Is Teshuvah a mitzvah? | Parshas Nitzavim

00:00 In Parshas Nitzavim, we find the verse that speaks about the mitzvah of teshuvah. The verse says: “You shall return to Hashem your G-d and listen to His voice with all your heart and with all your soul.” When the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya, Igeres Hateshuvah, chapter 1, that this is the verse from which we learn about the mitzvah of teshuvah, he says that “the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply abandoning sin.” What is the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah? Abandoning sin—leaving the sin behind. And the Alter Rebbe explains what that means: “That he resolve in his heart, wholeheartedly”—a person must make a decision in his heart, with all his heart—“never again to return to his folly”: not to go back to the foolishness and empty things he has done until now; “to rebel against the Kingdom of Heaven”: not to continue rebelling against the Kingdom of Heaven as he has until now; “and never again to transgress the King’s command”: not to go against the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu again, but to observe the King’s mitzvos, both positive and negative. He continues: “And this is the essential meaning of the word teshuvah”—this is the true meaning of the word. Teshuvah means returning: returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu “with all his heart and all his soul, to serve Him and observe all His mitzvos.” To return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with all one’s heart and soul, to serve Him and fulfill all His mitzvos. And for this he cites one of the verses, the verse

01:43 from Parshas Nitzavim: “You shall return to Hashem your G-d and listen to His voice.” This is the basis for the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah. As is well known, there is an extensive discussion among the later authorities about whether teshuvah is a mitzvah according to the Torah. When we look at the Rambam, we see that he writes only about the mitzvah of confession. Seemingly, as the Rambam’s words suggest, the mitzvah is not teshuvah at all; it is only the mitzvah of confession. The Rambam says that when a person who has sinned does teshuvah, the Torah tells him to confess. And the verse the Rambam cites is from Parshas Naso: “They shall confess the sin they have committed.” In other words, the mitzvah is confession. The plain meaning of his words suggests that the Rambam holds that teshuvah is not a mitzvah according to the Torah. Yet here we see that the Alter Rebbe explicitly writes, “the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah.” And as we will see from his words further on, the Alter Rebbe follows the Rambam’s approach. He even concludes later that, regarding what the Rambam brings in Hilchos Teshuvah, he does not bring the matter of fasts and so on, but rather the matter of forgiveness—the pardon of sins—and confession. From this we understand that the Alter Rebbe in Tanya is following the Rambam’s approach here. How do we understand this? To gain some understanding of the two approaches,

03:18 let us first understand the Rambam’s approach. There are two general ways to understand it: the approach of the Minchas Chinuch, as he interprets the Rambam, and the approach that apparently emerges here from the Alter Rebbe’s words in Igeres Hateshuvah. After that, we will explain how this is expressed in a person’s avodah. After all, “These and those are the words of the living G-d.” Since there are two ways to understand the Rambam’s approach—whether teshuvah is a mitzvah, or whether teshuvah is not a mitzvah and the mitzvah is only confession—we will explain the matter as the Rebbe explains it in a sicha. We will see how both approaches are expressed in avodah, in each person’s individual avodah. We always read Parshas Nitzavim, which contains the subject of the mitzvah of teshuvah, on the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah. Clearly, then, it has a special connection to this time, when we are in the days of teshuvah in the months of Elul and Tishrei. This is precisely when we read the parsha that deals with the mitzvah of teshuvah. Before looking at the words of the Minchas Chinuch, in which he explains the matter, let us begin with a story. It is told about one of the great tzaddikim, a student of the Baal Shem Tov, that once,

04:44 on the night of Yom Kippur, before Kol Nidrei, a tzaddik entered a shul. The shul was packed, with a large crowd there. People were sitting, each occupied with his own preparations. One was reciting the confession, as is customary before Kol Nidrei; others were saying Tehillim; others were sitting and learning, even studying a mussar text, and so on. Each was occupied with his own preparations for the great and holy day, Yom Kippur. It is told that one of the tzaddikim, among the great students of the Baal Shem Tov, entered the shul and saw that the entire congregation was busy. He went up to the bimah, banged on it, and said: “Fellow Jews, we must not forget that there is a G-d in the world.” At first glance, this is astonishing. What did he mean? Here was a whole shul full of Jews, all occupied. Each was saying something different: one was saying this, another was saying that, one was saying Tehillim, and another was occupied with teshuvah. Everyone was busy with holy things. What did he mean by “Don’t forget that there is a G-d in the world”? He wanted to emphasize that sometimes, when people are occupied with teshuvah, they are so busy, so rushed, and so absorbed in details and minute details on the side—or even in details that are not peripheral, but central and important—that they forget the main point. That is why he said: “We must not forget that there is a G-d in the world.”

