Jewish Life #8 Teshuvah now!

“The primary teshuvah… is for the person to return to himself, to the root of his soul.”[1] This month of Elul is known for its call to repentance, in which a person is being inconsolable for misdeeds and moral shortcomings. Although this is a general accepted idea, Rav Kook introduced a novel idea. His treatment of the topic was published in 1925. 
 
For Rav Kook, teshuvah, is something empowering, a return to and realignment with our true selves. It’s a person’s effort to return to one’s original status, to the source of life and higher being in their fullness.[2]According to Rav Kook, the process of return is a natural and positive process, in which a person aligns with his source. In fact, each person is inspired by the yearning of all existence to be better, purer, more robust and sublime than it currently is.[3] This process of positivity creates the healthy feeling of the soul and harmony. It doesn’t deny the work to overcome our misdeeds and shortcomings. In his treatment of the topic, Rav Kook encourage us to accentuate the positive. Rabbi Shagar says: “Teshuvah should be about compassion of the self.”[4]
 
In line with Rav Kook’s approach, teshuvah is an ongoing realignment with who we really are. If so, each person should long for the return of one’s original status. Every nanosecond of his life. Not only during the month of Elul as a preparation for the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot). 
 
This is why Rav Kook encouraged teshuvah with Shabbat, the day of awakening and refreshment. Shabbat brings clarity to our lives. Rav Kook: “On Shabbat eve one should be occupied with teshuvah for all that occurred during the previous week.”[5] As Shabbat does, teshuvah brings harmony and joy. 
 
In our current parashat [Nitzavim 30:2], we read: “And return (ve-shavta) unto Hashem, your God.” In verse 30:1 we read: “you shall restore your heart.” In his commentary, Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, emphasis the importance of self-reflection before return to Hashem, our God: “Reflect upon your deeds and consequences…. Answer yourself in your heart…. Distinguish between those matters that are of utmost significance and those that are merely of secondary importance. You will find new answers to the fundamental questions of life, and you will consequently return to God.”[6]
 
The idea of self-reflection is related to the Jewish idea of freedom. A person is free to reflect, to restore his heart. Rabbi Shager is correct when he says: “The origin and starting point of repentance is freedom of choice.”[7]
 
In our first book, we made a connection between the restoration of one’s heart and the well-known pasuk in Ezekiel 36:26, in which Hashem promised to give a person a new heart of flesh (instead of a heart of stone).[8]A person with a true self is a person with a heart of flesh. The quality of our heart of flesh, so to speak, depends on the outcome of the process of teshuvah. In contrast, arrogance is a feature of a person with a heart of stone.[9]
 
In sum, the process of teshuvah is a return to one’s original status, his true self. It removes a burdensome past and opens the door to a new future. According to Rambam, it signifies renewal, rebirth, becoming a different – a new – person.[10] A deep sense of harmony and joy follows automatically, as most Jews experience on Shabbat. Rabbi Steinsaltz aptly says: ‘The great power of repentance is the antidote to fatalistic beliefs and despair”.[11]
 
Exercise: consider teshuvah in the coming period not only as a confession of imperfections, but also as a return to your true self. 
 
 
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[1] Rav. Kook in Orot ha-Teshuvah, 15:10 [thanks to Aaron Goldscheider, in Torah United, for inspiration]

[2] Ibid., 12:8

[3] Ibid., 6:1

[4] Shagar, Living Time, p. xxviii (Editor’s Introduction). 

[5] Ibid., 14:33

[6] Steinsaltz Chumash (The Louis Weisfeld Edition of Koren Publishers), pp. 1118-1119. 

[7] Shagar, Living Time, p. 5. 

[8] Kloens, G.J. & Duijn, van (2014). Alles over Liefde en Relatiekwaliteit. InnovatieDuo [Dutch]. See also: Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik. Rosh Hashanah Machzor, pp. 9-11. See also: Haftara Nitzavim, Isaiah 62:10 (clear the way and lift up a banner to encourage people to repent and remove their heart of stone). In a commentary of the Haftara of our Lubavitcher Rebbe, 

[9] “What could be worse than sin?... Pride and pretension”. Arrogance means one’s heart is hardened and detached. In: Rabbenu Bahya ibn Pakuda, Duties of the Heart, Gate of Repentance, chapter 8. 

[10] Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah, 2:4.

[11] Steinsaltz Chumash, p. 1118.