THE DYNAMICS OF TESHUVAH!!!!

Song of Solomon chapter 8

Psalm chapter 27




Today we look to the word- RETURN- H7725 shuv--to turn back, return, to bring back, to be returned, be restored, be brought back






The Torah testifies...............




Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return H7725 unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. H7725






The prophets proclaim..................




Hosea 5:15

I will go and return H7725 to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.







The writings bear witness...........................





2 Chronicles 30:9

For if ye turn again H7725 unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again H7725 into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return H7725 unto him.
The Dynamics of Teshuva

"Most High, I am a sinner. I would like to return, to do teshuvah!" The Most High looked at the man before him. He did not understand what the man wanted. "So why don't you do teshuvah?" "Most High, I do not know how!" The Most High retorted. "How did you know to sin?" The remorseful sinner answered simply. "I acted, and then I realized that I had sinned." "Well," said the Most High, "the same applies to teshuvah, repent and the rest will follow of itself!"
Torah: The Ground Rules

Revelation is the foundation of a restored relationship.

Revelation constitutes the basic premises of the original relationship in the garden of Eden.




There is the Revealer. The Most High exists. He is real.

The Most High speaks to man. The Most High not only exists, He also cares. He is a personal, the Most High.



There is hashgachah (Divine Providence).



Because The Most High cares, like a loving and concerned parent cares for his child, He reveals to us what we should know about reality. He guides us and teaches us the way wherein we are to walk and the acts that we must do.



This is Torah, the "Tree of Life to those who hold fast to it." The Most High's word, the Revelation, is called Torah. For Torah means instruction; It instructs and reveals that which was hidden, unknown. It teaches man to walk in the right path. It counsels him how to return to his Abba.



Revelation, the Torah in all its immensity of 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions, is realistic. It is not alien to man and physical reality. It is not overlapped from without. It is not hidden from you nor far off. It is not in the heavens that you should say: Who shall go up for us to the heavens?




Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us? It is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. Deuteronomy 30:12-13



Torah is not attached to the world. It precedes and transcends the world. It is the blueprint for Creation. The Holy One, The Most High, looked into the Torah and created the world.



The universe, man, all that exists, was created, fashioned and made on the basis of, and suited to, the contents and requirements of Torah. This allows for the possibility, and thus the demand, that man - every one of us - can live up to the obligations and ideals of Torah. (As our sages tell us "The Most High does not impose burdensome precepts upon His creatures; He comes to man according to his own strength...according to the ability of each individual.")



We are bound up with Torah in a reciprocal relationship.



As Torah is the blueprint for the universe, the universe reflects all components of Torah. And as it is with the whole, so it is with the rest of creation, with man.



The human body and the human soul reflect the 613 precepts: 248 organs corresponding to the 248 commandments; 365 veins corresponding to the 365 prohibitions.



Observance of the positive precepts animates the relative organs, attaches them to Divinity and elicits for them Divine illumination, vitality and energy.
Observance of the prohibitions protects the relative veins and vessels against contamination, against influences alien to their nature and purpose.




The Nature of Sin



Revelation, Torah, the life based upon it, constitutes morality, virtue, goodness. What constitutes sin?



On the simple level, sin means breaking the law, violating the Torah by acts of omission or commission. Our duties are spelled out clearly. The law is defined. To ignore the letter or the spirit of the law, let alone to violate it, that is sin.



On a deeper level, the meaning of sin is indicated in its Hebrew terminology. The general term for it is aveirah. It is of the root avar - to pass or cross over, to pass beyond. Aveirah means a trespass, a transgression, a stepping across the limits and boundaries of propriety to the "other side."
More specific words are chet, aavon, pesha.



Chet is of a root meaning to miss, to bear a loss. Aavon is of a root meaning to bend, twist, pervert. Pesha is of a root meaning to rebel.



Technically, legalistically, chet refers to inadvertent sins; aavon to conscious misdeeds; and pesha to malicious acts of rebellion.



Sin, thus, is a move away from the Most High, away from truth.



"Your sins separate you from The Most High" who is truly "your life." It separates us from Torah, our lifeline, that which attaches us to the source of our life and all blessings.
To neglect the commandments is to deprive ourselves of the illumination and vitality which their observance draws upon us, to forfeit an opportunity, to render ourselves deficient: chata'im, at a loss. To violate the prohibitions is to defile the body, to blemish the soul, to cause evil to become attached.