06:19 With this understanding of the story, we can now introduce the subject of the mitzvah of teshuvah. The Minchas Chinuch says that, in fact, there is no mitzvah in the act of teshuvah itself. Teshuvah itself is not a commandment, because it is left to a person’s choice. Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not command a person to do teshuvah. A person has committed sins and, G-d forbid, become disconnected from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Even then, there is no command to do teshuvah. Rather, if a person wants to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and freely chooses to regret the wrong he has done and return to Him, the Torah then says: When you want to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, you must know that there is a particular way to do so, and that is the mitzvah. You must do it through confession and regret for the sin. A simple example he gives is the mitzvah of divorce, a get. The Torah sets out the laws of a get, but, G-d forbid, there is no mitzvah to get divorced. The mitzvah is that if a man wants to separate, wants to divorce his wife, and that is his choice—and the Gemara discusses this at the end of Tractate Gittin—then, when he wants to divorce, the Torah says that he must do it in a particular way: by writing a get. That is where the mitzvah of divorce comes in. The same is true here.

07:57 The Torah does not command teshuvah. Teshuvah is left to a person’s choice. Once a person has freely decided that he does want to do teshuvah, the Torah says he must do it through confession. So teshuvah is not the mitzvah; confession is the mitzvah. That is the approach of the Minchas Chinuch. But the Rebbe says that according to the Rambam, teshuvah is the mitzvah, and this is clear from his precise wording. Look at the Rambam’s words in the introduction to Hilchos Teshuvah: “One positive mitzvah: that the sinner return from his sin before Hashem and confess.” He does not write, “When he wishes to return, he should confess,” or anything like that. He writes, “That the sinner return ... and confess.” So clearly, “that the sinner return” is also part of the commandment. If so, one might ask: Why does the Rambam list the verses and discuss the aspects of confession? The answer is simple. According to the Rambam, the mitzvah of teshuvah has two parts. There is the feeling in the heart: the decision to abandon sin, regret for the past, and a commitment for the future. The main point of that commitment for the future, as we will understand later, is the decision not to transgress the King’s commands. This is the essence of teshuvah—teshuvah in the heart. Then there is the speech involved in teshuvah: when a person expresses it in words, he confesses his sins. The Rambam’s rule is that when a mitzvah consists of two parts, only the part involving an action is counted in the enumeration of mitzvos. An example is the mitzvah of prayer. As is well known, the Rambam holds that prayer is a mitzvah from the Torah, as stated in Hilchos Tefillah. The mitzvah of prayer consists of two elements. That is another [unclear].

10:01 “And you shall serve”—the service of the heart is prayer, standing before the King, and so on. The Rambam himself writes that this is the intent required in prayer, and that the mitzvah is to pray, not merely to say the words. It is one mitzvah made up of two parts. When counting the mitzvos, the part involving action is counted, because the primary emphasis in Torah and mitzvos is on the act of the mitzvah. With prayer, that means the spoken words. Although the mitzvah also includes intent, it is the speech that is counted. As we saw with teshuvah, there too, there is a mitzvah of teshuvah in its own right. But because speech is also required, the Rambam counts the spoken part and cites a verse about confession. The Alter Rebbe, however, explains that the mitzvah of teshuvah is from the Torah. But what is the mitzvah of teshuvah? What exactly is it? What does the verse say? “You shall return to Hashem your G-d and heed His voice.” One must return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What defines the mitzvah of teshuvah? Here the Alter Rebbe offers a tremendous, remarkable insight into the mitzvah of teshuvah—its innermost, essential point. When we examine teshuvah, we find that the Rambam, and later works on teshuvah as well, such as Rabbeinu Yonah’s Shaarei Teshuvah and the Meiri’s Chibbur Hateshuvah, discuss many aspects of it at length. Teshuvah has many stages. Shaarei Teshuvah, for example, lists twenty elements of teshuvah. That is a great many. The Alter Rebbe comes and teaches that there is one point that is the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah. This is what he says in Tanya: What is the essence of the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah, even before confession?

