Repairing a relationship is grueling — but there's magic in forgiveness
Forgiveness. Amnesty. Reconciliation. Some of us spend years, or even a lifetime, in pursuit of this elusive goal, whether in summoning our ability to forgive someone who caused us pain, or in extracting forgiveness from another party.
And yet it’s the subject of the sixth brachah in every weekday Shemoneh Esreh, as the Shulchan Aruch teaches, “Why is it fitting for [the brachah of] forgiveness to follow that of teshuvah [Hashiveinu]? Because when we do teshuvah, Hashem forgives… first we must do teshuvah, and then He forgives. Therefore, the brachah of Hashiveinu precedes the brachah of Selach Lanu” (Orach Chaim: 115).
Teshuvah inspires forgiveness. The progression of teshuvah to mechilah (forgiveness) seems so obvious, almost intrinsic. Why separate them in two brachos? Why not fuse teshuvah with selichah in a linear, continuous brachah?
Rav Chaim Friedlander explains that the brachah of Selach Lanu isn’t simply a direct outgrowth of the previous brachah. Rather it’s the fulfillment of Rabbeinu Yonah’s 15th principle of teshuvah: “The 15th [principle], tefillah, a person should daven to Hashem and beseech Him for mercy to atone for all his sins…” (Shaarei Teshuvah, 1:41-42).
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