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(ספר שערי תשובה (שער ג' אות מא
** ( ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם (במדבר טו

הזהרנו בזה שלא לחשוב לעשות עבירה וכל דבר פשע וחטא

Shaarei Teshuvah [Gates of Repentance] Gate 3:41

[loosely translated]...and go not about after your heart and after your eyes...

We are thus warned not to contemplate doing any type of sin.

How does this not contradict the saying of the Gemara (Kiddushin 40A) which says, “Machashavah ra’ah ein Hakodosh Baruch Hu metzarfah lema’aseh” — “If one contemplates sinning, Hashem does not regard the bad thought as a deed.” This seems to say that, Hashem will not punish one for a sinful thought alone if it was not actually followed up with committing the sin.

mbloch
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RibbisRabbiAndMore
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  • At the very least being warned not to to is not the same as getting punished for doing. – user6591 May 06 '18 at 23:48
  • @user6591 So you're saying that V'Lo Sasuru is a sin which carries no punishment? – RibbisRabbiAndMore May 06 '18 at 23:53
  • I'm just pointing out what it looks like he is saying. He mentions azhara. – user6591 May 07 '18 at 00:02
  • @user6591 In most of the Listings of Aveiros which he lists there he uses the word "HIZHIRANU". This does not mean there is no punishment. – RibbisRabbiAndMore May 07 '18 at 00:07
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    Possible duplicate of Are thoughts of sin punished halachically? – mbloch May 07 '18 at 03:46
  • @mbloch I was not reffering to thoughts of Aveira of the kind which are unclean thought, which have kedusha issues. Those thoughts are ossur in their own right. The Shaarei Teshuvah seems to be speaking about just contemplating to do any type of sin in the future, not only averos of kedusha. Please remove the duplicate note. It may be noted as "related" but not duplicate. – RibbisRabbiAndMore May 07 '18 at 08:18
  • @RibbisRabbiAndMore I understand and it is good that you edited. Still I don't quite see the difference between thinking about sins and thinking about unclean things. Both appear to me as connected. In any case duplicates are not bad - it is just that it is better for everyone if all answers are collated into one place so that future readers can find them all easily. It takes 5 votes to close as duplicate - let's see what the community thinks. Kol tuv ! – mbloch May 07 '18 at 08:39
  • But the linked question was also generally on thoughts of sin. It is the question which inspires it which is related to unclean thoughts. Not my question – mbloch May 07 '18 at 09:23
  • @mbloch The issur of unclean thoughts is learned from a pasuk which says ונשמרת מכל דבר רע - This Issur refers to impure thoughts regarding "inyonei Kedusha". The Sharei teshuvah is refering to thoughts of contemplating doing any aveira. He therefore brings another pasuk. These are 2 entirely different sugyos and may be related but definitely not duplicates. – RibbisRabbiAndMore May 07 '18 at 09:27

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The Meiri in Kidushin 39b ד"ה לעולם says, that even though you won't get punished as if you did the actual עבירה, you will be punished for having the thought.

שאף על פי שמחשבה רעה אין הקב"ה מצרפה למעשה, כלומר שאין נענש בה כאלו עשה מעשה, מכל מקום נענש הוא עליה, אחר שהוא מכוין בהרהורו לכונת עשיית העבירה, ושלא נמנע מעשייתה מצד כבישת יצרו, אלא שלא נזדמן לידו להוציא הרהורו לפועל

This is in contrast to thinking about doing a mitzvah, that you will be rewarded even though you just planned to do the mitzvah.

פרי זהב
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