Teshuvah (תשובה) — Return / Repentance

Core definition

Teshuvah — literally "return" — is the soul's return to its source. In the corpus it is far more than remorse for sin: it is a cosmic force that repairs the double damage of sin (vitality sunk into the sitra achra; light withdrawn from flawed vessels), draws new essential light, and reaches levels no other avodah can touch. It operates in two great modes — teshuvah tata'ah (the lower return) and teshuvah ila'ah (the higher return) — and its power ultimately comes from Above [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Sin causes double damage: vitality sinks into the sitra achra, and light is withdrawn from the flawed vessels. Hence a double teshuvah is needed. Teshuvah tata'ah arouses mercy, crushes kelipah with a broken heart, and returns the fallen hei. Teshuvah ila'ah is "the spirit shall return to Elokim" — the silent cry of the heart from yechidah, drawing from Keter's inwardness, "I, I erase," returning the light as new essential light and making the penitent essentially separate from evil, like a tzaddik [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview]. Teshuvah's acceptance is from the thirteen attributes of mercy — which are above wisdom — and its arousal from higher still: His great Name, "all My goodness," a free gift [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview].

Teshuvah ila'ah is given from Above — man arouses only as far as Chabad; the essence is gifted, in times of will: Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance, Shabbos. And it comes only after teshuvah tata'ah — "open for Me as a needle's eye" [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview; 31681/maamar_006 :: Overview]. This distinguishes it from the Exodus's arousal from Above — which was a mere drawing-near of the ohr memaleh — and from Matan Torah's one-time revelation: there are two arousals from Above, one before any arousal from below, and one after the complete arousal-from-below-and-arousal-from-above [31681/maamar_006 :: Overview].

The teshuvah of the Divine soul is ordered — from sensing distance, in interiority, tata'ah then ila'ah. The teshuvah of the animal soul is ungraded: from utter depth to utter height in one leap — from the force of distance, both cries at once, "it touches him very deep" — transformed from extreme to extreme through an arousal from Above in concealment, as with Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya [31681/maamar_006 :: Overview]. Hence "I thank You for Your anger" — the anger itself becomes the ground of return [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview].

The Midrash's dialogue — "I forsook you / you forsook Me" — frames teshuvah's two directions: from above (Exodus, Nisan, dew) or from below (Tishrei, rain); Bnei Korach's compromise shuvanu is arousal from above empowering teshuvah from below [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview]. The Talmudic dispute is resolved likewise: Rabbi Eliezer — teshuvah by one's own power; Rabbi Yehoshua — teshuvah from Above (Tishrei vs. Nisan) — in "both of us together": the arousal from Above, and Israel doing teshuvah by their own power, turning darkness to light [31681/maamar_006 :: Overview].

The eschatological horizon: the great shofar — Adam Kadmon's revelation, reaching past Atzilus to the end of Asiyah — will arouse even the lost in Ashur, sunk in cold pleasure, kelipah's atik, who have no arousal from below [31633/maamar_011 :: Overview; 31681/maamar_006 :: Overview]. And the year's cycle closes the circle: from Yom Kippur's teshuvah come the sukkah's makifim — and zman simchaseinu, the year's joy [31681/maamar_006 :: Overview].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Vidui (confession), the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, the Great Shofar, Sukkah (makifim), Iskafya and Is'hapcha, Ba'al Teshuvah.

Sources