Why do we strike the heart during confession if the sin was done with hands, mouth and eyes?
On Yom Kippur we say “For the sin...” and strike the chest, near the heart.
We tend to deal with wrongdoing only at the level of behavior: I gossiped, I got angry, I wasted time, I hurt someone. But recurring behavior often has a deeper root.
Why do I need to speak about others? Why does criticism make me explode? Why do I need constant approval? Why can I not sit five minutes without a screen?
Maimonides describes repentance as more than changing isolated actions. It includes changing our ways and creating distance from the path that produced the sin.
Sometimes we keep trimming branches while refusing to touch the root.
A person can promise a hundred times “I will not get angry,” but if his identity depends on never feeling disrespected, the anger will find another door.
Sometimes the deepest repentance is not the promise “I will never do this again,” but the courage to ask: what inside me needs this behavior so badly that I keep returning to it?