Shabbos Parshas Nitzavim-Vayeilech 5786: "If your scattered ones are at the ends of the heavens, from there Hashem your G-d will gather you..." - Teshuvah and Geulah as a preparation for Rosh Hashanah

00:00 The Frierdiker Rebbe relates in a written account from 5658: When 18 Elul arrived, he went for a walk with his father. The Rebbe Rashab needed to take a walk every day for his health. That day, father and son—the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe—went walking together. As they walked through the area, they saw the forests and fields, the grasses and trees. The father, the Rebbe Rashab, became very serious. He was deep in thought, and suddenly began to speak. He said to his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe: “Look around you. You can see the fields and the forests. They are now in a state of Elul: the little blades of grass and the small trees are bent low. They stand as though forsaken and deeply ashamed. They are waiting for fresh, new life. The whole world is crying out and showing that the time has come for it to be renewed with new life—the life of Rosh Hashanah. Now is the time to do teshuvah and prepare to crown the King on Rosh Hashanah, when the life of the world will be renewed, with new life for the entire year.” Then the Rebbe Rashab continued: “I heard from Grandfather”—

01:41 He meant the Tzemach Tzedek. The Frierdiker Rebbe says: “You know, when I heard the words ‘from Grandfather,’ my whole body trembled. I can only imagine it, but apparently it was a different kind of hearing—a vision or revelation, something else—because the Rebbe Rashab was only four or five when the Tzemach Tzedek passed away. So apparently he heard this account through a revelation, a vision that came later.” In any case, here the Rebbe Rashab relates: “I heard from Grandfather.” In 5558, a hundred years earlier, it was the Saturday night of Selichos, the first night of Selichos, at the Alter Rebbe’s. A large crowd had come. The people were solemn and had gathered after midnight to recite Selichos. The Alter Rebbe, too, came out to the crowd to recite Selichos after midnight. [unclear] He was very tense, in a way that inspired awe. He was filled with fervor. He went to his usual place, where the Alter Rebbe would pray. The Tzemach Tzedek relates that he was there then, you know, as a [unclear], I think; he was a child. By my calculation, in 5558 he was only nine. The Alter Rebbe remained in a state of deep devotion for some time. The crowd was very [unclear].

03:27 Then, after that period of deep devotion, the Alter Rebbe turned to the crowd. He began to speak words of Torah in the melody in which [unclear] the Alter Rebbe would usually speak. He opened with the verse: “For it is a statute for Israel, a judgment concerning the G-d of Yaakov.” The Alter Rebbe explained: “For it is a statute for Israel”—Rosh Hashanah is the day of “a statute for Israel.” The word for “statute,” chok, is related to engraving, because this is engraved within Israel. Within the soul of every Jew, “He”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu—is engraved; “He” refers to G-d’s Essence. “For it is a statute for Israel”—the Master of the Universe Himself is engraved within the souls of Israel, in the yechidah of the soul. But at the same time, there is “a judgment concerning the G-d of Yaakov”: when Rosh Hashanah comes, there is a judgment as to how much G-dliness will be drawn down to Yaakov. It is explained in the Siddur, and cited in the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim for Rosh Hashanah, that “a judgment concerning the G-d of Yaakov” does not mean, in its simple sense, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu conducts a judgment. Rather, the judgment concerns how much G-dliness will reach Yaakov. That is, when the soul descends here below and is clothed in a body, it is judged according to its standing and condition over the past year. And according to the teshuvah a person does now, during these days, a ruling is made as to how much G-dliness he

05:07 A person can be down here in a lowly exile. And this is what the verse says, “For it is a statute for Israel”: within Jews, this is engraved deep inside. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is engraved in the yechidah of the soul. But at the same time there is “a judgment concerning the G-d of Yaakov”: how much G-dliness will be revealed, and that depends on our avodah during this time of teshuvah. The Rebbe concluded: Now, during the days of Selichos, the days of teshuvah, we can prepare for Rosh Hashanah so that we will be able to receive the “statute for Israel.” These were the words of Torah the Alter Rebbe spoke. He relates that awe and fear fell upon the crowd, and when the chazzan began reciting “Ashrei yoshvei veisecha” for Selichos, the crowd burst into deep weeping. It was a profoundly awe-inspiring recitation of Selichos, one that remained engraved in memory forever. The Rebbe Maharash told all this to the Rebbe Rashab during a walk: what he had heard from his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, about what had happened a hundred years earlier. And when the Rebbe Rashab later spoke about that walk, he said that on that day a hundred years had passed since those Selichos. He said that he heard two points here: On the one hand, there is “a statute for Israel”—one must know that a Jew is bound to this engraving, that it is engraved within him. “He,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, is engraved in his very essence,

06:42 at the level of the yechidah of the soul. But at the same time, one must remember: one must do teshuvah to bring out “a judgment concerning the G-d of Yaakov”—how much G-dliness will be drawn down to him. This relates to the parsha we read at this time, always before Rosh Hashanah. This week we read Parshas Nitzavim–Vayeilech, and Parshas Nitzavim contains the verses about teshuvah. It says: “And you will return to Hashem your G-d and listen to His voice.” The parsha speaks about teshuvah and says that through teshuvah, “Hashem your G-d will bring back your exiles and have mercy on you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples.” The verse also says: “Even if your dispersed ones are at the end of the heavens, from there Hashem your G-d will gather you, and from there He will take you.” In their plain meaning, these verses speak about the avodah of teshuvah and the Geulah that comes through it. And the Gemara says, “Israel will be redeemed only through teshuvah,” deriving this from that verse. Here the verse says, “And you will return to Hashem your G-d,” and afterward it says, “Hashem your G-d will bring back your exiles and have mercy on you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples.” This is the ingathering of the exiles that comes through the avodah of teshuvah. As the Rambam writes at the end of Hilchos Teshuvah, “The Torah has promised that, at the end of their exile, Israel will ultimately do teshuvah, and immediately they will be redeemed.” In other words, through teshuvah we will be redeemed. And the Rambam is precise in saying “the Torah has promised”: this is already a promise; it is not a command, but a promise.

