוּ, גָּדַלְנוּ, דִּבַּרְנוּ יֹפִי We have loved, We have blessed, We have grown, We have spoken positively. הֶעֱלִינוּ, וְחַסְנוּ, זֵרַזְנוּ, חָמַלְנוּ, טִפַּחְנוּ אֱמֶת We have raised up, We have shown compassion, We have acted enthusiastically, We have been empathetic, We have cultivated truth. יָעַצְנוּ טוֺב, כִּבַּדְנוּ, לָמַדְנוּ, מָחַלְנוּ, נִחַמְנוּ, סָלַלְנוּ,…