The theme of teshuvah (repentence) is at the core of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I contributed the following essay to the bulletin of Temple Beth El of Greater Buffalo, circa 2001.

Guest Reflections

Teshuvah Tzoris

Teshuvah (repentance) is a major theme of the High Holy Days. Jewish repentance calls for reconciliation with those we have offended. In our prayers, we repent of our offenses against G-d; our offenses against fellow humans must be repaired by apologies and requests for forgiveness.

But it is not enough to say “I’m sorry.” We must “walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk.” Teshuvah requires us to mend our ways. Our tradition teaches that Teshuvah is only achieved if, when we find ourselves in a similar situation, we behave better by not repeating the offense. Thus, teshuvah can be very difficult, because while it is usually easy to utter words of apology, changing our behavior is not so easy.

An excellent reference on the High Holy Days is Days of Awe, by Shmuel Yosef Agnon [Agnon], Israeli Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. In this work, Agnon, serving as compiler/editor rather than author, cites Maimonides’ Hilchot Teshuvah (Laws of Repentance) (see [Agnon, pp. 111-115]), in which 24 obstacles to teshuvah are listed. Maimonides teaches that:

· Some misdeeds are so heinous that one who commits them is not permitted to do teshuvah. Examples of these are leading an individual or a community to sin; failure to prevent sin when it is within one’s power to do so; and one “who says I will sin and then repent. Included in this class is one who says, I will sin and Yom Kippur will make atonement for me.”

· Some misdeeds “close teshuvah in the face of those who commit them.” An example: Separating from the community, “for when they are doing teshuvah he will not be with them, and will not share the benefit of the merit they acquire.” This echoes the teaching of Hillel in Pirkei Avot 2:5 (see [Sim, p. 261]): “Do not separate from the community.” We should note that the Hebrew for “synagogue,” bet k’nesset, literally is “house of community.” Those who aren’t regulars in shul, please take note.

· Some misdeeds are impossible to repent of completely. Examples of these are deeds for which the specific victim(s) cannot be found, e.g., cursing a large group of people so that not all members of the group can be reached for apology.

· Some misdeeds are not atoned for because the sinner doesn’t realize he or she has sinned. These include sins mistakenly viewed as too trivial to worry about.

· Some misdeeds are difficult to atone for because they involve habits difficult to amend. These include gossip and loss of temper.

· Maimonides concludes [Agnon, p. 115]: “Yet all these sins and those like them, despite the fact that they hinder teshuvah, do not altogether prevent it. For if a man sincerely does teshuvah and turns from his sins, he is considered penitent and has a share in the world to come.”

Maimonides’ conclusion relies on a big “if”: if one “sincerely does teshuvah….” This suggests the wisdom of constantly reviewing one’s actions. Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, has written [Schorsch, citing Avot de R. Natan]: “… R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus in the early second century proclaimed: ‘Repent one day before your death.’ When his students asked him how one might know that day, he replied: ‘Then repent today for you might die tomorrow’ In other words, each and every day, and not just Yom Kippur, was suitable for repairing one's ties to God.”

L’shanah tovah tikateivu – may you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year.

Dr. Laurence Boxer

References

[Agnon] S.Y Agnon, Days of Awe, Schocken Books, New York, 1965

[Schorsch] Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Commentary on Noah, http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/5760/noah.shtml

[Sim] Siddur Sim Shalom, The Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, New York, 1998