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Yom Kippur, Teshuvah, and Non-Jews: What Applies and What Does Not

Yom Kippur is approaching, and with it comes an important question: What is the relationship between non-Jews who follow the Noahide path and Jewish holidays, particularly Yom Kippur?

This is a complicated subject, and I am currently writing a book that deals with this and many related topics. For now, I would like to present the main ideas as clearly and simply as possible.

There is an important distinction that is often overlooked: the commandments of a Jewish holiday are not necessarily the same thing as the lessons and spiritual ideas represented by that holiday.

Understanding this distinction is essential.

What Is the Purpose of a Jewish Holiday?

Every Jewish holiday represents a special connection between God and the Jewish people.

Of course, that connection expresses itself in different ways. This is why there are different holidays. Each holiday emphasizes a particular spiritual idea or quality, which can then influence a person’s life throughout the rest of the year.

Take Rosh Hashanah as an example.

Rosh Hashanah is called the “head of the year.” Just as the head contains the instructions and vitality for the rest of the body, Rosh Hashanah represents the spiritual foundation for the coming year. It is particularly associated with accepting God as King.

Sukkot has a different emphasis. It is associated with joy. In a certain sense, we recharge our “batteries” of joy during Sukkot, and that joy accompanies us throughout the year.

Yom Kippur has another emphasis: atonement, forgiveness, and teshuvah.

Each holiday therefore expresses the relationship between God and the Jewish people in a different way.

This is similar to the relationship between a parent and children. A parent may have ten children, but the relationship with each child is not identical. The same parent and the same children may have completely different relationships with one another.

The same idea applies here. Each Jewish holiday expresses a particular dimension of the relationship between God and the Jewish people.

What About Non-Jews and Jewish Holidays?

This raises an obvious question: if a Jewish holiday represents a particular bond between God and the Jewish people, what does it mean for a non-Jew to “celebrate” that holiday?

The answer requires some precision.

This does not mean that non-Jews have no connection to God. Everything in existence is connected to God. God creates every single thing, continuously. A stone has a particular relationship with God, a plant has another, an animal has another, and a human being has another.

There is also a unique relationship between God and the Jewish people.

The question is therefore not whether non-Jews are connected to God. They certainly are. The question is whether the specific divine relationship and spiritual system associated with a particular Jewish commandment or holiday applies to them in the same way.

In general, it does not.

Why?

Because a commandment creates a particular channel of connection between God and the person who is commanded.

Imagine that you want to speak to the president of Argentina. If the president calls you, you can speak to him. He has established the connection.

But if you simply stand in the street and announce, “I want to speak to the president,” that does not create the same channel. You cannot establish the relationship yourself merely by deciding that you want it.

The same principle applies to commandments.

A commandment comes from God. It establishes a particular connection between God and the person commanded.

Therefore, if a non-Jew is not commanded to perform a particular Jewish mitzvah, he or she should not assume that performing that mitzvah creates the same specific divine connection that it creates for a Jew.

Commandments, Customs, and Lessons

Every Jewish holiday contains several different dimensions.

There are the actual commandments of the holiday.

There are also customs that developed to express and enhance the celebration.

And there are the ideas and lessons represented by the holiday.

These must not be confused.

Consider Passover.

One of the commandments of Passover is to eat matzah. That commandment applies to Jews. A non-Jew can certainly eat matzah, but eating matzah is not a mitzvah for him.

At the same time, matzah represents important ideas.

Because matzah is not leavened and does not rise, it is associated with humility. It can also be associated with faith and other spiritual concepts.

Those ideas can certainly be learned and applied by a non-Jew.

A non-Jew can ask:

All of those questions are completely legitimate.

What does not follow is that the non-Jew thereby acquires the specific mitzvah of eating matzah or the same divine energies associated with fulfilling that commandment as a Jew.

This distinction is fundamental.

The commandment may not apply, while the lesson may absolutely apply.

The same principle is relevant to Yom Kippur.

What Is Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur represents divine forgiveness and atonement.

The central biblical story associated with Yom Kippur is the story of the sin of the Golden Calf and God’s eventual forgiveness of the Jewish people.

There is much more to the story, of course, and it can be studied independently. But for our purposes, the central idea is that Yom Kippur represents a profound process of forgiveness and teshuvah.

For Jews, Yom Kippur is also a day of fasting.

Interestingly, however, if you search the Torah for the exact command “fast on Yom Kippur,” you will not find those words.

The Torah speaks about afflicting oneself, and the Sages explain that this includes fasting, along with other aspects of the observance of Yom Kippur.

The important point for our discussion is that this commandment to observe Yom Kippur in the Jewish manner does not automatically apply to non-Jews.

