Friday, July 24, 2009

How Many Sin Offerings Does a Baal Teshuvah Need to Bring when Moshiach Comes?

I haven't blogged for a long while so I thought I would get the ball rolling again with this very short interesting idea.

The term Baal Teshuvah (BT) today most often refers to a tinuk sh'nishba who later becomes frum. A question I had is that since most BTs violated numerous sins which carry kares when done intentionally, wouldn't (in the messianic age) a BT need to bring a chatas (sin) offering for each and every violation? This oculd be in the thousands! Lucky for us BTs, the Tur in his commentary on the Chumash parashah Sh'lach 15:22 says:
"... According to the pshat, the Torah speaks here of a tinuk sh'nishba. When he becomes aware of his error, he is obligated to offer a single chatas offering for all the previous violations."
If this is how we pasken then this will save us BTs a LOT of money! Pretty nice!