The 16 expressions of forgiveness

The 16 different expressions of forgiveness, extended explanation.

Translation by Rabbi Mendy Greenstein 

1. Kapara - atonement, “atone for your nation Israel. כפרה - כפר לעמך ישראל. When you are in debt to get forgiven for it you need to give a כופר נפש, a payment of your soul. This is  judgment that descends upon you and a difficulty you go through in order to atone. A direct exchange for atonement all at once. Thus, on Yom “Kippurim” we ask for complete forgiveness in the merit the five עינוים afflictions we subject ourselves to. 
2. Slicha - forgiveness, by the golden calf, “and Hashem says, I have forgiven, as you said” סליחה - ויאמר ה׳ סלחתי כדבריך. The idea is forgiveness for now, but the punishment is still in the wings and has not gone away. Even if there is punishment for now, to affect the forgiveness, it is not over. Just as by the golden calf it states וביום פוקדי ופקדתי, “on the day I remember (to punish you for a sin) I remember (to punish you for the golden calf) as well.” So it’s a concept of יסורים difficulties and punishment little by little, מאריך אף lengthening the anger. Slicha is mentioned 7 different ways in the Torah.
3. Mechila - מחילה, in the language used by our sages, מחילת העון. It is a combination of the first two expressions of forgiveness, כפרה and סליחה. It is, in general, the light of Rachamim coming down. Sometimes, the מחילה can effect a full atonement, כפרה, and sometimes the mercy is not able to fully overcome the negative, necessitating a temporary סליחה and difficulties, יסורין. The מחילה is the תפארת in the middle of these two sides of forgiveness, the light and the harsh.
4. Noseh - to uplift נושא. It’s from the language of gift or tribute, משא וסבלונות. A free gift from above, without having to go through any יסורין or punishment at all. נושא עון ופשע וחטאה “lifts up sin and rebellion and iniquity” are three expressions of this form of forgiveness, for the different types of sin. They correspond with the three אבות forefathers, the three first מידות attributes.
5. Nakeh - to cleanse נקא, “uplifts sin and rebellion and iniquity and cleanses נשא עון ופשע וחטאה. The concept is opposite to נושא. Cleansing is when the forgiveness does necessitate some form of punishment to atone (either כפרה or סליחה, as mentioned.) In עון ופשע וחטאה ונקה refers to the mida of נקה as it applies to the three types of sin. These three expressions of נקה are called the childen (netzach, hod, yesod,) in comparison to the אבות, the father’s mercies (chesed, gevurah tiferes,) as they are by the mida נושא.
6. Mavir - to wipe away, “wipes over the rebelliousness”  ותפארתו עובר על פשה, “his glory is in washing away sin” from the mida of תפראת. As one might draw water over a blemish to wash away mud and stagnation. In this there are two types of cleansing as well. There is the incomplete cleansing, where the mud is washed away, but the sin itself is still kept for further punishment of the sinner. This is like we see in the case of David Hamelech, when he sinned with Batsheva. The Navi says, גם ה׳ העביר חטאתך לא תמות, “Hashem has indeed wiped away your sin, you will not die. This, his viduy accomplishid, that he should not lose his world to come, but he would still have to pay back “times four for the sheep,” as the Navi tells him. The other type of washing away sin is completely, as told to Yehoshua the Cohen Gadol, העברתי מעליך עוניך “I have wiped away your sin from upon you.” The fact that it states “from upon you” on reference to the person himself, and not just in reference to wiping away the sin, implies that it is all being completely removed from the person. This complete washing is what we ask for on Yom Kippur, תעביר על פשעינו “wash over (upon) our sins” and מחה והעבר פשעינו מנגד עיניך “erase and wash away our rebelliousness (from before your eyes.) 
7. Kovesh - to supress, כובש, “he will suppress our sins” יכבוש עונותינו. This is mercy from above that does not allow the sins to have an opportunity to speak judgment. Even the source of the sin, the attribute of din, is suppressed. This is a case of the right side of kindness overruling the left side of judgment יכבשו רחמיך את כעסך. The truth is however, that in this midah, the sin is not cleansed or forgiven yet at all. It is simply suppressed and ignored until a time comes when it might be remembered.  The pertinent example of this is the sin of גונב איש ומכרו that was suppressed until the end of the second temple period (the sin of the tribes selling Yossef, that we mention by the 10 martyrs on Yom Kippur).
