In פרשת ויקרא, the Torah teaches us the dinim of korbanot. And amongst the korbanot that the Torah talks about is a korban chatat, and then at the end of the parashah, the Torah talks about a קרבן אשם תלוי. A korban chatat is brought when a person definitely did an עבירה בשוגג. He did an aveirah unintentionally. Such an aveirah that if he would have done it במזיד, intentionally, the punishment would have been karet. So if you do that עבירה בשוגג, you have to bring a korban chatat. But that is only if you are sure that you did that עבירה בשוגג. A קרבן אשם תלוי comes if you are not sure whether you did that aveirah or not. For instance, as the example given in the Gemara Keritot דף יז עמוד ב, there was a two pieces of fat on the table, and a person ate one of the two. And later on he found out that one of the two was chelev. One was shuman and one was chelev. Shuman is kasher fat, chelev is non-kasher fat. So he found out that one of the two pieces was chelev, but he doesn't know whether the piece that he ate was the chelev or the shuman. So he has a safek whether he did the עבירה בשוגג or not. For that, you have to bring a special קרבן which is called a קרבן אשם תלוי. And as long as the person doesn't know for sure whether he did it or he didn't, so then he stays with the אשם תלוי. If he finds out later that he definitely did eat the chelev, so then he has to bring a chatat because it became a ודאי עבירה, a definite aveirah, which he didn't bring the קרבן for before yet. But if he didn't find out, then the קרבן for his aveirah that he did בספק is a קרבן אשם תלוי. Now, the din is, the Gemara says in Zevachim דף מח עמוד א, that a חטאת בת דנקא, ואשם בת שתים, which means a chatat has to be worth at least a דנקא, a coin which was called a דנקא, and a אשם תלוי has to be worth at least two סלעים, which are actually 48 דנקס. So it comes out that a קרבן אשם תלוי has to be worth many, many times more as the קרבן חטאת. Now lichora, the question that comes up is, why is it like that? Since a קרבן חטאת is brought for a ודאי עבירה, for a definite aveira, so lichora that korban should have to be a bigger korban, a better korban, because he definitely did an aveira. While the קרבן אשם תלוי, which is only brought for a ספק עבירה, so that korban, since it's only a safek, maybe he did the aveira, maybe he didn't, for that lichora it would be enough if the korban would be a smaller korban. Nevertheless, the din is just the opposite, that a קרבן חטאת could be worth just one דנקא, and a קרבן אשם תלוי has to be worth at least 48 דנקס, which is two סלעים. So the Rabbeinu Yonah in Berachot explains that the reason is because we know that the עיקר כפרה from a korban, the main way a korban brings a kapara, forgives for the aveira, is because when you bring the korban, you do teshuva. That's the din. As a matter of fact, the din is if a person is not שב מידיעתו, if a person does not regret the aveira he did, then he can't bring the korban. So a very important part of the korban is the teshuva. Especially as the mefarshim explain, the Ramban, etc., etc., that בשעת a person brought a korban, he was supposed to keep in mind that whatever is done to the korban is really supposed to be done to him, that when they שחט the korban, really it should have been done to him, when they sprinkled the blood it should have been done to him, and this would bring the person to do teshuva. So anyway, since a korban is supposed to come along with teshuva, and the עיקר כפרה of the korban is the teshuva, so therefore the Rabbeinu Yonah says that when you know for sure that you did an aveira, so then the person has the proper charata, the proper regret, and he does the proper teshuva. בשעת a person is not even sure that he did the aveira, so in his mind he thinks, \"Well, maybe I didn't even do the aveira at all.\" So he doesn't look for ways to bring himself to regret the aveira and to do a proper teshuva, a תשובה באמת. And therefore, there has to be side things that should force the person to realize that aveira is an aveira, and therefore he has to do teshuva. And that's the difference, that a קרבן חטאת, since it comes for a ודאי עבירה, the person will do teshuva anyway, because he knows for sure he did an aveira. So the korban doesn't have to be such a big korban. But an אשם תלוי, since it comes for a ספק עבירה, the person might not really do the proper teshuva. So therefore the din is that you have to bring a big korban, and that will show the person, \"Look, the aveira is a big עבירה, והא ראיה the din is you have to bring a proper big korban.