©2025 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The Catholic Church’s doctrine on indulgences is a legitimate outgrowth of Jewish belief in an afterlife and an individual’s final judgment before the throne of God. Orthodox Jewish belief is that the final judgment is but the culmination of a series of annual judgments, which take place on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), the most important day in the Jewish liturgical year. Ten Days of Penitence also called the “Days of Awe” or the “High Holy Days” preceded the Day of Atonement. These Days of Awe are the first ten days of the month of Tishri, from Rosh Ha-Shanah, literally meaning “head of the year,” or “New Year”, to Yom Kippur.
The Day of Atonement has its origins in the biblical narration of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers (Genesis chapter 37). Jacob, the father of Joseph, was told that Joseph was killed by wild beasts. He received the tidings of his son’s supposed death in the seventh month, Tishri, and on the tenth day of the month, and therefore the children of Israel are bidden to weep and afflict their souls on this day.[1]
According to ancient belief, God keeps record books of our actions, both good and evil. We are told that on Yom Kippur the souls of all living human beings pass before The Eternal One, and their fate is definitively decided—who shall live and who shall die; who shall rejoice and who shall sorrow; who shall prosper, and who shall wax poor; who shall be raised up and who shall be set down. On the Day of Atonement God opens the Book of Life and writes therein the names of those who will live and prosper throughout the coming year. The names of the wicked, the resha’im, are written in the Book of Death. People have ten days—until Yom Kippur—to repent before their fate is sealed.
The central theme of the Days of Awe is repentance, or teshuvah, literally meaning “returning to one’s self.” The preceding Hebrew month of Elul is set aside as a time for reflection and soul-searching in order that the Days of Awe might be entered into with the proper spirit. According to Jewish tradition, there are conditions necessary for teshuvah—regret for past negative behavior, willingness to confess sins before God and a resolve to amend wicked behavior. In the words of the Psalmist, “depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”[2] The opportunity to repent extends until the end of the tenth Holy Day, the Day of Atonement, when Jews fast as a sign of contrition. Yom Kippur is the climax of the 40-day “Season of Teshuvah,” made possible by the Divine capacity for forgiveness.
The Rabbis tell us that in the Jewish tradition, great emphasis is placed upon the responsibility to seek forgiveness not only from God but from his fellowman as well. The Lord forgives man his sins against Heaven (after sufficient repentance on the mortal’s part). Transgressions man commits against his fellow men can be atoned for only by definite actions to repair these wrongs, and by forgiveness on the part of those who have suffered these injuries.
Maimonides[3] taught that in order to secure God’s forgiveness, the individual must confess to having sinned, then repent, and finally resolve not to sin again. The process of sinning, repentance, and forgiveness is the central theme of the Day of Atonement liturgy; “Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray thee, according to the greatness of thy steadfast love, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word…”[4]
On the eve of the Day of Atonement, it is customary to approach those whom one may have wronged in order to beg their forgiveness and offer to make amends. The sages required the injured party to be “soft as a reed and not hard as a cedar”[5] and to display that same readiness to forgive which is attributed to God. In the Rabbinic view, a readiness to forgive is a virtue of great importance; one who thrice rejects a plea for forgiveness is himself considered a sinner.
Jews and Catholics believe that when a person is in total submission to God and allows God to accomplish His will, in and through the individual that person gains merit in the eyes of God. This merit is tangible and it offsets, or atones, for the person’s sins. Since the righteous men and women of old lived particularly holy lives, it is believed that they gained more merit than what was required to atone for their own sins. This excess or surplus merit was stored in the “Treasury of Merit” and it could be applied by God to benefit the living. This is why the Jews visit the graves of their loved ones just prior to the Days of Awe in the belief that the deceased can intercede before the throne of God in heaven on their behalf.
Saint Augustine described this concept as the will and the performance. “But is not this crown given in return for good works? Yes, but in as much as good works in the just are performed by Him of whom it is said, ‘for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.’”[6] What he meant is that we cannot take credit for any beneficial act that we perform because it is God accomplishing His will through us. We have free will and we can reject the promptings or the will of God. If we accede to the will of God in our lives, we gain merit and this merit atones for our sins.
These Jewish concepts are analogous to the Church’s belief in the Communion of Saints and the Treasury of Merit. The only basic difference between Jewish and Catholic belief is that Catholicism teaches that the Treasury of Merit is inexhaustible because of the atoning death of Jesus and the merits of Our Lady’s sinless life. It is through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints that indulgences are granted through the exercise of the power of the keys given to the first Pope, Peter, and his successors.
[1] Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society), 1948, Vol. II, p. 27.
[2] Psalm 34:30.
[3] A preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer, became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. Born in Córdoba (present-day Spain), in 1135 or 1138, he died in 1204.
[4] Numbers 14:19-20).
[5] Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar, as quoted by Michael L. Rodkinson in the New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, (Boston: The Talmud Society) Vol. VII, 1918, p. 53.
[6] Philippians 2:13.