What Are the 24 Matters That Impede Repentance?

Greetings and blessings.

Indeed, there are 24 matters that impede repentance, as explained by the Rambam. The meaning is that these matters are not sufficiently remedied by simple repentance, and they impede the acceptance of repentance in Heaven.

Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah, Chapter 4

Halacha 1
There are twenty-four matters that impede repentance. Four of them are a great sin, and one who commits any of them is not given sufficient opportunity by Hashem to repent because of the seriousness of his sin. They are: (1) one who causes the many to sin, and included in this sin is one who prevents the many from performing a mitzvah; (2) one who turns another from a good path to a bad one, such as a mesit and a madiach; (3) one who sees his son going out to a bad way of life and does not protest, since his son is under his authority, and had he protested he would have turned back, and he is found to have caused him to sin; and included in this sin is anyone who is able to protest others, whether an individual or many, and does not protest, but leaves them in their downfall; (4) one who says, I will sin and I will repent, and included in this is one who says, I will sin and Yom Kippur will atone.

Halacha 2
Among them are five matters that close the ways of repentance before those who do them, and they are: (1) one who separates himself from the community, because when they do repent he will not be with them and will not merit with them in the merit of their deeds; (2) one who disputes the words of the Sages, because his dispute causes him to separate from them and he does not know the ways of repentance; (3) one who mocks the mitzvot, because once they are despised in his eyes he does not pursue them and does not perform them, and if he does not perform, by what will he merit; (4) one who humiliates his teachers, for this causes him to be pushed away and driven off like Gechazi, and when he is driven off he will not find a teacher and guide to show him the path of truth; (5) one who hates rebuke, for he has thereby left himself no path of repentance, since rebuke leads to repentance, because when a person is informed of his sins and shamed over them, he returns in repentance, as it is written in the Torah: Remember, and do not forget; you were rebellious; Hashem did not give you a heart; a foolish and unwise nation. Likewise, Isaiah rebuked Israel and said: Woe, sinful nation; the ox knows its owner; I know that you are stubborn. And Hashem likewise commanded him to rebuke sinners, as it is stated: Cry aloud, do not hold back. So too all the prophets rebuked Israel until they returned in repentance. Therefore, a great and elderly sage, one who fears Heaven from his youth and is beloved by them, must be appointed in every congregation in Israel so that he will rebuke the people and return them to repentance. But one who hates rebuke does not go to the rebuker and does not listen to his words; therefore, he remains in his sins, which in his eyes are good.

Halacha 3
Among them are five matters that if a person does them, it is impossible for him to repent complete repentance, because they are sins between man and his fellow, and his fellow does not know that he sinned against him so that he can return it to him or ask him for forgiveness. They are: (1) one who curses the many, and did not curse any specific person so that he could ask him for atonement; (2) one who partners with a thief, because he does not know whose theft it is, for the thief steals from the many and brings it to him and he takes it, and additionally he supports the thief and causes him to sin; (3) one who finds a lost object and does not announce it, so that when he returns in time he will not know to whom to return it; (4) one who eats the ox of the poor, orphans, and widows. These people are destitute and unknown and unrecognized, and they wander from city to city and have no acquaintance, so that one may know whose ox this is and return it to him; (5) one who accepts a bribe to twist judgment does not know how far this twisting reached or how strong it was, so that he can return it, for the matter has legs, and additionally he supports this person and causes him to sin. And one who eats the ox of the poor, etc. It appears that he reads ox with a resh, but it is actually shod with a dalet, meaning that he presses him with his debt until his land is seized for less, or their movable property, and he says: I am taking what is mine.

Halacha 4
Among them are five matters that if a person does them, he is not presumed to repent from them, because they are matters that seem light in the eyes of most people, and he finds himself sinning while imagining that this is not a sin. They are: (1) one who eats from a meal that is not sufficient for its owner, for this is a dust-like theft, and he imagines that he has not sinned and says: Did I eat anything other than with his permission? (2) one who uses the security of a poor man, for the security of a poor man is only such as a pickaxe or a plow, and he says in his heart: These are not lacking, and I have not stolen it; (3) one who gazes at forbidden relations imagines that there is nothing in it, saying: Did I have relations with her or come near her? And he does not know that the sight of the eyes is a great sin, because it causes the body to sin with forbidden relations, as it is stated: Do not stray after your hearts and after your eyes; (4) one who takes honor through the humiliation of his fellow says in his heart that it is not a sin, since his fellow is not standing there and has not been shamed, and he only set his own good deeds and his wisdom against his fellow's deeds or his wisdom so that it should appear from the comparison that he is honored and his fellow is disgraced; (5) one who suspects the innocent says in his heart that it is not a sin, since he says: What did I do to him? Is there anything there other than suspicion, perhaps he did or perhaps he did not do it? And he does not know that this is a sin, for he places a kosher person in his mind as though he were a transgressor.

Halacha 5
Among them are five matters that one who does them will be drawn after them constantly, and they are difficult to separate from; therefore a person must beware of them, lest he become attached to them, and all of them are very evil character traits. They are: gossip, lashon hara, one who is quick to anger, one who harbors evil thoughts, and one who associates with a wicked person, because he learns from his deeds and they are inscribed in his heart. This is what Solomon said: and the companion of fools shall be harmed. We have already explained in Hilchot Deot the matters that every person must always follow, all the more so one who has repented.

Halacha 6
All these matters and the like, although they impede repentance, do not prevent it. Rather, if a person repents from them, he is a baal teshuvah and has a share in the World to Come.

With blessings,

Binyamin Shmueli