Teshuva (repentance) has two main elements[1];
1) "Departing from the sin."[2] 2) Admitting the sin before Hashem (G-d). The best way to truly understand these two concepts is to delve into the Rambam's explanation regarding this Mitzvah of Repentance, yet we can explain a tiny, minuscule, minute element of these two elements in terms of doing teshuva by getting organized. For example, when a person wants to organize their closet they look at the current state of their messy closet, they envision what they want their closet to look like so it will be more organized, and they begin to organize it. Depending on the size of the closet this process can take an hour, a day, a week, or even years yet by working to organize the messiness in effect this person departs little by little from the messiness since they admit their closet is disorganization. By organizing our time, our relationships, our speech, our thoughts, etc. we clean up the messiness found there and thus we do teshuva (we repent). The main mistake is that people approach this process extremely systematically and do not take into account that real organization is a best done in a deep form of meditation as Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z"l[3] explains, "Meditation as a controlled manner of thinking. On the simplest level, you can decide to sit down for the next half hour and just think about…rearranging your furniture. In your mind's eye, you might imagine how various arrangements would look and even plan how to move the heavier pieces. During that half hour, you will have been meditation on furniture arrangements." But we can take this "organization meditation" to a much more meaningful place, "suppose you decide to spend a half hour meditating on how to rearrange your life…" suppose you decide to spend a half hour meditating on how to do teshuva (to repent), suppose you spend a half hour meditating on how to organize your life to return to Hashem (G-d)… Shalom, Reb Matisyahu Manin NOTES: [1] הלכות תשבוה פרק א הלכה א [2] פירוש רמב''ם המאיר הלכות תשובה פרק א הלכה א עמוד ז [3] Jewish Mediation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Chapter 3 Techniques p. 16. 1985., Schocken Books Inc.
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Why do we blow the Shofar during Elul? How does it prepare us for Rosh HaShana?
Once there were two friends, Meir and Shimon traveling by boat from one country to another. During the long journey, the boat docked on an island and the captain told the passengers, "You have a few hours to rest and relax on the land before our boat needs to load up and continue on its journey." The captain warned everyone, "I am going to sound the ships loud horn three times. The first time is for everyone to begin coming back to the boat, the second time is for everyone to make sure they get on the boat, and the third time is to let everyone know the boat is leaving the dock and continuing the journey." Meir and Shimon got off the boat and found a kosher inn where they could eat and rest without the rocking of the boat at sea. However, Meir kept a ear out for the ship's load horn and Shimon did not feel like he had anything to worry about. All of a sudden the ship's horn sounded and Meir jumped out of bed! Shimon he called, we have to get ready to board the ship, the first horn has sounded. Shimon kept sleeping and enjoying his rest on dry land. Meir prepared his things and when the second blast of the ship's horn sounded Meir told Shimon, "I am going back to boat now! We cannot take any chances to miss the boat!" Shimon calmly replied, "I am not worried, I still have one more horn before the ship takes off. I am going to rest a little longer." Meir took off and boarded the ship and when the third blast of the ship's horn sounded, Shimon was racing towards the dock but the ship had already headed off to sea. Rosh HaShana is the day of judgment since Hashem (G-d) judges the entire World on Rosh HaShana. Now is our chance to wake up from our "slumber" by doing teshuva (repentance) and get "on the boat" by improving our thoughts speech and actions so that we come to Rosh HaShana full of repentance and good deeds. Good Shabbos! |
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