12:11 Confession, as we said, brings teshuvah into words, into speech. That is part of the whole process. But what is the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah? The Alter Rebbe says: The mitzvah of teshuvah is what the verse says, “You shall return to Hashem your G-d and heed His voice.” What do those words mean? Quite simply: to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A person has committed sins. Perhaps he committed one particular sin, [unclear], or perhaps he committed many sins. But when we speak about teshuvah, the first thing, the main point, is “You shall return to Hashem.” The root of every sin a person commits is one thing alone: rebellion against the kingdom of Heaven. With kabbolas ol of the kingdom of Heaven, a person submits and gives himself over: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is your King, and you are His servant. He therefore accepts the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven upon himself. Then he accepts the yoke of the mitzvos—to fulfill the King’s commands and not violate His decrees. But when he loses that attitude of kabbolas ol of the kingdom of Heaven, that is where it all begins. And so, even in a single sin, that point of rebellion against the King is present.

13:39 That is the rebellion against the King. A person should not say, “I have only one small sin; I did [unclear], just one sin,” and therefore think it is no great matter. There is also the opposite extreme: another person says, “I have very many sins, two hundred or three hundred. I can no longer do teshuvah; I am completely lost.” In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells both people—the one who thinks he committed only one sin and makes light of it, and the one who committed many sins and finds it difficult, thinking his situation is [unclear]—that they must know: teshuvah comes down to one single point. What is the mitzvah of teshuvah? Simply, “You shall return.” He is not speaking about the details, but about the first thing: remember that you turned your back on Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Remember that you have a King, the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that He is your King and you are His servant. That is the essence of teshuvah. This is what the Torah says in Parshas Nitzavim: “You shall return to Hashem your G-d.” A Jew must return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The first thing is to accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven upon himself; that is the essence of teshuvah. Afterward come the details of teshuvah: there must be confession, a request for forgiveness, and one must...

14:55 ...address the specific things that still need to be rectified, including atonement, as the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain in detail in Tanya. But what is the mitzvah of teshuvah itself, its essence? What is the main point? And what does “You shall return to Hashem your G-d” mean? The Mitteler Rebbe has a beautiful interpretation in the book Derech Chaim. Derech Chaim is a book the Mitteler Rebbe wrote, alongside Shaarei Teshuvah, as part of Shaarei Teshuvah. These are two volumes, two books by the Mitteler Rebbe: one is called Shaarei Teshuvah, and the other is Derech Chaim. It too is called Shaarei Teshuvah, [unclear]. In any case, Derech Chaim is a very incisive book. It discusses teshuvah, the service of Hashem and its details at length, going deep, deep into the soul. It shows how the service of teshuvah should proceed. It is a very powerful, incisive book, focused on practical spiritual work. There the Mitteler Rebbe offers an interpretation of the verse, “Fools, because of the path of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.” That is what the verse says in Psalm 107. “Fools, because of the path of their transgression”—people who have become entangled because of all the sins they committed, and therefore take fasts and acts of self-denial upon themselves: “because of their iniquities, they are afflicted.” They cause themselves suffering and practice self-denial because of the sins they committed. But the Mitteler Rebbe explains its inner meaning differently. What is the verse telling a person?

16:21 It tells Jews: “Fools”—do not be foolish. What does that mean here? It does not mean merely that they are unintelligent. “Because of the path of their transgression”—consider the path, the root, the reason you came to commit that transgression. It is casting off the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. That is where a person’s failure in any transgression begins. It is the path that led to the transgression. And what are you doing? Instead of correcting the path that led to the transgression—the root, the cause of the sins, which is what teshuvah is about—you turn to fasts and acts of self-denial: “because of their iniquities, they are afflicted.” You take fasts and acts of self-denial upon yourself and do all these things, but it is not teshuvah at all if you have not addressed its essence. That is the verse’s complaint to the Jew who does many things as part of teshuvah but has forgotten the essence, the path that led to it all. This is the point the Alter Rebbe teaches in Tanya, and it explains the order of the words in the parsha: “You shall return to Hashem your G-d.” The mitzvah of teshuvah is simply that a person must return. And this [unclear]: the meaning of the word teshuvah is very simple. It is not, as some explain, a matter of regret. Rather, the meaning of teshuvah, the true meaning...