8. Mashlich - to cast away, משליך, “and he will cast away our sins in the depths of the sea” ותשליך במצולת ים כל חטאתם. The “depths of the sea” refers to the evil itself, the חיצונים external forces. The sin is sent upon them, in place of upon us. The idea is that underneath, beyond the boundaries of all the holy places, is the mud and stagnation underneath. It is the way of the supernal light, when washing off sin, to send the dirt that was on us down to these “deep-sea depths” מצא מין את מינו “like finds like.” This atonement is as it states, “I will place (a) man (adam) in exchange for you.” Our sages say don’t read “adam”, (read “Edom,” for Eisav.) The old fool זקן וכסיל, who is the compared to the evil inclination, is the same fool כסיל who “folds his hands and eats his own flesh.” (The sins fall back upon the evil itself and destroy it from its own likeness.) This is also the idea of the goat on Yom Kippur “carrying all their sins upon it to a craggy גזירה (also evil “decree”) land.” One accomplishes this level through complete Teshuva, just as the Jewish people in the times of Mordechai, when the decree that was on us, instead fell upon Haman, his sons and his nation (עמלק, who were from Eisav.) This is the highest level of atonement, to not only be forgiven completely, but to flip it all back to the accuser.
9. Mechiya - erasure, מחיה “I have erased your rebellion as a cloud” מחיתי כעב פשעיך, just as a cloud evaporates and is not remembered. This mida is in juxtaposition to the previous mida, Mashlich. While erasing a sin completely is almost the highest level of atonement, it is not as high as Mashlich, where the judgment gets flipped onto our enemies in place of us. The reason for this is that מחיתי, erasing the sin, is from חסד, kindness, while תשליך, casting away, is on the side of גבורה, strictness. The judgment of Gevurah demands that justice be served in some way, no matter what, either upon the accused or in an exchange. (There is a story in the Zohar where the Rabbis saw a snake who was sent to bite someone who did Teshuva before it could get to him and was looking for somewhere else to complete its mission.) When it is not justice being served, but an act of kindness, there is never a need for an “exchange.” This is quality of חסד of מחיתי, erasure.
10. Kibus - laundering, כיבוס, “if you launder me with detergent” אם תכבסני בנתר. Cleansing is washing off with the waters of kindness, as they are mixed together with judgment, the נתר or בורית detergent. The judgment of this cleansing are the יסורין, afflictions, you go through for atonement. As the statement in Iyov, אם התרחצתי במי שלג, “if I have rinsed myself with melted snow” (evokes imagery of tzadikim who would roll in the snow as a tikun, perhaps.) As explained in Zohar, the congealing of water into snow is the Chesed extending into Gevurah, it’s frozen from the chilly northern winds (the north being the side of Gevurah.) The next midah, Tahara, will complete this explanation of cleansing.
11. Tahara - purify, טהרה, “purify me from my sins” - מחטאתי טהרני and “be purified from before Hashem” - לפני ה׳ תטהרו.  Kibus and Tahara, cleansing and purifying go together, one follows the other. The Tahara is what one reaches through cleansing, after thorough cleansing through יסורין - afflictions. (Perhaps that’s why Rebbe Akiva was praised, “your body is pure with all manner of purity,” after being raked with steel.) As previously explained, cleansing is kindness tempered with judgment. This mixture is expressed in the verse, “praised is the man that ‘yud-key’ afflicts him.” The “yud” is the Chesed and the “hey” is the Gevurah.   Thus, “Teshuva (Binah, above חסד and גבורה) hangs the judgment (in balance) and afflictions, (that are a composite of kindness and strictness) cleanse (“memarkin” -ממרקין is another word for cleansing.) After this cleansing comes the טהרה Tahara לפני ה’ תטהרו “you will be cleansed before the name of Hashem.” That is, after you’ve gone through the cleansing that corresponds with Hashem’s name, as mentioned, you reach the level of Tahara לפני ה׳ “before” that level, beyond the level of cleansing. Which level is this Tahara? The level of Arich (as forgiveness of ארך אפיים the “Erech Apayim” of the 13 attributes of mercy.) This level is that of the name the Cohen Gadol would utter on Yom Kippur.
