Perhaps for today we'll take a step back and try to reflect a little bit on the Rambam's organization of Hilchos Teshuva. At first glance it's very confounding. I think we would have expected Hilchos Teshuva to begin with the content of Perek Beis of Eizehu Teshuva Gemura, Uma Hi Ha-teshuva. A, that's most fundamental to Hilchos Teshuva, and B, it's the frame of reference for Viduy also of כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו. We don't even know what Teshuva is yet and so it seems to be the order seems to be inverted. Even looking at Perek Aleph alone, Perek Aleph is a funny collection. Halacha Aleph we've been making our way through. Halacha Beis then the Rambam talks about Se'ir Hamishtaleach. Halacha Gimmel he talks about Bizman Hazeh all we have is Teshuva, and then Halacha Daled talks about the Chilukei Kapparah. So if you look in other parts of the Yad HaChazaka, so Perek Aleph is the sort of introducing the fundamental concepts of the rest of the Halachos. In Hilchos Shabbos, so Perek Aleph the Rambam introduces Issur Melacha, he tells us the Klallim of Davar She'eino Miskaven and Pesik Reisha and מלאכה שאינה צריכה לגופה. And here, with all due respect to the Se'ir Hamishtaleach, I don't know it's so fundamental to all of Hilchos Teshuva that right away it gets such high billing that Halacha Beis of all of Hilchos Teshuva is already the Se'ir Hamishtaleach. So we already discussed that here in Halacha Aleph when the Rambam presents and defines the Mitzva, he speaks of כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו חייב להתוודות. The Teshuva is the context, Teshuva is the backdrop, but the Mitzva of which the Torah, of which the Torah speaks, is Mitzvas Viduy. Mitzvas Viduy. So where does the Chiyuv Teshuva come from? So we spoke about the Perek Hey, the ראוי לנו לחזור בתשובה, Ayin Sham. There is a famous Kasha and Teretz from the Minchas Chinuch which the Rav deepens and elaborates in Ish Ha-halacha. The Rambam here says וכן בעלי חטאות ואשמות בעת שמביאין קרבנותיהן על שגגתם או על זדונם ואין מתכפר להם בקרבנם עד שיעשו תשובה ויתודו וידוי דברים,
Hakappara's me'akev. So the Minchas Chinuch famously asks from the din in Masechet Kiddushin towards the end of the second perek that if a person is מקדש את האשה על מנת שאני צדיק גמור, אפילו רשע כל ימיו,
so it's at least a Safek Kiddushin, שמא הרהר בלבו תשובה. But we know he wasn't Misvadeh. That has to be articulated, that has to be audible. We know that he wasn't Misvadeh, so what do you mean שמא הרהר בלבו ועשה תשובה? The Rambam says Viduy is me'akev. So the Minchas Chinuch answers and the Rav elaborates this, that Viduy is only me'akev in Kapparah. In order to qualify for the atonement, for the Kapparah, that requires Viduy. But in terms of the as the Rav explains in terms of the status of the Gavra, in terms of the Rishus ha-gavra, which he said, he said מקדש את האשה על מנת שאני צדיק גמור, that I'm not a Rasha but rather that I'm a Tzaddik, so that even without Kapparah, even if the person hasn't had the Kapparah, the fact that he's done Teshuva is already transformative, transformative. Okay now, Lich'ora what then follows is Mishneh Torah, the Rambam tells us in the Hakdama is he is constructed around teaching us all the Halachos of the Taryag Mitzvos. So Hayos that the Mitzvas ha-Torah in context of Teshuva is Viduy, not the Teshuva itself. כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו חייב להתוודות, וידוי זה מצות עשה.
And the Viduy... That's why the Rambam begins with viduy because he begins with viduy because that's the mitzvas hatorah. Hilchos Shabbos begins with issur melachah. That's the mitzvas hatorah. Hilchos Teshuvah, the title notwithstanding, but the mitzvas hatorah that is nidones in Hilchos Teshuvah is viduy. So the Rambam begins with viduy because that's the mitzvas hatorah. Viduy is again central and essential to kapparah. So that's what the rest of perek aleph of Hilchos Teshuvah's about. That's why the Rambam then, pashta deasinu lehachi that you have to begin with viduy, so then perek aleph is devoted to kapparah. And that's what it is. Halachah beis is about Seir Hamishtaleach, Halachah gimmel says בזמן הזה אין לנו מזבח כפרה אלא התשובה and Halachah daled is about the chilukei kapparah. Then once the Rambam has spoken of, again, the mitzvas hatorah, so now he goes back and he talks about the fundamentals of teshuvah beginning in perek beis and moving forward.