The Story of Nineveh

There is, however, an important biblical story that seems to complicate the issue.

The prophet Jonah was sent to Nineveh, a non-Jewish city, and warned its inhabitants that God would destroy the city because of their behavior.

The people of Nineveh responded with teshuvah. They fasted, changed their behavior, and repented. God then spared the city.

This is obviously relevant when discussing whether non-Jews can repent.

But it is important not to draw the wrong conclusion from the story.

The fact that the people of Nineveh fasted does not establish that non-Jews are commanded to fast on Yom Kippur.

The story of Nineveh did not take place on Yom Kippur. We do not know that it happened on that date, and therefore it cannot serve as a source for an obligation for non-Jews to fast on Yom Kippur.

Fasting and teshuvah are also not the same thing.

The people of Nineveh fasted, but the central point of the story is their repentance.

The text says that God saw their repentance—not simply their fasting.

Does Teshuvah Apply to Non-Jews?

Here we enter a much more complicated area.

The Hebrew word teshuvah is usually translated as “repentance,” although the Hebrew concept is much richer than that simple translation.

There are different opinions among the Sages and later authorities concerning whether non-Jews have the ability—or even the obligation—to perform teshuvah in the same sense as Jews.

Some sources appear to say that non-Jews do not have the same capacity for kaparah, or atonement, as Jews.

Other sources appear to say that non-Jews can indeed perform teshuvah.

This is not a simple subject, and it is important to acknowledge the disagreement rather than pretending that there is only one opinion.

Opinions That Restrict Teshuvah for Non-Jews

Some classical sources indicate that non-Jews do not have the same concept of kaparah as Jews.

The Talmud contains statements that have been understood in this direction. Other ancient Midrashic sources similarly appear to distinguish non-Jews from Jews regarding teshuvah and atonement.

Rabbi Menachem Azaria of Fano, among others, writes that teshuvah is not a mitzvah commanded to non-Jews.

The underlying idea is significant.

If God does not command a person to perform a particular act of teshuvah, then that person cannot necessarily create the same spiritual channel independently.

This returns us to the principle mentioned earlier: a commandment is a channel established by God.

Opinions That Say Non-Jews Can Do Teshuvah

Other sources point in the opposite direction.

The story of Cain is one example. Cain, who was not living under the Torah as it would later be given to the Jewish people, is described in Midrashic literature and the commentary of Ramban as engaging in teshuvah.

Other commentators discuss the possibility of teshuvah for non-Jews as well.

There are therefore sources that clearly indicate that non-Jews can repent.

The story of Nineveh is another important example.

The people of Nineveh were non-Jews, they repented, and God spared them.

R. Menachem Azariah of Fano discusses the apparent contradiction between the story of Nineveh and sources that seem to restrict teshuvah for non-Jews. He explains that, although non-Jews do not have the same formal institution of teshuvah as Jews, the case of Nineveh was exceptional. Among the considerations he gives for G-d’s sparing Nineveh was the fact that punishing the city would have caused widespread suffering to its many innocent inhabitants and animals. He also suggests that the people returned what they had stolen, and that their repentance may have merely delayed rather than completely removed their punishment. 

Another possibility discussed is that their temporary salvation did not necessarily mean that they had achieved the same permanent spiritual atonement that a Jew can achieve through teshuvah.

The subject is therefore far more complicated than simply saying, “Non-Jews can repent” or “Non-Jews cannot repent.”

The Rebbe’s Approach

The writings and talks of the Rebbe present an especially interesting development.

There are statements from the earlier years of his leadership that appear to indicate that non-Jews do not have teshuvah in the same sense.

Then, in later years, there are statements indicating that non-Jews are commanded to do teshuvah.

This appears, at first glance, to be a significant change.

I cannot tell you what was going on in the Rebbe’s mind or why the language changes. I am not the Rebbe, and it would be inappropriate for me to speculate.

What I can do is present the sources.

In the published collection of the Rebbe’s talks and writings, there appears to be a middle approach.

According to this approach, teshuvah for a non-Jew works toward the future.

That is extremely important.

A person can make a strong resolution that from now on he will not repeat a particular wrongdoing. He can change his behavior, improve his life, and begin living according to God’s moral expectations.

That itself is teshuvah.

But this does not necessarily mean that the person can transform the past in the same way that Jewish teshuvah can transform the past.

The Past and the Future

This brings us to one of the deepest distinctions in the subject.

Teshuvah has a future-oriented dimension:

I will not do this anymore.

And it has a past-oriented dimension:

What I did was wrong, I regret it, and I want to repair what I can.

For example, imagine that someone stole something.

Toward the future, teshuvah means deciding:

I will never steal again.

