Complete Teshuvah

Art: Maurycy Gottllieb

The focus of the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is teshuvah - return or repentance. We recite the Avinu Malkeinu prayer during this period, requesting: “Our Father our King! Return us in complete teshuvah before You.”

When is teshuvah full and complete?

Healing the Source

We can understand this phrase better in light of the request that immediately follows:

“Our Father our King! Send complete healing to the sick of Your people.”

What is “complete healing”? Often we are only able to alleviate the patient’s external symptoms. The true source of the illness, however, remains unknown or is untreatable. Such a treatment is only a partial healing. When we plead for complete healing, we are praying that we may succeed in discovering the source of the illness and completely cure the patient. Such a comprehensive treatment will result in full restoration of the patient’s health.

The same concept holds true for teshuvah. If we address a particular fault, we are really dealing with a symptom of a much larger problem. Correcting a specific sin is only partial teshuvah. When we ask for God’s help in attaining complete teshuvah, we seek a comprehensive teshuvah that corrects the root source of our various sins and character flaws. Such a complete teshuvah will restore our spiritual wholeness.

Elevated Perception

How does one attain complete teshuvah? In his book Orot HaTeshuvah, Rav Kook explained that this teshuvah is based on an elevated outlook on life and the world:

“The higher level of teshuvah is based on holy enlightenment and a penetrating perception of the beauty of Divine providence. This [elevated teshuvah] is the source and foundation for the lower teshuvah that corrects deeds and refines traits. The basis for elevated teshuvah is none other than the foundation of Torah, in all of its roots and branches.” [15:6]

“Teshuvah that is truly complete requires a lofty perception, an ascent to the rarified world that is replete with truth and holiness. This is only possible by delving into the depths of Torah and Divine wisdom, to the mystical secrets of the universe.... Only the higher [i.e., mystical] Torah can break down the iron barriers that divide the individual and society as a whole from their heavenly Father.” [10:1]

Source: Rav Kook: Silver from the Land of Israel, pp. 72-73. Adapted from Mo'adei HaRe’iyah, p. 66]

Is Moshiach Really Coming Soon?

Here is the latest Rabbi Anava video recorded on the Kavanah Show.

Many Evils

Art Sarah Porter

It is written, “When many evils and distresses have befallen them” [Vayelech 31:21]

The Maggid of Dubno states that towards evening, as the peddler of goods stands in the marketplace with his baskets in hand, and most of his products are already sold, he wants to return home quickly. He therefore takes his remaining pears, prunes, and other products, and mixes them together in one basket and sells them at half price, for he wants to get rid of them as quickly as possible. 

Hence the Torah states, “When many evils and distresses have befallen them” – when you see a combination of various ills descending upon Israel, it signifies that all the “products” are almost gone, and that we have reached the remainder, the “footsteps of Mashiach,” meaning that he will soon arrive.

Source: Rabbi David Hanania Pinto Shlita

Rosh Hashanah 5777

I would like to wish all my readers a Shana Tova - may you all be written in the Book of Life for good things, and may we all merit to see the coming of Moshiach .

If I have offended anyone by anything I have published or written, please treat this as a personal apology.

IY''H I'll be back after YomTov.

Lekach

Lekach is a sweet cake, traditionally made with honey.  It is customary to ask for and receive "lekach" from someone [usually one's mentor or parent] on the day before Yom Kippur.   One of the reasons given for this custom is that if it had been decreed, G‑d forbid, that during the year we should need to resort to a handout from others, the decree should be satisfied with this asking for food.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe used to hand out Lekach each year on erev Yom Kippur, or for those who did not receive it then, on Hoshannah Rabbah.

To read more about the reasons for this custom, click here.

Below is my recipe for a Rosh Hashanah chocolate honey cake, which is incredibly easy to make, you just place all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, and bake.

These quantities make a very large cake, or two smaller cakes.  Note: this is a very large cake, you may want to halve the ingredients and make two loaf cakes instead.

One Bowl Chocolate Honey Cake

500g honey
3 eggs
One and a half cups sugar [I use raw caster sugar]
3/4 cup oil [I use lite olive oil]
1 teaspoon vanilla essence            

3 cups self-raising flour*
One and a half cups water
3 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Place all ingredients into electric mixing bowl, beat until well combined. The mixture appears to be too liquid, but don't worry, that is how it's meant to be.  Pour into large foil tray [or two smaller cake tins] and bake for approx 75 mins [large size] or 55 mins [smaller cakes] at 350°F - 180°C.  Cooking times may vary depending on your oven.

*If you are using general purpose flour, you will need to add a teaspoon each of baking powder and bicarb soda.  I prefer the convenience of self-raising flour.

