[Avodah] 13 Middos

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck via Avodah]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
<<< The notion of magic words that gain even a measure of mechilah without necessitating teshuvah would be very problematic. >>>

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I see it as more of a symbol of Hashem’s love for His people: “If you sin, even if you’re not up to doing the Teshuvah that you should be doing, here’s a “ticket” of sorts that I’m giving you _now_ to show my love for you, that if you ‘remind’ me of it after you sin, that will demonstrate that you see yourselves as close to me, and I’ll give you some measure of forbearance for the sins, even in the absence of full Teshuvah.”

The best Mashal I could think of for this is a PBA placard – you buy it and put it in your car, and when the cop pulls you over for speeding, you show it to him and he goes easy on you, because he sees that you’re really a friend of the police. NOT because you demonstrated regret for speeding, necessarily. 

Does that make sense?

KT,
MYG