My weekly newsletter returns with an a teaching on the power of the process of Teshuvah/change. Both the additional reading and the song call us to reflect on what we want to bring into the New Year. There is also a reminder below of the classes I am teaching about Hasidic Teshuvah. If you are in the NYC area, I am leading a contemplative service for High Holidays. For info., go to "SAJ Judaism that stands for all" website and click on High Holidays and then Contemplative service.
Shanah Tovah!
michael
A word of Torah:
The place that those who do teshuvah can attain; --- those who are completely righteous can never attain. Be-makom she-ba’alei teshuvah omdin ein tzadikkim gemurim ye-kholin l’amode (Tractate Berakhot 34b)
The importance of teshuvah is that it offers us the potential to choose goodness over folly. It is why the midrash says that teshuvah was one of the things that God created before the world was created. Without the ability to change, we would rapidly despair about our future.
Yet, it is difficult not to hear the voice that tells us we can’t change or that reminds us of all our New Year resolutions that never make it past even Yom Kippur. The enemy of teshuvah abounds and it lies in wait within each of us. It is the voice of skepticism. It is the voice doubting our sincerity or questioning our motives, the voice that says it is a small violation or that everyone does it, or even that you deserve this more than all those other people who have what you desire. Buddhism teaches that, alongside the enemies of change or goodness, there are qualities called near enemies that are easily confused with good qualities but are actually bad. For example, compassion is a good quality. Indifference is the far enemy of compassion. The near enemy of compassion is pity. At first glance it seems the same as compassion—you care about those in need. However, pity suggests that you are different from the people in need. It comes with an attitude of patronizing superiority. Near enemies are particularly dangerous traps.
The near enemy of teshuvah/change is a sense of perfection. As a near enemy, perfection leads to a sense of futility when trying to change. Setting an impossible goal will surely lead to failure. Teshuvah is about the possible, not the impossible. The truth is we are all people born with imperfections who are then raised by imperfect parents, who themselves were raised by imperfect parents.
Why can ba’aleiteshuvah, those who struggle to change attain a place that those who are completely righteous never can attain? Because the ba’aleiteshuvah know of the brokenness of the world from their own experience and are committed to making the world a better place. They are the agents of change in this new year. For like God they know that the world can only change for the better if we move from the seat of judgment to the seat of mercy. In the High Holiday liturgy over and over again we ask God to treat us with compassion. And God asks us to do the same to our fellow human beings and most of all to have compassion on our imperfect selves.
Register for a class I am teaching:
Change through acceptance: the Hasidic notion of Teshuvah
The rabbinic notion about teshuvah can be summed up as: “Just say no". Hasidism suggests a different path, where we acknowledge our mistakes, accept the truth about ourselves, and work to transform who we are. In three sessions, we will explore this Hasidic notion of change.
