Tag: Avera
In Hebrew, the feminine noun aveira or averah (Hebrew עבירה pl. aveirot) is a term for transgression or sin against man or God. The word comes from the Hebrew root ayin-bet-resh, meaning to pass or cross over with the implied meaning of transgressing from a moral boundary. An aveira may be trivial or serious.
It is viewed by many that an aveira is the opposite of a mitzvah (commandment, often viewed as a good deed), but all aveirot are actually the transgressions of one of the 365 “negative commandments”. (see 613 commandments.)
The noun aveirah in rabbinical Hebrew derives from the verb avar, “pass over,” which in a small number of uses in the Hebrew Bible can also carry the context of transgress, as in Deuteronomy 17:2 “in transgressing his covenant” (לַעֲבֹר בְּרִיתֹֽו la-‘avor berithu).
There are three categories of a person who commits an aveira. The most serious category is someone who does an aveira intentionally (be-mezid “on purpose”). The second is one who did an aveira by…