Also see The Healing Powers of Apples and Honey

Judge Yourself before Judging Others

There is a wellknown saying that if you go to Court, you should do so '''with clean hands''.  In other words, if you are guilty of a wrong-doing, and then you take another party to Court, you will not only be judged accordingly in this world, but you will also be judged in Heaven before the other party is judged.

As the Ben Ish Chai wrote:

"Woe to the victim who cries out, more than to the one who wronged him." [Bava Kamma 93a]

A victim calls upon G-d to punish the one who wronged him - and Heaven treats the victim more severely! Why? Let's say Reuven called on G-d to judge Shimon for doing him a grave injustice. Shimon will not be punished until the Heavenly Court judges him. But Reuven himself probably wronged others at some point in his life - and for him, judicial procedures can be dispensed with. He himself admitted that such sins warrant severe punishment!  [See: Judgments Above and Below]

And also as we see here:

 "You are guilty of the injustice done to me," said the childless Sarah to Avraham when she sensed that Hagar, the maidservant Sarah had given to him as a wife, stopped respecting her after Hagar became pregnant. Sarah was outraged that Avraham had remained silent as Hagar abused her, and she concluded her charge with the words "Let Hashem judge between us!" [Bereishet 16:5]

This summoning of Heavenly judgment, says Rabbi Chanan in our gemara, boomerangs against the initiator, who is punished by Heaven even before the accused is. The proof is that Sarah died before Avraham, who "came to eulogize Sarah and weep over her." [Bereishet 23:2]

The impropriety of summoning Heavenly judgment, qualifies the gemara, is only in a situation where there is an alternative of seeking justice in a court here on earth. What alternative existed for Sarah, who is cited as the classical example of such impropriety?

Tosefot explains that she had the alternative of bringing her complaint against Avraham before the court of Shem, the son of Noach. Rabbeinu Nissim [Rosh Hashanah 16b] offers another approach. Even if Sarah had no court to turn to, she was wrong in not first bringing her complaint to her husband before summoning Heavenly judgment against him.

Heavenly judgment improperly summoned by the wounded party is a two-edged sword. Hashem declared that if the victim cries out to Him the outcry will be heeded and there will be severe consequences [Shmot 22:22-23]. The implication is that both the accuser and the accused will be punished, but the first to suffer will be the accuser. Maharsha points out that in the case of Sarah, her husband was punished with the loss of his wife, for the greatest tragedy of a person's death is suffered by the bereaved spouse. But her punishment of death preceded his punishment, for his grief began only when he returned to Hebron and became aware of her passing.

An interesting historical footnote to this chapter is provided by Ramban in his commentary on Torah. Sarah's oppression of Hagar, and Avraham's consent to her action which eventually forced her to flee, was improper. As a result "Hashem heeded her pain and gave her a son [Yishmael] who would be a wild man oppressing the descendants of Avraham and Sarah in so many ways."

[Source: Bava Kama 93a]

Why Tishrei ?

What is the reason that it was decided to judge the world in the month of Tishrei?

This is because the conduct of Hashem is not like the conduct of people; It is the trait of people to judge their friends when they are in a favorable mood, and their enemies when they are annoyed. However, Hashem judges the entire world in a favorable time, in the month of Tishrei, which has many holidays and mitzvot. [Rabbi David Hanania Pinto]

Where is the Shechina Now?

Unknown Photographer

"Yeisei V'Lo Achminei" - let Moshiach come but do not let me be alive to see him [Sanhedrin 98b].

Rebbi Yochanan said that he'd give up the privilege of greeting Moshiach in order to avoid living through the terrible days of the Ikvisa D'Mishicha. With the Geula so close at hand why will they be worse than the rest of the Galus?

Rav Yehonoson Eibshitz says that since the Shechina is with us in the Galus we are protected. However at the end of the Galus when it is time for us to return to Eretz Yisroel, the Shechina will need to leave the galus and come to Eretz Yisroel to prepare and facilitate our return. During those waning days of the Galus, we will be left on our own without protection and endless tragedies will befall us. Only then will we realize how fortunate we were to have the Shechina with us.

How does Rav Yehonoson Eibshitz know that the Shechina will return to Eretz Yisroel before us?

The pasuk [Nitzavim 30:3] says, וְשָׁב וְקִבֶּצְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים.  Chazal tell us that the word וְשָׁב, which means ''He will return'', proves that Hashem is with us in the Galus, or else it should say "V'Heishiv"- ''He will return us''. 

Rav Yehonoson Eibshitz says that we see from here that first וְשָׁב, Hashem will return to Eretz Yisroel.   Only after the groundwork is laid, וְקִבֶּצְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, will He bring us back from among the nations.

Source: Revach L'Neshama