Sin offers man temporary gains, but it is altogether irrational, self-defeating. Attractive and sweet at the outset, but bitter in the end. Thus, "The Most High, the Holy One, is stounded: How is it possible that a person will sin?!"



"No person will commit a sin unless a spirit of folly has entered into him." Sin is an act of ignorance or foolishness. Invariably it can be traced to lack of knowledge, to negligence or carelessness. If premeditated, let alone an act of willful rebellion, it is outright stupidity. Either way, it is rooted in carelessness, in shortsightedness, in failure to think. It follows upon a blinding obsession with the here and now, egocentricity, self-righteousness.



The Principle of Teshuvah



The folly of sin derives from man's physical nature.



What is man? A composite of body and soul. The soul is spiritual. By its very nature it reaches out to, and strives for, spirituality. The body is material, and thus attracted to the allurements of its own elements, of matter. Yet these two are combined. The soul is removed from its "supernal peak to be vested in the lowly body.



This "descent" is for the purpose of an "ascent": to elevate and sublimate the physicality of the body and the matter to which it is related in its lifetime.



There is tension between body and soul, between matter (and the natural or animalistic life-force that animates and sustains it), and the neshamah, the sublime soul and spirit of man. But they are not irreconcilable.



The body per se is neither evil nor impure. It is potentiality: not- yet-holy, even as it is not-yet-profane.



Man's actions, the actions and behavior of the body-soul compound, determine its fall into the chambers of defilement or its ascent to be absorbed in holiness.



To succeed in elevating and transfering the body and its share in this world is an elevation for the soul as well. It is precisely the exposure to temptation, the risks of worldliness, the possibility of alternatives and the incumbent free will of man, that allow for achievement, for ultimate self-realization.



"The body of man is a wick, and the light (soul) is kindled above it......"The light on a man's head must have oil, that is, good deeds." The wick by itself is useless if not lit. The flame cannot burn in a vacuum; it cannot produce light nor cling to the wick without oil.



Torah and mitzvot, good deeds, unite the wick and the flame, the body and the soul, to actualize inherent potentiality, to produce a meaningful entity.
The neshamah, the soul, a spark of The Most High within us, fills us with practically unlimited potential. Man is granted the power to make of himself whatever he likes, in effect to determine his destiny.



The veracity of mundane temptation, however, is no less real. Sin crouches at the door.



Torah confronts this fact: "There is no man so righteous on earth that he does good and never sins."



If sin was final, the history of mankind would have begun and ended with Adam. The Creator took this into account.



The original intent was to create the world on the basis of strict justice. As The Most High foresaw that such a world could not endure, He caused the attribute of mercy to precede the attribute of justice and allied them.



"When the Most High, created the world, He consulted the Torah about creating man. Who said to Him: `The man You want to create will sin before You, he will provoke You to anger. If you will deal with him commensurate to his deeds, neither the world nor man will be able to exist before you!' The Most High then replied to the Torah: `Is it for nothing that I am called the Compassionate and Gracious The Most High, long-suffering?'



Thus, before creating the world, the the Most High, created teshuvah (repentance), and said to it: "I am about to create man in the world, but on condition that when they turn to you because of their sins, you shall be ready to erase their sins and to atone for them!"



Teshuvah thus is forever close at hand, and when man returns from his sins, this teshuvah returns to the Most High, and he atones for all - all judgments are suppressed and sweetened, and man is purified from his sins.
How is he purified from his sins?



By ascending with this teshuvah in proper manner.



When he returns before the Supreme King and prays from the depths of his heart, as it is written: "From the depths I call unto You, oh The Most High!"
Torah, the rules and regulations for life, preceded the world and served as its blueprint. These rules demand strict adherence. "But for the Torah, heaven and earth cannot endure, as it is said: `If not for My covenant by day and by night, I had not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.'"



Sin means to defeat the purpose of Creation, to deprive creation of all meaning. This must result in the world's reversion to nothingness. Thus the need for the attribute of mercy, of compassion.



Mercy means to recognize the legitimacy of justice, yet to show compassion, to forgive nonetheless.



Mercy means to recognize the valid demands of the law, but also to temper these demands by considering the fact that "the drive of man's heart is evil yet from his youth." It offers another chance. This is the principle of teshuvah.