\" So this will awaken in the person the proper feeling of charata and teshuva, etc., etc. But lichora, this is only a reason when we talk about the inyan of teshuva that comes along with the korban. But we know as it says in many sefarim that in addition to the teshuvah that is there in the korban, the korban itself has a segulah that this brings a kaparah for the aveirah. We know that every aveirah a person does makes a pegam, makes a blemish in the person's neshamah. And when a person does teshuvah, it wipes off the blemish, but in addition to that, the korban that you bring, the korban itself, also helps out in wiping off the pegam. As it says in the Zohar, that רזא דקורבנא עולה עד רזא דאין סוף, that the secret of a korban goes up all the way to the secret of the unlimited of Hashem. The korban itself is a נחת רוח לפני שאמרתי ונעשה רצוני. Hashem says, \"I have pleasure that you brought the korban and you did my will.\" And this is not just because it is a mitzvah, because by other mitzvot we don't find that when a person does a mitzvah, Hashem says it is a ריח ניחוח להשם. That Hashem says, \"I have pleasure that you did this mitzvah.\" Specially by korban we find it. There must be something special in the korban that it has a segulah of wiping out the pegam, the blemish, that became in the person's neshamah. And therefore, we would understand that when you have to take off a bigger blemish, then the korban would have to be a bigger korban. Even though, really, it makes no difference to Hashem, as the Mishnah says in the end of Menachot, that אחד המרבה ואחד הממעיט ובלבד שיכוון לבו לשמים, and the main thing that counts by a korban is the kavanah. But nevertheless, we do find in the Torah that the Torah does give different restrictions and different halachot concerning different korbanot. Obviously, the physical korban also means something. And therefore, since the din is that the physical korban of an אשם תלוי has to be a bigger korban than a חטאת, that shows that it's harder to get rid of the pegam, of the blemish that became through the aveirah that he did בשוגג לגבי the aveirah that he did בודאי, that he did for sure. But the question is how can we say that? How can we say that the blemish that becomes through a ספק עבירה is worse than the blemish, the pegam that becomes through a definite aveirah, and therefore, to get rid of the pegam by a ספק עבירה you have to have a bigger korban than to get rid of the pegam of a ודאי עבירה?

In order to understand that, we first have to understand what is תקי the reason bichlal that you have to bring a korban if you did an עבירה בשוגג? Why is it that an עבירה בשוגג, an aveirah done unintentionally, also needs a kaparah? As Rashi says clearly in Shavuos דף ב' עמוד א' that an עבירה בשוגג needs a kaparah. And the question is why? If you didn't mean to do it, so why do you need a kaparah? And the answer is, not only because b'foal the aveirah was done, whether you meant to do it or not, it was something wrong. So, it's similar to if somebody falls by mistake, he still hurts himself, and he can't say, \"Well, I didn't mean to fall. I didn't throw myself down. Why should I get hurt?\" The nature is that when you fall, you get hurt. The same thing with an aveirah. The nature is that when you do an aveirah, it brings harm to the neshamah, the neshamah gets hurt. That's one thing, but it's even more than that. The pshat is that when a person does an aveirah unintentionally, this shows where the person is at. Even more to a certain degree that when a person does an עבירה במזיד. When a person does an עבירה במזיד, intentionally, then it shows that at that moment his yetzer hara was mitgaber, his yetzer hara overpowered him, and brought him to do the aveirah. But it doesn't show that this is his מהות, this is his being. Because since it was premeditated, he knew what he was doing, so definitely shows that he's in a low מדרגה, but still it doesn't show that this is his מהות, because he understood and he knew what he was doing. He did something that at that moment he had a תאוה, a desire to do. But when a person does an עבירה בשוגג, unintentionally, so