12. Libun - whitening, ליבון, “if you’re sins are like red wool, they will whiten like snow” אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו. This is the concept of whitening the redness of sin, as in the verse, עיניו כיונים על אפיקי מים רחצות בחלב - “your eyes are (white) like doves, washed in milk.” The blooshot eyes ( as in חכלילי עיניים מיין - “eyes reddened of wine”) are whitened as if washed with the mercies of divine will, רצון. Likened to the hairs (as is known the kabbalistic concept of the שער - “hair” from the mercies of the level of אריך) that are “white like clean wool” - כעמר נקי. Or the redness of our sins turns “as white as snow” - כשלג ילבינו. The concept of the snow here, referring to the verse, “from inside what (level) did this frost come?” (The concept of מי, asking “who,” since it is from the unknowable) and the verse, “and to snow he commands, ‘be to the earth!’” (As our sages said that the earth was formed from the “snow” underneath the divine throne of honor.) The ארץ - earth, this word within the context of this snow, is the concept of  רצון - divine will and mercy (that the earth is called ארץ because it “wanted to (רצתה) do the will of its maker.”) This divine will coming down, like snow, from the highest level, all the way down to the ארץ - earth, to whiten the redness of our sins.
13. Kisui - covering, כיסוי “lifts up sin and covers over iniquity” נשוי פשע כיסוי חטאה. This refers to concealing the sinner from the prosecutors, so they should not be able to go near them until they have the opportunity to do Teshuva. This covering is by the “shadow of Hashem’s hand.” This covering is also described as a thread of kindness - חוט של חסד, since the world benefits from this person (in this merit the person elicits divine kindness, as the hand that gives, to cover him). He is, in the meantime, in the same vein, allegorically, in the “hidden recesses of his wings,” בסתר כנפיו so none may level accusations. If the person merits, they will do Teshuva during this hidden time, if not, in the end, they will have to face their guilt and meet their obligation.
14. Pediya - redemption, פדי׳ “and he will redeem Israel from all of their sins” -והוא יפדה את ישראל מכל עונותיו. This is after a person has already been given over into the hands of judgment for his sin and he is paying his debt, by the “snake” “biting” him repeatedly with difficulties followed by afflictions. In the midst of this, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has mercy on him and redeems him from this. This is the statement, “redeem him from going down to destruction, I have found a replacement!” - פדעהו מרדת שחת מצאתי כפר. This “replacement” is decided according to divine will. Either (the judgment will transfer) to your children or some other affliction (more palatable than what was previously decreed.)
15. Harchaka - distancing, הרחקה “distance our rebellious acts from us” הרחיק ממנו את פשעינו. This refers to when the sins are many and want to overtake and rule over you. If the (judgment for these) sins draws near you, you will be consumed immediately, it will be the end of you, beyond what you can handle. It is at such a juncture that Hakadosh Baruch Hu distances the sins from you so they cannot reach you. This is done by the Shechina taking you, together with him, into exile, far away, the concept of the secret of the “exile of the divine presence.” The sins are then atoned for, as “exile atones for sin.” This is the meaning of the verse “just as the distance between east and west, send our sins fay away.” This verse hints to the separation of the supernal union of תפארת (east) and מלכות (west), with exile, of the Jewish people (or of the Shechina,) compared to the separation of husband and wife, or of a parent from a child.  When destruction is decreed upon Israel ח״ו their “mother” (אימא עילאה) stands up to protect them (like the queen who is exiled together with the son, when the king sends him away.) This is hinted to, as well, in the verse, “even when they are in the land of their enemies I did not revile and despise them, to destroy them - לכלתם” the word לכלתם - “to destroy them” can also be read “(for the sake of or because of) their bride.” This is the supernal “bride,” the Shechina’s presence with us, that distances our sins from us.
16. Chataya - sprinkling, חטייה “sprinkle me with hyssop and I will become pure” תחטאני באזוב ואטהר. The אזוב “hyssop that grows on the wall” is the concept of Yesod, that connects and gives the flow. The wall it attaches to refers to מלכות. Below, the חטאת is a קרבן, which means “to draw close”, referring to the union of יסוד and מלכות. Thus, it states, “he descended from doing the חטאת”, referring to the flow downwards from יסוד in this form of atonement wherein we affect a supernal union and divine flow towards us.