Toward the past, teshuvah means:

What I did was wrong. I regret it. I want to repair the damage and, where possible, return what I took.

Jewish teshuvah has a very profound dimension because it is connected to the essence of God, which transcends time.

Human beings are bound by time. We cannot physically travel backward and change history.

God, however, is beyond time.

Therefore, Jewish teshuvah can have an extraordinary effect on the past. According to the deeper teachings of teshuvah, a deliberate sin can, under certain circumstances, actually be transformed into a merit.

The laws of teshuvah in the Rambam are especially interesting in this regard. He describes different levels of teshuvah, including teshuvah motivated by fear of God and teshuvah motivated by love of God.

At the highest level, intentional sins can be transformed into merits.

This is a very deep idea.

The Rebbe generally does not say that non-Jewish teshuvah has this same power to transform the past.

Rather, the non-Jew can repent, change direction, and avoid punishment for the wrongdoing, both in this world and in the World to Come.

The story of Nineveh is important in this context.

What Does Teshuvah Actually Mean?

Putting all the complicated sources aside for a moment, what does teshuvah practically mean?

The first thing is simple:

Stop doing what is wrong.

If you are doing something wrong, stop.

Make a strong resolution that you will not continue doing it.

That is the future-oriented dimension.

But there is also a past-oriented dimension: recognize that what you did was wrong, regret it, and try to repair the damage.

In simple terms:

Take control of your present decisions and your future behavior. Abandon what is wrong. Live a more God-fearing and morally responsible life according to the way God defines morality.

That is the practical foundation of teshuvah.

Between a Person and God, and Between a Person and Another Person

There are two broad categories of wrongdoing.

There are commandments and responsibilities between a person and God.

And there are responsibilities between one person and another.

Idolatry, for example, is primarily a violation between a person and God.

Stealing, however, involves another person. You have taken something that belongs to someone else.

The process of teshuvah therefore has to reflect the nature of the wrongdoing.

When the wrongdoing is between you and God, you have to sincerely regret what you did and ask God for forgiveness.

But when you have harmed another person, you need to deal with that person.

You cannot simply send a generic message saying:

“I forgive everyone who ever did anything wrong to me, and I ask forgiveness from everyone I have ever hurt.”

That is not enough.

You have to face the problem.

If you harmed someone, say specifically what you did.

“I did this to you. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

If possible, you should speak to the person directly.

A phone call is better than hiding behind a keyboard. A WhatsApp message may sometimes be necessary, but it should be the last option rather than the first.

Face your problems.

Face the person.

Ask for forgiveness sincerely.

What If Someone Refuses to Forgive You?

Jewish law also places responsibilities on the person who was wronged.

If someone sincerely asks you for forgiveness, you should forgive.

Of course, there can be legitimate reasons for refusing forgiveness if the request is insincere or the person has not genuinely changed.

But if someone repeatedly comes to you with a sincere request for forgiveness, you cannot simply hold on to hatred forever.

There is a well-known idea in Jewish law that if someone sincerely asks forgiveness three times and the injured person still refuses to forgive, the wrongdoing can eventually become the injured person’s responsibility.

This does not mean that someone can mechanically say, “Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me,” three times and then declare the matter finished.

It has to be genuine.

The person asking forgiveness has to be sincere, and the request has to be meaningful.

Forgiveness Does Not Mean Being a Fool

Forgiveness is difficult.

Sometimes it is extremely difficult.

If someone has treated you terribly, it is easy to hold onto anger and resentment. Letting go is much harder.

But forgiveness does not mean that you have to put yourself in danger or allow someone to hurt you repeatedly.

Judaism does not teach us simply to “turn the other cheek.”

If someone hits you, move away.

Do not stand there and invite them to hit you again.

There is no virtue in being a fool.

For example, suppose you lend someone money and they promise to repay you within a year. A year passes, and they do not repay you.

You may eventually decide to forgive the debt. That is your choice.

But if the same person then comes back and asks you to lend them money again, you are not obligated to do so.

You can forgive someone while still recognizing that they are unreliable.

Forgiveness and wisdom can coexist.

You can say:

I forgive you, but I am not going to put myself in the same situation again.

That is not hatred. That is responsibility.

And ultimately, when something cannot be resolved, we leave divine justice to God.

He is the judge, not us.

Should a Non-Jew Fast on Yom Kippur?

So, where does this leave us practically?

Should a non-Jew fast on Yom Kippur?

I don’t think so—not as an obligation.

If you want to fast, you can do so, but you should not assume that you are commanded to fast.

And if you are seriously considering fasting, speak with a rabbi about what fasting actually means. Jewish fasting has specific laws and is not simply a matter of skipping a meal.