then it shows that his מהות is shayach to an aveirah. And therefore, it shows even more where he is at. And even though it was done b'shogeg, unintentionally, nevertheless, if he would have been in a proper madreigah, in a proper level, then he would never come to do it b'shogeg. Just like it's impossible for a person to say that I didn't realize or I forgot that fire burns, by mistake I put my hand into fire. Because shogeg doesn't mean that you were pushed into something. That would be ones, that would be forced. Shogeg means that you forgot that it's forbidden for instance. You ate non-kosher food, and you forgot that it's not that you're not allowed to eat non-kosher food. Or on Shabbos you forgot on a Shabbos you're not allowed to do a melachah. It would be similar to saying that someone will say, \"I forgot that fire is hot, and therefore, I put my hand into fire.\" A person would never do that. As a matter of fact, as it even says in Shulchan Aruch, that a בהמה who jumps into fire shows it's not a normal בהמה, 'cause even a בהמה, an animal wouldn't jump into fire, and you can't say, well, maybe the animal didn't realize it burns. Certainly a person can't say, well, I forgot that fire is hot. And the same thing here. How could a person say I forgot that you're not allowed to do it? Or I forgot that today is Shabbos? How could a Yid forget that today is Shabbos? So the fact that he did the עבירה בשוגג shows where he is at, and even more than במזיד, because במזיד, since he's doing it intentionally, memeila we could say that at that moment he just couldn't overcome his yetzer hara. It doesn't show that his whole מהות, his whole being is in that level. But if you do it unintentionally, then at that moment it wasn't that your yetzer hara overpowered you, it was because you are shayach, essentially you are connected to the to doing an aveirah. So therefore a shogeg also needs a kaparah. Maybe not specifically for the aveirah that he did now, only. But mainly for the fact that he is in a madreigah that he's able unintentionally to do this aveirah. And this is the reason bichlal why a shogeg needs a kaparah.

Along these lines we can understand why if a person does a ספק עבירה, then he is even in a certain degree worse than if he does a ודאי עבירה בשוגג. Because after all, when a person does an עבירה בשוגג, a ודאי עבירה, and then he realized that he did the aveirah, he knows for sure he did it, so he is able to do teshuvah. He understands that he did something wrong, and therefore he feels regret and he does teshuvah. But when a person is shayach to do an aveirah, and after he did the aveirah, he's not even sure he did the aveirah, which means that after he did the aveirah, he won't even do the proper teshuvah. So that shows how deep the aveirah is enrooted in him, that even afterwards, he still will not definitely do teshuvah. Which means in other words, even though when a person does an עבירה בשוגג it shows where he is at, nevertheless, since he knows for sure he did the aveirah and he will do teshuvah, it shows that still an aveirah is against what he really is. V'ha re'ayah, now that he knows he did the aveirah, he regrets and he does teshuvah. Which means that still an aveirah is against his מהות. And therefore, he does teshuvah and regrets. When he does a ספק עבירה, and after he finds out that maybe he did the aveirah, so on one hand it shows that he is שייך to do the aveirah, v'ha re'ayah, there is a ספק maybe he did it. If he wouldn't be in the level in the category of being able to do an aveirah, there wouldn't even be a ספק. The fact that there is a ספק maybe he did the aveirah, that shows that his מהות is connected, possible to do an aveirah. And even more than that, he doesn't even regret it, which means at this point it shows that the פגם, the blemish is so deep that it doesn't even contradict his מהות. The aveirah that he possibly did doesn't even go against him. V'ha re'ayah, he's not even doing teshuvah. So the truth is, superficially, the reason why he wouldn't really do a 100% teshuvah is because he's not sure he did the aveirah. But when we're looking a little bit deeper in what this means, it means that the connection and the possibility of him doing the aveirah is so deep and even that after the act is done, it's still not necessarily that he will do