Jewish Repentence : Teshuvah

[muman613]

Teshuvah (mistranslated as 'repentence') is return to the ways of Hashem. In light of all the concern regarding the 'blood moon' I thought it would be a good time to remind Jews about the importance of Teshuvah. We should make Teshuvah every day, not only when signs and omens appear. Every day is a perfect day to begin the path of return to Hashems love and grace.

 
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/361890/jewish/Teshuvah.htm

The word Teshuvah is usually translated as repentance. In fact, there is a well known prayer recited on the High Holy Days that Teshuvah, Tefillah, and Tzedakah, translated as “Repentance,” “Prayer,” and “Charity” can avert the evil decree.

This translation is not entirely accurate. Teshuvah is better translated as “return” and signifies a return to the original state.

Classically, Teshuvah is comprised of three ingredients: regret of misdeed, decision to change, and verbal expression of one’s sins. Technically, whenever one sins, one is mandated to do Teshuvah. However, the Ten Days of Teshuvah between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are specifically designated for Teshuvah, when the gates of prayer and repentance are more open than at any other time during the cyclical Jewish year.

Kabbalistically, Teshuvah takes on more of a cosmic dynamic.

The word Teshuvah in Hebrew may be read “tashuv hey,” literally “returning the letter Hey.” The last letter Hey of the Tetragrammeton refers to Malchut. Malchut is synonymous with Shechinah, which is how G-d manifests Himself as a sovereign within the creation.

The Hebrew word for Jerusalem, the holy capital, is Yerushalayim. This word is in fact a composite of two words: Yirah Shalem, meaning “a perfect state of awe.” When the Jewish nation stands totally cognizant of that the Shechinah rests in Jerusalem. This was the state in Temple times. However, when the Jewish people sinned as a result of insensitivity to the G-dliness, the sin precipitated a removal of the Shechinah and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem. The name of G-d was “fractured” and the final hey went into exile. Teshuvah is the process whereby the name of G-d is again complete and once again the Shechinah rests in Jerusalem within the rebuilt Temple. The physical building or destruction of Jerusalem correlates completely with the spiritual state of Yerushalayim (perfect awe). They will once again be sensitized to the state of perfect awe, and “on that day G-d will be One and His name will be One.”

Every individual must do Teshuvah. The Talmud states that one should spend all one’s days doing Teshuvah. The Zohar goes even further and states that Mashiach will come so that Tzaddikim will do Teshuvah. This statement begs the question: Why would a Tzaddik, who has mastered his Evil Inclination, need to do Teshuvah?

There is a difference between a Tzaddik and a Baal Teshuvah.

A Tzaddik has never erred; he constantly fulfills the will of G-d. The Baal Teshuvah has strayed. He then feels bitterly disappointed about his distance from G-d, and he yearns for proximity. His upward striving is much more powerful than that of the Tzaddik. Though his descent into sin was externally due to his Evil Inclination, in truth the inner intent was a descent for the purpose of ascent. When a person does Teshuvah out of true love for G-d, his sins are transformed into merits.

The descent of sin becomes the springboard which catapults the Baal Teshuvah from darkness to the heights of spirituality. The Tzaddik lacks the strength of yearning of the Baal Teshuvah. When Mashiach comes, even the Tzaddik will see that even though he never intentionally sinned, his service was somewhat lacking in fervor and he too will have the yearning of the Baal Teshuvah.

The revelation of Mashiach is dependent on our actions in the time of Exile. Maimonides rules that Teshuvah is a prerequisite to redemption. In his words, “the Torah has promises that at the end of their exile they will do Teshuvah and will be immediately redeemed.” In our generation this means that amidst the chaotic world in which we live, with all its distractions, we must resensitize ourselves and the world around us to the Shechinah. This is what the Lubavitcher Rebbe called “Living with Mashiach.” Even though we may live in the modern world, with all its comforts and conveniences, we should feel broken-hearted that G-dliness is not openly revealed. All our mundane activity should be permeated with the desire to know G-d in all Him ways. In fact, on a certain level, the transformation of mundane activity and its permeation with Divine purpose is the highest level of Teshuvah. It is the clearest indication that G-dliness has not been relegated to obvious moments of religious involvement, but rather the connection with the Divine spans all echelons and areas of life, even the most mundane.

