Shabbat Shuva

A short reflection on Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

A Demanding View Of Repentance

SPEAKER_00 0:21

There's something almost uncomfortable about the passage we read for this Shabbat Shuva. It comes from Orchot Shuva, which is a medieval text with an unknown author written sometime between 14 and 1500. The text gives us a picture of repentance that is much more demanding than simply coming to the synagogue and saying the right words, fasting on Yom Kippur, and hoping that somehow at the end of the day everything will be made right. You might say that it is a reminder of how Yom Kippur is supposed to really go. And here's what the text says it is proper that everyone who reveres God should lessen his usual occupations and let his thoughts be calm, and let him fix hours during the day and the night where he can sit alone in his rooms and examine his ways and search them out. The most important phrase in this, I think, is the very end. Let one examine his ways and search them out. In Hebrew, the language of Teshuvah often suggests returning. We return to God, we return to ourselves, we return to the person we know we are capable of becoming.

Why Stopping Feels So Hard

SPEAKER_00 1:55

But before we return, we have to stop. And stopping may be the hardest part. We live in a world that is extraordinarily good at keeping us busy. There's always another something, another meeting, another message, another thing that needs our attention. The kids need to be picked up, we need to go shopping. Our days seem to go from zero to light speed in an instant and stay that way until we go back to bed. But it is also true that sometimes we use busyness to avoid something even more difficult, ourselves. The text says that during these days we should let his thoughts be calm. Because only when we become quiet can we begin to hear the questions that we have been avoiding. And this is when we can take the time to

The Questions Yom Kippur Asks

SPEAKER_00 2:55

ask the questions Yom Kippur asks us. It asks us to remember. And that's why this Shabbat Shva, the Shabbat of return, can be so meaningful, maybe even more meaningful than any other Shabbat. Because on this Shabbat, we can take the time to ask the questions that resonate deeply within us. How did I treat the people I love? Where did I fail? What have I done that I need to repair? What have I left undone? Who has been hurt by my words, by my impatience, by my indifference? And perhaps the most difficult question: what do I need to change about myself?

Ritual Without Change Falls Short

SPEAKER_00 3:46

And then the text underscores the ever-present theme of Yom Kippur when it says, Don't make the mistake of thinking that fasting and praying and confessing are enough. The text writes, For if a man prays and fasts and confesses and still clings to his former ways, this is not the path of repentance. It means that Teshuva is not primarily about what we say, it is about what we do differently. We can stand at the temple on Yom Kippur and say Alchet a hundred times. We can beat our chests, we can fast, we can pray with extraordinary intensity. But when Yom Kippur is over, if we go back to being the same person we were before, then something essential has been missed. Teshuva requires transformation, and perhaps that's why the rabbis call these days Asaratya me Teshuva, the ten days of repentance. This is an intentionally long span of time to come down from the spiritual moments of Rosh Hashanah and prepare for the big questions

The Ten Days When God Feels Near

SPEAKER_00 5:05

during a time not of emotional elation, but of quiet and reflection. Our tradition teaches us that there are days when God is especially near. The Talmud interprets the words of Isaiah, seek the Lord while God may be found, as referring specifically to these ten days of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But perhaps the deeper message is that God is not the only one we are seeking during these days. Because while it is true that we have God uppermost in our minds and hearts, the divine is not the only thing we seek. In fact, we are seeking ourselves, the person we have been, the person we are, the person we might yet become. And herein

Guilt Versus Teshuvah

SPEAKER_00 6:02

lies the power of Teshuva of repentance. There's an important distinction between guilt and teshuvah. Guilt says, I am a bad person. Teshuva says I have done something wrong and I can do something about it. Guilt keeps us trapped in the past. Teshuva turns us toward the future. There's something remarkably powerful about all this because Judaism does not tell us that we are permanently defined by our failures. Quite the opposite. The very existence of Shabbat Shuva tells us that we can begin again. We can repair, we can apologize, we can forgive, we can change, we can become something different from what we were. And perhaps that is the miracle of these ten days. God gives us a period of time in which the door is open. But it is up to each of us to walk through it. So perhaps this Shabbat, before we arrive at Yom Kippur, we might take seriously the advice of this ancient text.

Three Questions And One Change

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Find some quiet. Turn off the phone, close the door, sit alone for a little while, and ask yourself three questions. What have I done this year that I need to repair? Who needs to hear an apology from me? And finally, what is one thing about myself that I genuinely want to change? Not ten things, not everything, one thing. Because Teshuva doesn't happen because we promise to become perfect. It happens because we are willing to become different. The passage ends by reminding us that Yom Kippur, together with repentance, brings atonement when we do the work, when we make the amends, and when we change into who we know we can be. Indeed, as we enter this Yom Kippur, remember the promise of these holy days. Yes, we will make mistakes, but our mistakes do not have to have the last word.

A Prayer For Returning To Self

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And so I leave you with this prayer. May we all enter Yom Kippur, knowing that Teshuva is not simply a return to God, it is a return to the best self that is still waiting within each of us.