teshuvah. He will not definitely do teshuvah. That shows that he had so connected to aveirot that the aveirah is not the complete opposite of his מהות, and therefore, even after the act, he won't do teshuvah. And therefore, in order to do teshuvah and in order to get the proper kaparah, when you do a ספק עבירה, you have to have a big korban, not only because when you bring a bigger korban, it will remind you that you did something wrong and you have to do teshuvah, but more than that, the korban itself, which is supposed to take away the פגם, the blemish that happened to the person's נשמה, the korban has to be a bigger korban, because there is a deeper pegam that's there in the person, and therefore to get rid of that pegam, of that blemish, you have to have a bigger korban. Because as we said before, the physical part of the korban also has an inyan of כפרה, והא ראיה, we have to bring that physical korban. And therefore, the physical korban by a ספק עבירה has to be a bigger korban than when you do a ודאי עבירה, because when you do a ספק עבירה, it shows that the pegam, the blemish that's caused in the neshamah is a very, very deep one, deeper even to a certain degree, from one aspect, than the pegam that happened through a ודאי עבירה. Similar to when we say that the pegam that happened through an עבירה בשוגג is to a certain degree deeper than the pegam that takes place through an עבירה במזיד, the same way, a pegam that takes place by a ספק עבירה is to a certain degree, from a certain angle, deeper than the pegam that happened when you did an עבירה בוודאי, a definite עבירה בשוגג. This will explain something else. In the Gemara in Keritot דף י״ז עמוד א׳, when the Gemara wants to give an example of a person doing a ספק עבירה where he has to bring a קרבן אשם תלוי, it says, as we said before, the example is if there was two pieces of fat on the table, and later he found out that one was שומן and one was חלב, and he doesn't know which one he ate, so for that you bring an אשם תלוי. Why did the Gemara have to pick an example of fats? There are other aveirot that the Gemara could have picked an example. But this is to hint to the inyan that we spoke about before. We said that when a person does a ספק עבירה, this shows where he is at. In other words, where his pleasure is at, where his enjoyment is, where his geshmak is. When you do an עבירה במזיד, or when you do an עבירה בשוגג בודאי, since it doesn't show so much where you're at, that could be that בכללות, generally speaking, your pleasure is not by aveirot. At that moment it happened, but your מהות is not involved in the inyan of aveirot. And the inyan of a מהות expresses itself in where you have pleasure. But when you do a ספק עבירה, since as we said before, this shows how deep it is, that even after the act you don't necessarily do teshuvah, this shows that you are at a מדרגה שייך to do an aveirah, which means this is where your pleasure is. Because the way a person expresses his מהות is in which inyan he has pleasure. Not in what he does, or what he says, or what he thinks, but what brings him enjoyment. And therefore, when the Gemara wants to give an example of doing a ספק עבירה where you have to bring an אשם תלוי, the Gemara uses the example of fats, because fats represents pleasure. As the pasuk says, שמועה טובה תדשן עצם, that when you hear good news, something that gives you enjoyment, it makes even your bone become fatter. As the story the Gemara tells us in Gittin, concerning Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, that when he told the general good news, and then later the general found out they sent a message from Rome that he becomes the emperor, he couldn't put on his shoe. Why? Because actually his foot grew, became fatter. Why? Because he heard good news, which gave him pleasure. So we see that fats is connected to pleasure. And that's what the Gemara is trying to tell us, that the reason you have to bring an אשם תלוי, and the reason it has to be such a big korban, is because the ספק עבירה shows where your pleasure is, where you are at. And that's why the example is from fats, to show that any aveirah it would be, it would be connected to fats, to show where your חלב, where your ta'anug is. And therefore, you have to bring a bigger korban, and through that korban, even a pegam like this will get a proper kaparah.