הֲשִׁיבֵ֨נוּ ה' ׀ אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ ונשוב [וְֽנָשׁ֔וּבָה] חַדֵּ֥שׁ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כְּקֶֽדֶם׃
Return us, Adonai, to You, and we will return; Renew our days as in the beginning.
hadesh yameynu kekedem
תניא שבעה דברים נבראו קודם שנברא העולם ואלו הן תורה ותשובה וגן עדן וגיהנם וכסא הכבוד ובית המקדש ושמו של משיח
Seven phenomena were created before the world was created, and they are: Torah, and repentance, and the Garden of Eden, and Gehenna, and the Throne of Glory, and the Temple, and the name of Messiah.
(ו) ... רַבִּי הוֹשַׁעְיָה אָמַר ... כָּל מַה שֶּׁנִּבְרָא בְּשֵׁשֶׁת יְמֵי בְרֵאשִׁית צְרִיכִין עֲשִׂיָה, כְּגוֹן הַחַרְדָּל צָרִיךְ לְמִתּוּק. הַתּוּרְמוּסִים צָרִיךְ לְמִתּוּק. הַחִטִּין צְרִיכִין לְהִטָּחֵן. אֲפִלּוּ אָדָם צָרִיךְ תִּקּוּן.
(6) ...Rabbi Hoshayah ..said: Anything created in the first six days, needs further actions, for example mustard seeds need sweetening, peas needs sweetening, wheat needs grinding, even humans need (tikkun) fixing.
... Rabbi Abbahu said: In the place where penitents stand, even the full-fledged righteous do not stand, as it is stated: “Peace, peace upon him who is far and him who is near.” Peace and greeting is extended first to him who is far, the penitent, and only thereafter is peace extended to him who is near, the full-fledged righteous.
אַֽל־תִּשְׂמְחִ֤י אֹיַ֙בְתִּי֙ לִ֔י כִּ֥י נָפַ֖לְתִּי קָ֑מְתִּי כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ יְה א֥וֹר לִֽי׃ (ס)
Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy! Though I have fallen, I rise again; Though I sit in darkness, Adonai is my light.
ילקוט שמעוני נ"ך תרכח
כִּ֥י נָפַ֖לְתִּי קָ֑מְתִּי אילולא שנפלתי - לא קמתי. כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה' א֥וֹר לִֽי אילולא שישבתי בחושך - לא היה אור לי.
Yalkut Shimeoni on Nach, 728
If I hadn't fallen - I would not have gotten up. If I hadn't sat in the dark - I would not have light.
Adin Steinsaltz, trans. by Michael Swirsky, pp 3-4.
Broadly defined, teshuvah is more than just repentance from sin; it is a spiritual reawakening, a desire to strengthen the connection between oneself and the sacred. The effectiveness of teshuvah is thus frequently a function of one's sense of distance from the sacred. The greater the distance, the greater the potential movement towards renewed connectedness. As one Jewish sage put it, A rope that is cut and retied is doubly strong at the point where it was severed.... All forms of teshuvah, however diverse and complex, have a common core: the belief that human beings have it in their power to effect inward change.
The angels sealed the window of heaven so that the prayers of Manasseh would not ascend to God. The angels said, "Master of the world, here is a man who worshipped pagan gods and set up an idol in the Temple! How can you accept his teshuvah!?!" God replied, "If I do not accept his teshuvah I would be closing a door for all baa'lei teshuvah." What did God do? S/He dug an opening beneath the Throne of Glory and accepted Manasseh's supplication.
א. אורות התשובה ז:א
טבעה של התשובה היא, שהיא נותנת לאדם מנוחה וכבד-ראש כאחד. היא מנחמת אותו גם בהרהור תשובה, בנקודה אחת קטנה מאורה הגדול כבר מונח אושר רם ונשא של עולם מלא, ועם זה היא מצגת לעיני רוחו תמיד חובות של השלמה, המצילות אותו מזחיחות הדעת ונותנות עליו אור מתוק, הנותן ערך גדול וקבוע לחייו.
