Week 3: Response from
Rabbi Norman Klein
Teshuvah, repentance, derives from the root word meaning return. When one makes teshuvah, one returns to one's true self. Since God is the ground of our ethical behavior, returning to our true self, individually, and as a people, is a return to our coventantal relationship with God. "Every movement for religious renewal that has appeared within Judaism, from the very beginning of its history, may thus be defined as a movement of of teshuvah . . . To cleave to the keneset Yisrael, to feel a sense of solidarity with the people as a whole and share int its distress--these, in the sages' view, were necessary conditions of teshuvah. . . The basic meaning of the idea of teshuvah, that of a spiritual transformation by which the Jew returns to his source and to an authentic way of life remains valid today." (Ehud Luz, "Repentance," in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, ed. Arthur A. Cohen and Paul Mendes-Flohr, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987, pp. 786-787). By participating in the process of teshuvah the individual is reconnecting with his or her community, with God, and with his/her authentic self.

The goal of teshuvah is creativity and renewal of the individual and of our people through personal and communal acts of repentance. Sin is the mistake that we do against our own nature. Teshuvah is a continual process, which we have to initiate, but with which God helps us along the way. God is continually calling upon us to return to our authentic nature, one that is based on the image of the divine, one that is built upon practicing what god wants of us. But only we can come to the realization that it is time to ask for forgiveness from and gain reconciliation with others, God and even ourselves. While only we can initiate the process of teshuvah, God has provided the mechanism for motivating us to ask for forgiveness--our feelings of guilt and alienation when we sin. Thus Judaism demands that we not distribute blame for the wrongs in our control to everyone but ourselves, but rather take responsibility for the things we have done wrong by means of thought, speech, or deed.

Both faith and courage are necessary for teshuvah. It is because of God's mercy and loving-kindness that we are capable of repairing ourselves through asking for forgiveness from those we have wronged, God and human beings, and in following these acts of teshuvah through, even when the wronged person resists our attempts to make restitution materially and emotionally. Only a person who deeply believes that what he or she is doing is finally the right thing to do, truly has the courage to bear the embarrassment and exposure that comes from admitting one's sins to another, especially to one who has been victimized by what we have done. From the point of view of the person being asked to grant forgiveness as well, there needs to be the faith and courage to realize that one's immediate relationship, the community of which we are a part, and even the greater world will become better because we have had the largeness of spirit to, as Maimonides puts it, grant forgiveness "with an open heart and a willing spirit" (Mishneh Torah, Hilcot Teshuvah, 2:10). Even in the exceptional case of the one from whom we are to continue to ask forgiveness for as many times as is necessary, one's teacher, if we have wronged him or her, our teacher should be the very first to grant it, as he or she should be a model in Israel and among those who are "upright in spirit."

How many of us really put ourselves through a chesboh nefesh, an accounting of our souls, an examination of our deeds that actually leads us to ask forgiveness from all who we have wronged? Even on the most simple level, approaching someone at work or in our neighborhood or synagogue whom we are not sure whether he or she were hurt by something we have done, and actually asking him or her to forgive us if we might have said or done anything to offend that person, even this verbal act calls upon our courage.

Yet the sins we commit gnaw at our spirit, and without repentance, can lead us to despair. The acts of teshuvah we undertake, while stemming from the suffering we feel as we examine our deeds, leads eventually to a catharsis of emotion while doing deeds that merit forgiveness which give us ultimately a sense of joy. We can, as it were, imitate God, and step out of time-bound actions; by asking forgiveness we help to heal the wounds of the past and create a brighter future of more harmonious conduct in more perfect relationship with our fellow human beings, with God and the world god has created.

Sinai Temple -- Champaign, Illinois