More importantly, do not assume that fasting automatically creates the special divine revelations or mystical effects associated with the Jewish observance of Yom Kippur.

The commandment does not apply to you in the same way.

But this does not mean that you cannot learn from Yom Kippur.

Quite the opposite.

Learn the Lessons of Yom Kippur

A non-Jew can absolutely learn from the spiritual ideas associated with Yom Kippur.

You can study forgiveness.

You can think about repentance.

You can examine your relationship with God.

You can ask yourself whether you need to repair something in your life.

You can think about how you treat other people.

You can learn about the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies.

You can study the ideas associated with the day.

All of this is legitimate.

The important thing is to distinguish between learning the lesson and being commanded to perform the mitzvah.

If you encounter a teaching that says, “Therefore you must fast on Yom Kippur,” be careful. That conclusion does not automatically apply to a non-Jew.

You have to know which parts of the teaching apply to you and which do not.

And when you are uncertain, ask a rabbi who knows the relevant laws and sources.

A Final Word About Sources and Artificial Intelligence

One final point is worth emphasizing.

Be careful with information you find online, including information generated by artificial intelligence.

I use artificial intelligence myself. It can be very useful for finding sources, understanding subjects, programming, and many other things.

But you have to verify the sources.

AI systems can collect information from thousands of websites, but who says that those websites are correct?

I have personally encountered situations where an AI system gave me an answer that was completely wrong.

When I pointed out the error, it sometimes apologized. On one occasion, it essentially admitted that its “imagination had gone too far.”

That is a good illustration of the problem.

AI can produce a very convincing answer even when the underlying information is incorrect.

So when dealing with Torah, Halachah, Jewish law, or complex theological questions, check the original sources.

Do not simply accept an answer because it sounds intelligent.

The same principle applies to Google searches, YouTube videos, websites, and social media.

Look at the sources.

Check where the information came from.

And when necessary, ask someone qualified to interpret those sources.

The Main Point

The most important lesson of this entire discussion is simple:

Do not confuse the commandments of a Jewish holiday with the lessons of the holiday.

The commandments of Jewish holidays apply to Jews according to the relevant laws.

The spiritual lessons, however, can often be learned and applied by non-Jews as well.

Passover can teach humility and faith.

Yom Kippur can teach repentance and forgiveness.

The question is not simply, “Does this holiday apply to me?”

The better question is:

Which part of the holiday applies to me?

If the Torah commands something specifically to the Jewish people, a non-Jew should not assume that the commandment applies to him.

But if the holiday teaches humility, faith, repentance, forgiveness, moral responsibility, or a deeper relationship with God, why should a non-Jew not learn from that?

Of course they can.

Regarding teshuvah specifically, there are different opinions in the sources. Some sources restrict the concept for non-Jews, while others clearly indicate that non-Jews can repent.

The Rebbe’s writings and talks also contain different formulations, with the later approach emphasizing that non-Jews can and should engage in teshuvah, particularly regarding their future conduct.

Exactly how far that teshuvah extends into the past is a much more complicated question.

But practically, the message is straightforward:

Stop doing what is wrong. Recognize what was wrong. Regret it. Repair what you can. And make a sincere decision to live differently from now on.

That is something every person can take seriously.

And ultimately, the Talmud and the Rambam teach that when we truly do teshuvah, redemption can come immediately.

So perhaps the question is not only whether teshuvah applies to us.

Perhaps the more important question is:

What are we going to do about it?

Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber


The above is a representation of the spoken text converted to written text.

Sourcers

Torat Menachem – Hitva’aduyot 5745, vol. 5, p. 2722

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 31 

Exodus (Shemot) 31:13 

Likutei Torah, Shemini Atzeret 83b 

The Story of the Golden Calf — Exodus 32–34 

The Book of Jonah (Yonah) — especially Jonah 3, concerning the fasting and repentance of Nineveh 

Tosafot, Kiddushin 39b 

Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi), Nazir 9:1 

Midrash Tanchuma, Ha’azinu 4 

Rabbi Menachem Azariah da Fano (Rama of Fano), Asarah Ma’amarot, Ma’amar Chikur Din 2:11 

Mabit (Rabbi Moshe ben Yosef di Trani), Beit Elokim, Sha’ar HaTeshuvah, chapters 12–14 

Bereishit Rabbah 22:13 — concerning Cain’s repentance 

Ramban (Nachmanides), commentary on Genesis (Bereishit) 4:7 

Selichot of Tzom Gedalia — referring to the repentance of the people of Nineveh 

Likkutei Sichot, vol. 6, p. 55, note 47 

Likkutei Sichot, vol. 3, p. 981 

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