הציור של התשובה מהפך את כל העונות ובהלותיהם, יסוריהם הרוחנים וכעוריהם, למושגים של עדן וקורת רוח, מפני שעל ידם זורח לאדם עומק הדעת של שנאת הרע, ואהבת הטוב מתגברת בו בגבורה אדירה, ולמעלה מכל חשבון ודעת הרי הוא מתענג על אושר הנוחם, שמרגיש כי אותו הנועם האלהי המיוחד לבעלי תשובה, הנעים ביותר עם הטעם המעדן של שבירת הלב ודכאות הנפש, המחוברת עם אמונה עמוקה של הצלה וישועת עולמים.
Lights of Repentance 7:1 Rav Kook
The nature of teshuvah is that it gives a person tranquility and centeredness as if that person is one. It gives him/her tranquility even through the thought of teshuvah, in that one little point of a great light, already brings great and high happiness from a complete world, and with that it already projects to his/her spiritual eyes the need for completeness, that rescues her/him from euphoria and gives upon her/him a sweet light, that gives a great meaning and constancy to her/his life.
The design of teshuvah is such that it transforms all sins and their terrors, their spiritual sufferings and their uglinesses, into reflections/concepts of Eden and personal fulfillment, because through them a person is shined with depth of thought regarding the hate of evil, and the love of good gets strengthened with a mighty strength, behold s/he enjoys the happiness of regret, that he feels that the specific delightof the Divine regarding the ba'alei teshuvah, the most pleasant of all, with the taste of the delicate/delicacy of a broken heart and the sadness of soul, which connects itself with deep faith of the rescuing and salvation of the worlds.
There were these hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you pray for the death of these hooligans? Do you base yourself on the verse, as it is written: “Let sins cease from the land” (Psalms 104:35), which you interpret to mean that the world would be better if the wicked were destroyed? But is it written, let sinners cease?” Let sins cease, is written. One should pray for an end to their transgressions, not for the demise of the transgressors themselves. Moreover, go to the end of the verse, where it says: “And the wicked will be no more.” If, transgressions shall cease, then truly the wicked will be no more, i.e., they will no longer be evil. So instead, pray for God to have mercy on them, that they should repent. Rabbi Meir saw that Berurya was correct and he prayed for God to have mercy on them, and they repented.
...a person needs to find … within himself that bit of goodness … Even when he looks inside and at first it seems that there is no goodness at all within, that everything is full of sin. And he wants simply to give up and drown himself in sadness... even so it is forbidden to give in to despair. He needs instead to search and find within himself some tiny bit of goodness – for how can it be possible that in all of his life he has never done some good deed? Some mitzvah?
And even if he finds the good deed and sees the holes in it – the impure motives, the imperfections – still, it must be that there lies within it some tiny nekudah tovah – some tiny point of goodness. He must focus there, and enliven himself with that point of goodness, and there is where his teshuvah begins… And from there he must keep looking, and find another point, and another… like the notes of a melody, he shall gather them together until they form a song. That is the song he shall sing as his prayer before the Creator…
Resolving to change, however fervently you wish to do so, is no guarantee that you’ll actually follow through. Why not?
One reason is that most goals cannot be accomplished all at once and on the spot. You need a way to bridge your current intentions with your future actions. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need more willpower; you need a strategy.
Decades of research on how children and adults turn intentions into actions have culminated in a four-step process called WOOP—an acronym that stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.
In your experience, how is guilt useful or counter-productive on the way to personal change?
What are the implications of the idea that teshuvah existed before Creation itself?
Why would human beings be made in a way that requires tikkun/fixing? What function do your imperfections serve in your life?
Why would the angels reject and God accept the repentance of a terrible sinner? What is the distinction that Beruriah draws in her advice for her husband?
Why/how could Rav Kook describe repentance as a joyful experience?
What strategies do these texts suggest for making lasting change?