It needs to be reiterated that Teshuvah today must be accompanied with tremendous joy. The Evil Inclination’s greatest weapon is depression, for once the state of helplessness and hopelessness grips a person’s soul, and it is very difficult to find the tremendous energy required for introspection and self-improvement. Even if one has clearly transgressed gravely, a prolonged or excessive degree of sadness is not healthy for the souls of most people in our generation. Teshuvah must be done with great Simchah—enthusiastically and with “joy” and feeling. The greatest gift that G-d can give a person is the opportunity to be elevated from the mire of sin to the pristine and eternal connection.

[Debbie Shafer]

Everyone....Jews and Christians....repent and acknowledge God, stay true to righteous holy ways.....he is worth our allegiance and our loyalty...the days are coming when we will all be glad we did this..

[muman613]

Everyone....Jews and Christians....repent and acknowledge God, stay true to righteous holy ways.....he is worth our allegiance and our loyalty...the days are coming when we will all be glad we did this..

Every day is ripe for Teshuvah... A righteous man or woman should contemplate their life every day. From our Pirkie Avot concerning Mussar (improving character traits):

Writing Our Obituary

Chapter 2, Mishna 15(c)

By Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

"They (each of the five students of R. Yochanan listed earlier) said three things. R. Eliezer said: May the honor of your fellow be as dear to you as your own. Do not anger easily. Repent one day before you die. Warm yourself before the fire of the Sages. But be wary with their coals that you not get burnt, for their bite is the bite of a fox, their sting is the sting of a scorpion, their hiss is the hiss of a serpent, and all their words are like fiery coals."

Last week we discussed R. Eliezer's second statement -- that we repent before our deaths. We made the obvious observation (as do most of the commentators): Nobody knows exactly when his day of death will be. Therefore, our mishna's advice must be taken to mean that we live our entire lives with the realization that our days are numbered. Death is a reality we may never ignore. And so we must live out our days with a sense of our mortality -- and a drive to earn our immortality.

I believe there is an additional nuance contained in R. Eliezer's words. He does not simply state that we live in a constant state of penitence. He focuses more directly on death itself. We must repent because we know our deaths are pending. Death is a fact of life(?) we cannot ignore. And we must live our lives with this in mind -- not in a macabre sense, but with an understanding of the significance of our accomplishments while we are here. Speak and act today as if you will not be here tomorrow -- and that today's acts may very well be your final legacy.

Again, this does not have to be a morbid thought, but should put our lives in the proper perspective. There is a chance, even if not very likely, that this is the last memory others will have of us. And we really ought to jolt ourselves now and then and imagine it. Wrest yourself from the daily daze in which most of us live our lives. Imagine that this is it: You are saying something to your friends, your spouse, or your parents. You are then going to walk out to your car, drive off, and have a fatal, head-on collision. What were the final words with which you will be remembered? What was your final will and testament? Were you talking to your friends about how your ball team is doing? Your wife's final memory is how you griped about what's going on at the office? You're busy on the phone bickering with your parents about stupidities, and *then* you drive off?

Wouldn't it be much nicer -- so much more what you really wanted to say -- to end off with "I love you, Mom. Thanks for everything."? One day your words will be your last -- your final message to your loved ones -- and the way you will best be remembered. Can't at least some of the time we talk as if our words had such significance? Whether or not they will actually will be our last, can't we at least now and then recognize that everything we say and do contributes to the "we" we've created for ourselves during our lifetimes, and that every act is a part of the overall drama of our lives?

Many years ago I read the following story in one of R. Berel Wein's books. (I think it was entitled _Buy Green Bananas_ -- which in itself gives a pretty good indication of the wisdom contained within.) There was a well-known attorney who had a meeting with a local news reporter. At the end of the meeting, the reporter asked him: "By the way, would you like to read your obituary?"

"Huh?!"

It turns out that news agencies carry biographical sketches of important local residents, for -- in case they die suddenly one night -- the paper will be ready the next morning with their complete life story. (I wonder if they still find this necessary today with Wikipedia carrying all human information at our fingertips.) So, I'm sure with a little uneasiness, the attorney read his life story -- and the announcement of his death. And lo and behold: he didn't like it. He was known professionally as a ruthless and hard-nosed dealer. This was how he went about his career -- and this is how he would have been remembered.

Anyway, this turned out to be a real shock for this fellow. This is the reputation he had created for himself, and viewing it momentarily from the outside (as in, from above...), he didn't like it. And so, continues the story, he cleaned up his act -- and actually became a gentler and more benign individual -- both professionally and personally. For he was fortunate: He was able to read his "obituary" while still alive -- and he was able to do something about it.

