As thinking human beings, we have an unlimited capacity to find excuses, to discover ingenious and innovative ways to distance the perpetrator from the act. We can blame it on youth, on old age, on parents, on children, on financial hardships, daily environs, psychological state. We can easily discharge anybody of any responsibility for any negative deeds that stain their hands. We can all be wonderful advocates and lawyers for one another—and the Merciful One Above surely enjoys hearing such things.
But if you want to get ahead in life, don’t be your own lawyer. (Chabad.org)
“18 “so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Avinu Eloheinu, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; 19 “and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’ — as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. 20 “Avinu would not spare him; for then the anger of Avinu and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and Avinu would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 “And Avinu would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, 22 “so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which Avinu has laid on it: 23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which Avinu overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 “All nations would say, ‘Why has Avinu done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 “Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of Avinu God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 ‘for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 ‘Then the anger of Avinu was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 ‘And Avinu uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’ 29 “The secret things belong to Avinu Eloheinu, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (De 29:18-29 )
“I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to Avinu,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah” (Ps 32:5 )
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” (Pr 28:13 )
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