Tshuva (1)

Hashem is also obligated to return....

Tshuva (Repentance 1)

The Ohale Ya’akov wrote something very unusual about tshuva that I thought I would share with you. This is my own translation, so all errors are mine.

The Ramban in parasha Netzavim wrote on the verse “for this mitzvah that I command you this day is not difficult for you to apprehend…” This mitzvah that I command you refers to tshuva, as it is written (in parshat Nitzavim) “and you shall return to your heart and return close to Hashem your God” - it is written as a mitzvah we are commanded to do. And it is brought down in the Talmud Yerushalmi (Tractate Rosh Hashana, 1:3) that the way the world works is that if a flesh and blood king makes a decree it is because he wants to follow it and he wants others to follow it. But Hashem is not like that: rather, He makes a decree and follows it (Himself). Accordingly, if tshuva is a mitzvah as the Ramban asserts, also Hashem is obligated to it. The tshuva of Yisrael is commanded “and return close to you God,” and in the book of Malachi it is written: “return to Me and I shall return to you.” So the dispute between Yisrael and Hashem that is brought at the end of Eicha Rabati (a collections of interpretations and midrashim on the book of Eicha) is that the congregation of Yisrael turns to Hashem and says, “this is Your mitzvah,” i.e. - it falls upon you first to do it, and Hashem answers “no, the mitzvah is yours - you first!”

[after explaining a bit more on this “dispute,” the Olahe Ya’akov continues]

…. and there are really two stages tshuva: first is to recognize that one has done wrong and to regret it in one’s heart and then to translated that into action. “You should return to your heart” refers to recognition and regret. And “return” refers to adapting one’s deeds.

So, Hashem has already done the first part of tshuva (recognition and regret), as it’s said in Tractate Sukot 42b: Rav Hana bar Acha said in the name of Rev, Hashem has regrets about 4 things He created: exile, the Babylonians, Ishamaelites, and the inclination to do evil. About Hashem’s regret about creating exile it is written (Isaiah 42:5) “What have I to do with this place, says Hashem, that they took my people for no reason.” Rashi writes “What have I to do with this place” implies regret. He writes elsewhere, “why have I planted and settled my people Israel here.”

But we need to understand why it says “for no reason.” After all, the people sinned! But it can be explained according to the Seer of Kovnitz (may his memory be blessed), and these are his words: “Our Father Our King, raise up the horn of Yisrael Your people.” And it is taught in Tractate Pesahim (87b) “the only reason Hashem exiled Yisrael among the nations was in order to attract converts. The Holy one Blessed Be He in this sense wanted to profit from Yisrael’s exile. But actually we see that the Holy One Blessed be He is not only not profiting, but rather the “principle” is endangered: persecutions from one side and assimilation from the other, that both endanger the existence of our people. Therefore we pray: “Our Father Our King, raise up the horn of Yisrael Your people.” (the same word is used for horn and principle), quickly save the “principle” because the idea of making a “profit” here has gone bust. Therefore it is plain to see that the first aspect of tshuva - recognition and regret - Hashem has already fulfilled - but so has Yisrael, many of whom have understood that the way of assimilation is no good - and of the others of our people, one must look at them with understanding. Persecutions and the eclipse of Your presence have alienated them from emuna (faith), as we learn in the teaching of R. Elazar ben Azariah who said that I can excuse the entire world from harsh judgement from the moment that the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed to this very day. So it is only fitting that Hashem should go first and carry out the second phase of tshuva, tshuva through action, and return to us and save us speedily. Hash knows well that when His will is revealed, that all Yisrael will return to Him immediately with a full heart.

This was most likely written in 1939, before the curtain fell on the Jews of Europe, nine years before the creation of the State of Israel. Indeed, very little of the “principle” was saved, and when Hashem revealed His will to save with the creation of Israel, there was no sweeping movement of return to religious Judaism. That had to wait for the “miraculous” victory of 1967, the restoration of all of Jerusalem to our nation, and the integration of the historical homeland to our people.

The idea that Hashem and Yisrael are engaged in a mutual dynamic of tshuva is, in my mind, a warming idea. Perhaps our success in our war against Hizboullah and the “Rising Lion” war against Iran, the support we’ve received from the US government have been signals of Hashem’s tshuva towards Yisrael. But it is hard, so hard to see any kind of redemption with our hostages still being held by the heartless terrorists of Hamas.

And this leap in international antisemitism! One is reminded how the Nazi attack on the Jews opened the floodgates and normalized Jew hatred and murder throughout Europe. Cruelty brought on a deeper cruelty. The attack of October 7 seems to have given permission for Jew-haters to flood the world with their desire to destroy Israel, and destroy the Jews.

Most painful has been the hatred leveled at us by our own. Certainly there have always been voices among the extreme Left in America who have attacked Israel’s existence with lies culled from Marxist ideologues and polemics of self-justification for fleeing from the idea of Jewish power and independent national life. Their howls of hatred do not surprise me. I am shocked though by the protests of Jews whom I know as involved in their people and religion, who have always seen themselves as Zionists, and who yet choose to accept the narratives of our enemies and trust in their lies. It’s one thing to read that Tucker Carlson or Megan Kelly has made wild and unsupported claims that the Jews killed Charlie Kirk or that Epstein was a Mossad agent. It’s another thing entirely to read letters from former students, educated at Ivy League schools, who accuse Israel of the age-old libel of killing children, again with no recourse to any support aside from the lies of terrorists and international organizations that have proved time and again their animosity to the Jewish state.

But it is as R. Elazar ben Azariah says: I can excuse the entire world from harsh judgement from the moment that the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed to this very day. We live in such difficult times - it is hard to feel connected to holiness. In this parasha, Hashem tells Moshe that after he dies, the people will start chasing after the lies of the idol worshippers among whom they live:

And my rage shall flare against them n that day and I will abandon them and I shall hide (ve’histarti) My Face from them.

And in the next verse :

I shall surely hide (haster astir) My Face on that day…

The doubled verb is for emphasis, rendered in English as “surely.” The Sfat Emet reads it as a doubled hiding. Not only will we be living in a situation where we are unable to find Hashem, we will be so alienated that we don’t even know that Hashem has hidden His Face from us. Our people will not recognize the doubled troubled truth of our distance.

What can we do aside from pray that Hashem will bring forth His tshuva first without waiting for ours, so that we can see the depth of Hashem’s love for Yisrael and the world. For thius we wait and pray, and do whatever we can to draw Hashem’s presence down to us, here on earth, suffering from hatred – from all directions.