(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you return to your hearts amidst the various nations to which the Eternal your God has banished you, (2) and you return to the Eternal your God, and you and your children heed God's command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then the Eternal your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love, bringing you together again from all the peoples where the Eternal your God has scattered you. (4) Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the Eternal your God will gather you, from there God will fetch you. (5) And the Eternal your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors possessed, and you shall possess it; and God will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors. (6) Then the Eternal your God will open up your heart and the hearts of your offspring to love the Eternal your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live. (7) The Eternal your God will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you. (8) You, however, will return and listen to the voice of the Eternal and obey all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day. (9) And the Eternal your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in the issue of your womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Eternal will again delight in your well-being, as God did in that of your ancestors, (10) since you will be heeding the Eternal your God and keeping the commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching—once you return to the Eternal your God with all your heart and soul.
(8) So two or three towns would wander
To a single town to drink water,
But their thirst would not be slaked.
Yet you did not turn back to Me
—declares the Eternal.
(10) Though Israel’s pride has been humbled
Before his very eyes,
They have not turned back
To their God the Eternal;
They have not sought God
In spite of everything.
(22) Turn back, O rebellious children,
I will heal your afflictions!
“Here we are, we come to You,
For You, O Eternal, are our God!
(11) And now, say to the men people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus said the Eternal: I am devising disaster for you and laying plans against you. Turn back, each of you, from your wicked ways, and mend your ways and your actions!
(21) Moreover, if the wicked one turns from all the sins that they committed and keeps all My laws and does what is just and right, they shall live; and shall not die.
Teshuva and "Returning to the LORD" - Are They One and the Same?
...we should be careful not to import later connotations of teshuva developed in rabbinic literature, if we wish to interpret these passages in light of their ancient Israelite contexts. Deut 30:1-10 does not assume a nation that has “repented” of its sins in a single act of mental determination; rather its concern is to establish a nation that has effectively removed evil from its midst, Deuteronomy’s abiding concern, and so can adhere to the laws spelled out in the Deuteronomic Code, Deuteronomy 12-26. A divine “circumcision of the heart,” of the sort that comes into focus in Deut 30:1-10, provides a permanent solution to the problem of sin, thus allowing the people to be restored and to persevere in the Land.
Parshat Nitzavim: Human Repentance and Godly Return
by Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler
Notice here the repetition of the verb “to return,” or in Hebrew “lashuv.” In fact, the word is used in this unit no less than five times, indicating its thematic importance. Moshe predicts that a time will come when the people of Israel, having gone astray, will seek to return. “Vehashevota el livavcha.” Literally, they will return to their hearts, to themselves, to the principled people they wish to be. They will do teshuva, repentance. They will disavow their previous ways and embrace God’s commandments completely, with all of their heart and soul. The implication is that the return to self is the return to God. Returning to one’s heart is returning with one’s heart to God.