And this is an attitude we would certainly stand to gain from. Our obituaries are being written and rewritten for us every day -- not only after we die. And we control the script. As R. Eliezer tells us, the more we see death as a reality, the more we recognize that our few words and accomplishments here are all we will truly have after it is all over. And the better we see the true significance of our actions, the more likely we will repent one day before we die.

I guess we'll call it with this. We still have R. Eliezer's final point before us -- to be wary of the "fiery coals" of the Sages -- which most certainly requires our attention. But I guess enough preaching for one week!

[muman613]

See also Chapter 3, Mishnah 1:

http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter3-1.html

Chapter 3, Mishna 1

The Afterlife: Souls Exposed

By Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

""Akavia ben (son of) Mehalalel said: Consider three things and you will not come to sin. Know from where you have come, to where you are heading, and before Whom you will give justification and accounting. From where have you come? From a putrid drop (of semen). To where are you heading? To a place of dirt, worms and maggots. And before Whom will you give justification and accounting? Before the King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He."

This mishna places our lives in the proper perspective. We must see ourselves as finite and corporeal beings, composed of flesh derived from the dust of the earth. Likewise, our flesh will one day return to its source and leave us with nothing than our souls and accomplishments to accompany us when we stand before our Creator. It's worthwhile examining each of Akavia's point individually; the combined imagery is potent indeed.

Our origins should perhaps be the most humbling aspect of our self-awareness. We all come from the same quite "ordinary" beginnings. Pagan kings of old used to claim descent from the heavenly bodies. And (at the risk of generating a flurry of irate e-mails...), other religions claim their savior spawned from something "holier" than mere sexual relations. We make no such claims. For man should see himself (at least his physical side) as something not so qualitatively different from any beast of the field. Even the greatest Torah scholar once leaked out of his diaper, spat up on his mother's good dress, played ball indoors and broke his parents' expensive vase, and got yelled at by his mother for carrying on. We all began as purely physical, helpless, demanding creatures. What we make of ourselves after is our own choosing. But the humbling memory of our all-too-human past must accompany us all the while.

(This reminds me that today we live in a period in which some of the greatest, most traditional members of the American (and even Israeli) rabbinate attended public school in their youth -- at a time when school prayer and Christmas carols were very much a part of the itinerary. (The Jewish day school movement did not really get underway until shortly after the War.) R. Berel Wein related that he was once being driven, together with a number of senior rabbis, to a Jewish function. During the course of the conversation it turned out that nearly all the rabbis present attended public school. One of those present was a Chassidic Rebbe in full garb. When doubt was cast upon his secular schooling, he proved it by singing a carol -- I think it was "Silent Night" -- to the other rabbis!)

(For my part, my father OBM came home one day from kindergarten disappointed that he was only the second chubbiest in his class -- and so someone else was chosen for the role of Santa. (His parents shortly after moved him to Jewish day school.) My mother, being small, would always be a fairy.)

Our mishna next tells us to consider where we are heading. Our bodies will soon decay. If so, how attached to our pleasures should we really be? Does the mortality of our flesh imply that we had better enjoy it while it lasts -- or that there is far more to the eternality of man than that which rots and decays? How much time and money would we devote to setting our hair (or shaitlach) if we knew the transience of the physical world? Would we spend time pumping iron, increasing the flesh which will one day be consumed by maggots? (The Sages tell us further that the more one is attached to his physical form, the more painful and wrenching death will be.) Far better to invest our efforts into deeds and accomplishments which will remain with us beyond the grave. King Solomon stated it best: "As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he return... nothing of his efforts will he take with him" (Koheles 5:14).

Finally, contemplating that ultimate day of reckoning will force us to live prepared. King Solomon too warns us: "At all times shall your clothes be white" (Koheles 9:8). The time to prepare for the afterlife is now. After we go -- when it's all too clear that the only meaning to existence is closeness to G-d -- it will be too late. There is virtually nothing more basic to Judaism than the concept of the afterlife and that we will be taken to task for all our actions. We all know deep down that we will have to face our Maker sooner or later. The more we live with that awareness, the better prepared we will be.