17:47 ...of teshuvah, its essence, is to return—to go back and accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven upon oneself. Because a Jew, at heart, is someone who accepts that yoke. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, in Likkutei Amarim, that every Jew naturally accepts the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. No Jew naturally wants to rebel against the King. This is ingrained in a Jew’s nature, inherited from our ancestors. What happened, then? He stumbled and rebelled against the King, and teshuvah means returning to Hashem—coming back and accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven upon himself again. That is the essence of teshuvah, and that is the Alter Rebbe’s approach. But as we said, since “both these and those are the words of the living G-d,” there is also the Minchas Chinuch’s explanation [unclear]. In particular, some of those who enumerate the mitzvos do not count the mitzvah of teshuvah among their 613 mitzvos at all: Rav Saadiah Gaon, the author of Halachos Gedolos, known as the Behag, and several others. They include neither the mitzvah of teshuvah nor the mitzvah of confession in their lists. This calls for an explanation. One could wonder about it, and there is room to explain that teshuvah is not a mitzvah at all. But here comes a remarkable idea that the Rebbe explains, based on what [unclear]: sometimes, precisely something that is not a mitzvah expresses a far deeper bond between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu than a mitzvah does. For example:

19:21 We find something remarkable concerning the joy of Simchas Beis Hashoeivah and the joy of the hakafos. On Yom Tov there is a Torah mitzvah to rejoice: “Festivals for rejoicing,” “And you shall rejoice on your festival.” So on Sukkos there is the mitzvah of “And you shall rejoice on your festival.” Then there is an additional joy instituted by the Sages—Simchas Beis Hashoeivah. It is not a Torah commandment. [unclear] the Rambam [unclear], but the main joy of Simchas Beis Hashoeivah is rabbinic, and this is [unclear], as the Gemara says in Tractate Sukkah. Then there is a third matter, the joy of the hakafos, which is not even a rabbinic commandment; it is a custom. The Shulchan Aruch, too, mentions the custom of rejoicing on Simchas Torah. [unclear] the mitzvah, the joy of Yom Tov, and Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, followed by the joy of the hakafos—which is an even greater joy. How can that be? [unclear] Precisely when it is not a mitzvah, when a person has not been commanded to do it but it comes from within, something deeper can be revealed. [unclear] When one does it by choice—

21:03 One does it by choice. This, of course, [unclear]. When it is a mitzvah, a person is commanded to do it. But when it is not a mitzvah, when it is left to a person’s choice, [unclear]. A person does it of his own will and out of his own delight. It is rooted in the very essence of the soul, in one’s being; it is an intrinsic desire. As is well known, the Baal Shem Tov’s analogy is cited concerning the difference between a mitzvah and a custom. The Baal Shem Tov explains it in terms of the relationship between a husband and wife: If she is told to do something, she does it because she has to. But when she does it on her own, it shows a deeper bond—an inner, essential bond. [unclear] Precisely when it comes from her, it shows the true bond between them. Similarly, a custom has an advantage over a mitzvah. Rejoicing on Yom Tov is a mitzvah; the Torah commanded us to do it. [unclear] But we were not commanded to rejoice at the hakafos, on Simchas Torah. [unclear] This expresses a person’s true bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The same applies to teshuvah: It is precisely because teshuvah is not a mitzvah that it reveals a person’s true bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That a Jew—

23:00 Wants [unclear] from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And when there is the call, “Return to Me,” even the command itself comes from within; [unclear] when it comes to a Jew’s choice, he wants to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is something very interesting here: In Hilchos Teshuvah, the Rambam discusses free choice in all its details. Why are the two entire chapters in which the Rambam deals with choice found specifically in Hilchos Teshuvah? In light of what we have said, it is straightforward: Teshuvah reveals a person’s choice. Of his own accord, he wants to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and be one with Him. This also explains [unclear]. When the time of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur arrives, and the month of Elul in general, a Jew must know that the heart of teshuvah is accepting the yoke of Heaven. This is what the maamarim of Chassidus say: In the month of Elul, a Jew must go out to greet the King in the field. That is what going out to greet the King in the field means. [unclear] This is its meaning, and this is the way to accept the yoke of Heaven; this is the very essence of teshuvah. And from this we know that the King receives everyone graciously. When a Jew [unclear] the transgression, [unclear] the Jew’s relationship with the Master of the Universe. Accordingly, the King receives him graciously and shows him a smiling face. From there we enter the Ten Days of Teshuvah. The central theme of Rosh Hashanah, too, is accepting the yoke of Heaven. And the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in the Rosh Hashanah maamarim that the main avodah of Rosh Hashanah is—

24:38 For a Jew to accept the yoke of Heaven with delight and love. Especially when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, and Shabbos is a time of delight and rest, accepting the yoke of Heaven is also done with delight, love, and joy. This then extends throughout the year, making it such a year: a year of teshuvah with love, a year of teshuvah with joy, a year of joy, a year of rest, a year of Shabbos, a year of delight. And through this, may we soon merit the complete Geulah, when the days of “a day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for everlasting life” will come.