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I do not know if this website accept translation requests but here is the sentence, it is an hebrew religious concept, this is all I know about this sentence. A friend told it to me and I want to know what it means. It was in the middle of a religious discussion.

"Hutshuva Hutfila, Huzdaka mavirim (mevatlim?) et roa agzera"

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  • Please edit in information about where you encountered this sentence and why you're interested in learning what it means.
    – Isaac Moses
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 19:34
  • mesora.org/RewardPunishmentii.htm
    – ray
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 19:42
  • thanks ! what about "mevatlim" ?
    – ari
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 19:46

3 Answers 3

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To add a little bit:

This sentence (in Hebrew: ותשובה ותפלה וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזרה, uteshuva utefila utzedaqa ma'avirin et roa' hagezeira) is from the well-known piyyut (liturgical poem) Unetaneh Tokef, which is recited during the High Holidays. It is attributed (probably apocryphally) to a certain 11th-century rabbi, Amnon of Mainz but is probably a few centuries older than that.

The sentence from Unetaneh Tokef, which has been translated in the other answers, draws on the language of Genesis Rabba (an early midrashic compilation) 44:15, where it says:

ר' יודן בשם ר' אלעזר אמר: שלושה דברים מבטלין גזירות רעות, ואלו הם: תפלה וצדקה ותשובה.

Rabbi Yudan said in the name of R. El'azar: three things annul [mevatlin] evil decrees, and they are: prayer, charity, and repentance.

Ma'avirin, the word used in Unetaneh Tokef, is closer in meaning to "averting" or "shifting", which "mevatlin" is like "annulling" or "canceling", but I couldn't give you a good answer as to why the poet chose to use one word over the other. Hope this clarifies this beautiful sentence for you.

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“teshuva (repentance) tefila (prayer) and tzedaka (charity) avert the evil decree”

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  • I do not understand your post. I am asking for the difference between mavirim et mevatlim.
    – ari
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 20:12
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    Are you talking to yourself?
    – Isaac Moses
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 20:25
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Repentance, Prayer, and Charity (Mavirim =) take away (Mevatlim =) destroys the bad decree.

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  • thanks, what about "mevatlim" ?
    – ari
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 20:05
  • Destroys? Do you mean annulls? Also its more like "the badness of the decree" not "the bad decrees"
    – Double AA
    Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 21:29

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