I'd like to devote the rest of this class to a fascinating insight contained in Akavia's choice of wording. As we know, G-d is omniscient. There is nothing that we think, say or do that is not known to Him. If so, at the time of our deaths, our judgment should be immediately clear to G- d. He knows exactly what we did and why, and how and when we should have behaved better. Thus, theoretically our judgment should be instantaneous and effortless, not requiring any deliberation or reflection

The Sages, however, never describe it that way. Our mishna states that we will one day have to "give justification and accounting" ("din v'cheshbon") before G-d. It seems that more will transpire than a mere handing down of a verdict. In fact, all throughout Jewish writings our ultimate judgment is portrayed as a trial. We will stand before a heavenly tribunal; we will be forced to view our entire lives and defend ourselves before the fearsome prosecutor. The Talmud states that we will be forced to respond to questions about our behavior in this world (Shabbos 31a), and that we will have to sign our names in approval of the judgment we will receive (Ta'anis 11a). (There appears to be a contradiction in the Talmud if the first question we will be asked is if we conducted our business affairs honestly or if we set aside daily time for Torah study.)

But what's really the point of all this? Are there really going to be court proceedings almost in the manner we have in this world? Isn't the whole thing really just a show trial? Or are the Sages just speaking in colorful metaphor?

Rabbeinu Yonah comments on our mishna as follows: Much worse than the punishment a person will receive for his sins, he will experience an enormous sense of shame. People are embarrassed by their misdeeds, especially if they are caught in the act, and especially if it exposes them as being of much poorer character than they outwardly project. Continues R. Yonah, if a person is put to shame in this world he will be mortified, but it will eventually subside. Our memories are limited and finite (while other people move on to the next scandal), and we will slowly be able to put the incident out of mind. For in this world, our souls are tempered by their presence in physical bodies.

After death, however, our souls will be fully exposed before G-d. There will be no physical layers under which to hide our shame, and no "memory lapses" to put the agony out of our minds. And we will be viewed not only by fellow human beings -- as fault-ridden as we. We will be in full view of G-d. Our souls will be exposed. Our shame will be eternal. And we will have nowhere to hide.

R. Yonah provides us with a critical insight into the nature of the judgment which awaits us in Heaven: it is shame! Our concept of reward and punishment is not a matter of paying up past debts or of G-d evening the score with us. It is the unbridled self-awareness which will result when our souls depart their bodies. Our souls will be "on trial." We will be forced to face our faults and be cognizant of them -- much as a defendant facing the overwhelming evidence of the prosecution. We will come face to face with our Creator. There will be no protective cloak, no layers of physicality or self-imposed ignorance, and no defense mechanisms. We will not be able to ignore who we are or make feigned excuses. We will be alone with ourselves -- and with our G-d. And this might be the ultimate bliss or the most excruciating torment -- depending, of course, how we spent our lives.

R. Aryeh Kaplan of blessed memory, in his work "Immortality and the Soul," discusses the true nature of Hell. He explains that one of the biggest tasks of our brains is to block out rather than absorb information. If every bit of input which reaches our senses would be registered -- every one of the billions upon billions of cells which trigger in our eyes and ears at every moment, we would quickly be overwhelmed. The human brain acts much more as a reducing valve than a listening device -- blocking out nearly all external stimuli so that we notice only that which we are focused on -- as well as sudden or unexpected sights or sounds on the peripheral. As jamming mechanisms our brains allow ourselves to be productive while allowing for self-preservation.

(I'm paying attention right now for a moment, and I hear birds singing, kids playing, cars going by, the hum of my computer's fan -- all of which my brain was successfully blocking out so I could write this class. Imagine if our brains could not distinguish between the significant and the background drone.)

Our memories work in a similar fashion. They too retain only what they deem necessary, leaving aside most of what is not significant -- as well as that which we would prefer not to remember. (Consider the many recorded cases of child abuse -- in which the child literally put the horrific memories out of his or her mind. Years later, the person has an eerie revulsion for certain people or places -- and he doesn't know why.) Thus, while in our physical state, we cope with life by blocking out and leaving aside much of the unwanted and unnecessary. And what we are left with is often far from the entire story.

However, our consciousness -- our souls -- absorb everything. We know all our mistakes and misdeeds. And when our souls depart from their bodies, they will exist without the jamming mechanisms of the brain. And so, the afterlife will be one of exposure, of coming face to face with our true selves. We will stand naked before G-d, fully aware of all our virtues and all our faults. For some of us this will be the ultimate of bliss. And for others, it will be an eternal hell.

(Just as a parenthetical endorsement, in my humble opinion R. Kaplan's writings are without question the most important works on Jewish thought written in the English language. Many of his most basic works have been published in The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology, by Artscroll Mesorah Publications (www.artscroll.com).)