I corrected myself. Did the correction reach them?
When I discover that something I told others was wrong, do I stop at feeling sorry—or notice who may still believe it?
Learn the source
In Shaar HaTeshuvah, chapter 1, Rabbeinu Bachya defines teshuvah as restoring oneself to the service of the Creator after departing from it, including restoration of what was lost. The exact words and their English rendering appear with the source below.
This is not merely a change in how I describe myself. The chapter distinguishes failing to do a required good from committing a prohibited act: return must answer the particular departure. Its full conditions are developed later. Here we can begin with the direction of the movement—from protecting my image toward serving Hashem again through the part of life I mishandled.
What happened
On October 19, NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson publicly apologized for comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’s health and commitment to his team.
He acknowledged that his speculation had been unfounded and should not have been made.
PEOPLE reported on October 20 that he apologized both online and on air.
A joint October 19 statement from the Eagles and Hurts’s agent said he was clinically stable but could not play contact football during blood-thinner treatment, and that a full recovery was expected.
PEOPLE · Public apology · 20 October 2026 ↗Awful Announcing · Apology and reporting context · 19–20 October 2026 ↗Philadelphia Eagles and Nicole Lynn · Health update · 19 October 2026 ↗
Return to the news
Imagine telling three friends that someone ignored your message, then discovering you had sent it to the wrong number. You apologize to him. But the three friends still carry the story you gave them. Your embarrassment has found an exit; their mistaken impression has not. Rabbeinu Bachya defines teshuvah as a return to avodas Hashem that includes restoration. That turns the question outward from my relief: where did my words go, and what can still be corrected there? A public retraction makes that question visible without letting us measure the speaker’s inner teshuvah. In our own small circle, serving Hashem with our speech may include one unglamorous follow-up: telling the people who heard our claim that we were mistaken.
Stay with the thought
A broadcast has listeners; a correction also needs listeners. That is the particular feature this public apology puts before us. We cannot know who heard both, and we cannot pronounce on another person’s teshuvah. But we can ask about the people reached by our own words.
There is a quieter way to leave a mistake in place: stop repeating it ourselves, while never telling its earlier audience that it was wrong. Our mouth has moved on; the impression we created may still be doing its work.
The imagined wrong-number incident in the core reflection is small enough to examine honestly. Correcting it need not mean retelling the accusation more widely. It can mean returning to the same few people with a plain correction and no new speculation. Where an attempt at repair could disclose something private or cause further harm, seek a rav’s guidance rather than improvising.
That little follow-up may bring no praise. Its value is not that it restores our reputation as careful people. It is that the same mouth that carried an error can now be used more faithfully in avodas Hashem.
Chovos Halevavos · Shaar HaTeshuvah, chapter 1 ↗PEOPLE · Public apology · 20 October 2026 ↗Awful Announcing · Apology and reporting context · 19–20 October 2026 ↗
Take one thing with you
If a simple, harmless factual mistake of yours comes to mind, consider correcting it with the people who heard it. Keep the correction clear, without adding private details or widening its audience.
A reflection, not a personal halachic ruling.Sources & reporting notes 4 references
- PEOPLE · Public apology · 20 October 2026 ↗
Published October 20 at 11:12 a.m. EDT; retrieved the same day. Reports that the apology occurred October 19 online and on air. Only the correction is used here; the original speculation is not reproduced.
- Awful Announcing · Apology and reporting context · 19–20 October 2026 ↗
Retrieved October 20. Page bears October 19 and 20 without a precise time and reproduces Robinson’s acknowledgement that his comments were unfounded. Its appraisal of his sincerity is not adopted. The embedded post displays October 20; US reporting places it Monday evening, October 19.
- Philadelphia Eagles and Nicole Lynn · Health update · 19 October 2026 ↗
Primary statement retrieved October 20. Page displays October 19 at 10:15 a.m., with no timezone shown. It describes treatment with anticoagulation, no contact football during treatment, clinical stability and an expected full recovery. These are the statement’s medical assessments, not independent advice.
- Chovos Halevavos · Shaar HaTeshuvah, chapter 1 ↗
Exact approved corpus excerpt and original English rendering. The chapter defines return to avodas Hashem and distinguishes kinds of failure; later chapters develop the conditions. The audience example is our application, not a ruling about repairing harmful speech. Difficult questions about disclosure, restitution or possible further harm belong with a rav. Textual verification does not imply rabbinic approval.
Hebrew passages are quoted sources; English renderings are our own. The event connection and suggested reflection are Torah Lens’s application. Prepared with AI assistance. Rabbinic supervision has not yet been established.