Introduction The last chapter of the tractate continues to deal with the laws of teshuvah.

One who says: I shall sin and repent, sin and repent, they do not afford him the opportunity to repent. [If one says]: I shall sin and Yom HaKippurim will atone for me, Yom HaKippurim does not effect atonement. Atonement is granted only to those whose repentance is genuine. A person who says that he is going to sin and then repent is not granted atonement because this person is trying to “trick” the system. Similarly, one who says that he is going to sin and then he intends for Yom Kippur to give atone for his sins, does not get atonement.

For transgressions between man and God Yom HaKippurim effects atonement, but for transgressions between man and his fellow Yom HaKippurim does not effect atonement, until he has pacified his fellow. This was expounded by Rabbi Elazar b. Azariah: “From all your sins before the Lord you shall be clean” (Leviticus 16:30) for transgressions between man and God Yom HaKippurim effects atonement, but for transgressions between man and his fellow Yom HaKippurim does not effect atonement, until he has pacified his fellow.. The second lesson in our mishnah is perhaps the most important one in the tractate. Yom Kippur is a ritual through which we repair our relationship with God. It simply does not work the same way when it comes to our relationship with our fellow human beings. With other human beings we must repair our relationship, ask for their forgiveness and appease their anger at our mistakes. Only after we have done this does the divinely granted day of Yom Kippur effect atonement for our sins.