Confession of sins on the day of Atonement ווידוי ביום כפור Vidui b'yom kippur
Atonement is therefore the way to happiness. But a man who doesn’t sin has nothing to atone for. Therefore the prayers of the Day of Atonement consist of confession.
When we pray, fast, sacrifice we feel happy because the Torah has told us that this is the way to clean our souls of sin.
Happiness is a besmirched soul that has been cleansed. No other philosophy shows mankind the way to happiness, his most fervent wish.
Enumerating our sins is the most important prayer of the day of Atonement, because without sin there is no atonement, and without atonement our soul is black with the dirt of sin. And what man can be happy while his soul besmirched with dirt. It’s as impossible as a man claiming to be clean while he wallows in a bath of mud.
Here, therefore are a few verses of the confession:
We have trespassed,
we have been faithless,
we have robbed,
we have spoken basely,
we have committed iniquity,
we have wrought unrighteousness,
we have been presumptuous,
we have done violence,
we have forged lies,
we have counselled evil,
we have spoken falsely,
we have scoffed,
we have revolted,
we have blasphemed,
we have been rebellious,
we have acted perversely,
we have transgressed,
we have persecuted,
we have been stiff-necked,
we have done wickedly,
we have corrupted ourselves,
we have committed abomination,
we have gone astray,
and we have led astray.
Another version of confession of sins: