Malbim's Vidui/Confession Dictionary

Hebrew contains a lot of different words for sin, joy, light, serenity, and much more.

And despite the excellent English translations that abound, it's hard to encapsulate what a Hebrew word really means within its English equivalent.

On Yom Kippur, we say Vidui (The Jewish Confession) to God.

But do we know what we're really saying?

Whether we say chatiti, aviti, u'peshati in Hebrew or I've erred, I've sinned, and I've transgressed...do we really know what we're saying?

By taking a look at the Malbim on Neviim & Ketubim (Prophets & Writings), you can find the true definitions of thousands of words.

I haven't found the Malbim's definitions of all the words to Vidui. But I thought I'd share the ones I have found up until now.

For most, I didn't note the original source of the definition in my notes. But the one or two I did note are cited below if you want to look it up for yourself.

(Because the words appeared in Neviim & Ketuvim in a different tense than they appear in Vidui, I've included the original root word found within the Malbim's commentary in order to be true to the Malbim's definition.)

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Vidui Definitions based on Malbim

Chatati –  חטאתי
 חוטא (choteh) – accidental sinner, pulled by his desires
 
Aviti – עויתי
עוון (avohn) – sin from corrupted thinking
עיוה (ivah) – more severe than the other synonyms for sin, includes confusion and madness, one confuses the bodily kochot (pressures) with the derech hayashar (straight path)
 
Pashati – פשעתי
פשע  (pesha) – rebellion performed with the powers of intellect and insight

____________
 
אשמנו
אשם (asham) – one who is chayav (legally deserving of) punishment for his sins
 
העוינו
עיוה (ivah) – more severe than the other synonyms for sin, includes confusion and madness, one confuses the bodily kochot (pressures) with the derech hayashar (straight path)

והרשענו
 רשע (rasha) – sins intentionally against Man and God
 
זדנו
 זד (zed) – The zed is one who disagrees over the ways of wisdom and over the truth with protestations and inferences and plots to transgress it with repugnance (shiat nefesh), and it is the opposite of the modest one (tzanuah) who covers his face degrees within degrees and knows the "fluff" of his value like “and Moshe covered his face.” (Malbim, Mussar Chachma, Mishlei 11:2)
 
 זדון (zadon) – He who opposes Hashem and the ways of Torah b’mezid and publicly, as is written: “And the man who will do b’zadon against Hashem—he is the reviler (megadef)”, and if it’s accompanied by excess pride, he makes fun of wisdom and chachamim, as is written: “the arrogant zed--letz is his name”...the zed creates schemes to commit evil against his fellow. (Malbim, Mishlei 11:2)
 
טפלנו שקר
שקר (sheker) – its truth can be clarified immediately
 
כיזבנו
כזב (kazav) – its truth can be clarified only later
 
לצנו
לץ (letz) – inactive, doesn’t do any evil, but doesn’t do any good, either. Just pursues wind and nothingness and frivolousness and jokes; doesn’t involve himself with Torah
 
ניאצנו
ניאץ (ni’atz) – degrades and scorns something
 
עווינו
עוון (avohn) – a sin from corrupted thinking
 
פשענו
פשע  (pesha) – rebellion performed with the powers of intellect and insight
 
צררנו
צורר (tzorer) – active enemy (as opposed to one who just hates you in his heart)
 
רשענו
רשע (rasha) – sins intentionally against Man and God
 
שיחתנו
 משחית (mashchit) – wants to destroy for no reason

The Malbim (1809-1879) was Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel who was born in Russia and served as rav all over Eastern Europe. He was bitterly fought by the Reform Movement for most of his adult life, even suffering a brief imprisonment on a false accusation in Rumania by wealthy German Reformers. Fortunately, he left us an amazing commentary on the entire Torah among other valuable works he composed.