Chapter 138

The many people who had gone to the Western Wall then returned, though a large number remained there to pray Minchah and Neilah. We began Ashrei and removed the Torah scrolls, again conducting readings in two rooms as during Shacharis. Maftir Yonah was read in the second room, because in the first room R. Shlomo, may his light shine, possessed an established right to it. I received the Levi aliyah in the first room and my son in the second. Thus the Minchah Torah reading was completed with awakening.

One member of our fellowship then led Minchah. The Torah scrolls were returned to the Holy Ark, and we prayed the Minchah Shemoneh Esrei with intent, awakening, weeping, and so forth. This was especially so upon reaching the confessions Ashamnu, Al Chet, and “For all of them, God of forgiveness.”

There followed “You know the mysteries of the universe,” and so forth, and “My God, before I was formed,” and so forth, with awakening, teshuvah, complete remorse, weeping, and intent of the heart. This was especially so because this is the final confession recited within a silent Shemoneh Esrei. Moreover, “A person should always be careful regarding the Minchah prayer, for Eliyahu was answered only at Minchah.” The Akedah of Yitzchak likewise took place at the time of Minchah, and it is therefore a time of favor, and so forth. For this reason many people recite the prayers printed in Likutay Tzvi and in many machzorim—petitions and the remembrance of the Akedah of Yitzchak, and so forth.

The prayer leader then repeated the Shemoneh Esrei with the liturgical poems and the Kedushah of Kesser. Our custom is to recite the Kedushah of Kesser in all four Yom Kippur services; Chabad alone recites Kesser only at Mussaf and Neilah. During each Kedushah of Kesser many also recite the prayer printed in Likutay Tzvi and in the machzorim, at the point when the leader says, “Where is the place of His glory?” and so forth, petitioning for livelihood, righteous children, and so forth. He then continued the entire Shemoneh Esrei, and especially the Selichos.

When we reached the confession that is recited together with the prayer leader, we said Ashamnu and Al Chet with complete remorse, teshuvah, intent of the heart, and weeping. This was the final recitation of the Al Chet confession that day, for Al Chet is no longer recited during Neilah.

The ten confessions recited on Yom Kippur—five within the five silent Shemoneh Esrei prayers of Yom Kippur, and five that are afterward repeated together with the emissary of the congregation during each repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei—correspond to the ten kinds of arrows shot into the king’s daughter, meaning the souls of Yisrael, through sins and spiritual blemishes. By means of these confessions those arrows are extracted, as explained in Likutay Halachos, and so forth.

The detailed confession was now being recited for the last time, during Minchah. Therefore, in confessing, we strengthened ourselves to say it with remorse from the depths of the heart. The deeper the remorse proceeds from within the heart, the more completely it draws the arrow and the blemish out of the soul. The principal thing is profound remorse of heart and soul, as explained by the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah: remorse must uproot the matter from its very root, until He Who knows all hidden things can testify concerning the person that his resolve of complete remorse has been fully formed—that he would rather never have entered this world than have done what he did, and so forth, and that he will never again return to his folly. Such was the resolve that became established in his mind at the time of confession.