Earlier the Alter Rebbe explained that there is a difference between t’shuva and forgiveness/atonement. Today, the Alter Rebbe explains the need for fasting on top of the t’shuva and the forgiveness.

If one wronged a king, for that matter, “sorry,” wouldn’t suffice.

1. There’s the t’shuva, which includes a resolution and verbal admission.

2. There’s the forgiveness, because G-d loves Jews.

3. Appeasement. Just because we were forgiven doesn’t mean we see eye to eye yet.

This is where fasting comes in:

In the times of the Beis HaMikdosh, people brought an olah offering for missing a proactive mitzvah (mitzvas asei). So nowadays, says the Alter Rebbe, we offer our flesh and blood through fasting.

The Alter Rebbe explains how this works, and how different tanno’im (great rabbis from Babylonian times) would fast many days for the slightest “sin.”

The point is appeasement. Are we checking off boxes on a list? Or trying to attach ourselves to the Infinite?