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In the Mishnah, we learned that if a person is guilty of not fulfilling a positive commandment, the goat of Yom Kippur which is sent out for the procedure of עזאזל atones for him.
In its analysis of this halacha, the Gemara notes that if the person had not done teshuva, the atonement should apparently not be valid for him. The verse states (Mishlei 21:27): “The offering of the wicked is despised.”
And, on the other hand, if the person did do teshuva, he has achieved his atonement whatever day he expressed his remorse, as the Beraisa teaches that a person is forgiven immediately upon doing teshuva for neglectful lack of fulfillment of a positive commandment.
R. Isaac Arama (Spain, 15th century) says that the difference between an intentional and an unintentional sin is that in the former case, both the body and the soul were at fault. In the case of an unintentional sin only the body was at fault, not the soul. Therefore a physical sacrifice helps since it was only the physical act of the body that was in the wrong. A physical sacrifice cannot atone for a deliberate sin, because it cannot rectify a wrong in the soul.