The triad, תשובה, תפלה, צדקה, is familiar to the
Jewish worshiper from the liturgy of the Days of Awe. It is found in the
liturgical poem, ונתנה תקף, which is recited according to the present Ashkenazi rite on
both days of Rosh ha-shanah as well as on Yom Kippur. The full sentence, in
which these there nouns are found, reads:
ותשובה ותפלה וצדקה את רוע הנזרה
and repentance, and prayer and charity remove
the evil decree.
This statement reaches back (over the rather long
section beginning with the words HEB) to the closing words of the first
paragraph of the poem:
ותכתוב את נזר דינם
and you will inscribe their decree
All commentators point to a passage in Bereshit
Rabba as the source of the statement. We read there (Bereshit Rabba 44.12):
R. Yudan in the name of R. Eleazar: Three
things annul the decree: Prayer, sedaqah and repentance. We learn
this from one and the same verse: ‘When My People, who bear M name, humble
themselves, pray’ (II Chronicles 7.14): this means prayer, ‘and seek My face’(ib.)
this is sedaqah, as it is written, ‘Then I, be-ṣedeq, will behold
Your face’ (Psalms 17.15) ‘and turn from their evil ways’ (ib.): this is
repentance, etc.
This saying of R. Eleazar is quoted in various
contexts in rabbinic literature. Its original setting seems to be in connection
with astrology or dreams: gezerah means one’s fate as determined by
stars or foretold by dreams. In Bereshit Rabba R. Eleazar’s words are
recorded immediately following the assertion that Abraham, the patriarch, was a
prophet and not an astrologer, and that the stars had no power over him. In Koheleth
Rabba (and in its parallels), R. Yudan’s statement is quoted in connection
with the verse:
There is much dreaming and futilities and superfluous
talk, but you should fear God (Eccl. 5.6): Rabbi says: if you dreamt difficult
dreams and had difficult and contradictory visions and (or) you are scared
because of them, hasten to do three things and you will be saved, as sated by
R. Yudan in the name of R. Eleazar, thee things annul bad decrees, etc. (Midrash
Kohelet Rabba on Eccl. 5.6)
In both sources, then, the gezerah is not
the result of actions by man, but rather of superhuman or unconscious forces.
To counteract these forces, the Rabbis urge the individual to resort to three
things, which, for sure, will act as an antidote to ill fate destined by
astrology or predicted by dreams.
There is, however, a third midrashic context, in
which R. Eleazar’s saying appears. In the Tanhuma the triad is
recommended as an antidote to the evil inclination, the yeṣer ha-rac
(Tanhuma Noah, paragraph 8). Thus, in the Tanhuma, the belief in
the effectiveness of the triad shows affinity for the liturgical themes, as it
appears in the hymn ונתנה תקף. The statement becomes appropriate for the Days of Awe: sin (caused
by the evil inclination) results in an unfavorable severe divine decree. This
decree many be annulled and atonement may be attained by employing the three
things recommended by R. Eleazar. Here it is the evil inclination, and not
the stars or dreams, that determines man’s fate.
In the Babylonian Talmud. R. Yitzhak, suggests
four remedies for averting the severe decree:
צדקת, צעקה, שינוי, השם, שינוי, מעשה
ṣedaqah, crying out (prayer), of
name, change of deed. (B. Roš. 16b)
The original context of R. Yitzhak’s statement is
not indicated, but it is likely that he said it in connection with averting
destiny declared upon an individual by the stars, and not brought upon himself by
his evil deeds. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain why שינוי השם would be considered
useful to change the divine judgment.
Three of R. Yitzhak’s four things match the triad
of R. Eleazar. צעקה (crying out) obviously corresponds
to תפלה, as does שינוי
השם (changing of deed) to penitence (תשובה). צדקה is the same in both sources.
Still, there is an important difference: in R. Yitzhak’s statement the
prooftext for צדקה is וצדקה חציל ממות (Prov. 11:4, But ṣedaqah saves from death), while, as
we recall, R. Eleazar’s prooftext is Ps. 17.15, ‘Then I, be-ṣedeq, will
behold Your face’. . . . It is obvious that various strains are discernible in
these traditions about gezerah or gezar din. They include destiny
determined by stars, foretold by dreams, caused by the evil inclination or
declared in God’s annual judgement of human beings according to their deeds. The
recommended acts to avert fate resulting from any of the above, however, always
include prayer, penitence and ṣedaqah. That these matters are commingled
in the various sources indicate the complexity of the concept of destiny on the
New Year in Ancient Israel and in rabbinic Judaism. It is obvious that the
change of year brings with it a change of fate. At first, this fate was
probably conceived as determined by astrology, and only later by the individual’s
good (or evil) ways. It would be interesting to attempt to trace the evolution of
this concept in the literature, but let us instead turn our attention to some
other matters relating to the occurrence of the triad in the liturgy of the
Days of Awe. (Menahem Schmelzer, “Penitence, Prayer And (Charity?),” in Marc
Brettler and Michael Fishbane, eds., Minḥah le-Naḥum: Biblical and Other
Studies Presented to Nahum M. Sarna in Honour of his 70th Birthday [Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 154; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1993], 291-299, here, pp. 291-93, emphasis in bold added)