08:19 [unclear] This is the time of Moshiach, the time of Geulah in the world. [unclear] Jews do teshuvah, and immediately they are redeemed. [unclear] And this is what the verse says: “And you will return to Hashem your G-d,” and afterward, “Hashem your G-d will bring back your exiles.” This is the avodah of teshuvah, particularly in the month of Elul and the month of Tishrei, during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, and through it come the Geulah and the ingathering of the exiles. [unclear] “Those lost in the land of Assyria and those banished to the land of Egypt will come, and they will bow to Hashem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.” And the verse says: “Even if your dispersed ones are at the end of the heavens.” The ingathering of the exiles is so far-reaching that even someone dispersed to the end of the heavens—from there Hashem your G-d will gather you, and from there He will take you. However distant and cast away a Jew may be, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will gather him from there together with all of Israel and bring him to the complete Geulah. [unclear] On a simple level, the question is: Why does it say “your dispersed one” in the singular? When speaking about exile, about Jews scattered and separated among all the nations, it should have been phrased in the plural. Yet here it says “your dispersed one,” in the singular. That is the question being asked. [unclear] The explanation according to Chassidus is wonderful.

10:22 When everything [unclear], the explanation in terms of avodah is that when we speak of the ingathering of exiles, we are speaking of an ingathering within a person’s own soul. And this is part of the avodah of teshuvah: when “you will return to Hashem your G-d” is fulfilled, teshuvah brings the Geulah. This is one aspect of a person’s avodah. The Rebbe even explains the word “teshuvah”: teshuvah means “the hei returns”—the Shechinah. We bring the Shechinah back from exile, and that is the purpose of the avodah of teshuvah. In other words, “you will return to Hashem your G-d”—through that return, we bring back the hei. The fact that we were cast out and scattered in exile is all part of the avodah of teshuvah. Accordingly, the verse “Hashem your G-d will bring back your exiles and have mercy on you” can be understood in terms of our inner avodah. In the avodah of Chassidus, “to Hashem your G-d” means: your G-d, the G-d of the soul, the G-dly light of the soul that is within a physical body, in exile. The soul is in exile; the Shechinah is in exile. This is “the Shechinah in exile,” because of our sins and transgressions. And specifically when a Jew does teshuvah, “Hashem your G-d will return” is fulfilled—we bring back Hashem your G-d. The soul, the power of the soul, the G-dliness within the soul, the Shechinah, emerges from exile. Of this it says, “Even if your dispersed one is at the end of the heavens, from there Hashem your G-d will gather you”—specifically from there. Even if a Jew reaches a state of being “dispersed at the end of the heavens.” The Alter Rebbe explains the meaning of “your dispersed one at the end of the heavens” in this context as follows: It refers to the multitude of a Jew’s thoughts, speech, and deeds, scattered and dispersed. And the verse also speaks of “your dispersed one.”

12:25 He is scattered. He becomes immersed in all this, involving himself in things of the opposing side, in material concerns, in worldly matters, in distracting thoughts, in a multitude of thoughts—“Many are the thoughts in a man’s heart.” This is what “your scattered one” means: someone who has been scattered and dispersed. But what are we told about this? A Jew’s entire being should be “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” As Chassidus explains, “Hear” also means “gather”—the exact opposite of being scattered, the exact opposite of dispersion. “Hear” means to gather, to bring together. “Hear, O Israel” means that he must gather all his thoughts, words, and actions, and all the powers of his soul—his intellect, emotions, will, and capacity for pleasure. He must gather his whole self, with all his powers, all his ways of expression, and all his activities in thought, speech, and action. “Hear, O Israel”—with all of these, he must devote himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” That is how a Jew should be. When a Jew invests his thoughts in earning a living, in clothing and food, in things of the opposing side and in cravings for food, and in everything those things lead to, a state of dispersion and separation arises: “your scattered one.” And this “scattered one” reaches “the end of the heavens”; he becomes utterly scattered, at the end of the world, amid many thoughts, a multitude of thoughts—“Many are the thoughts in a man’s heart.” So we are given the good news that “from there He will gather you”—specifically from there. This is the power of teshuvah: a Jew can gather together all the many thoughts and the many powers that he

13:59 has scattered among the vanities of the world. And through a movement of teshuvah—as Chassidus explains teshuvah: uprooting one’s will—he withdraws his desire from all those undesirable things and devotes himself anew to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the meaning of “return.” Teshuvah means the return of the soul. It detaches him from all those concerns and from the multitude of worldly thoughts, and brings him back to true unity. “Your scattered one,” the Rebbe says, is in the singular. The good news in this verse is that even when he has become scattered and divided among a multitude of thoughts, things of the opposing side, and all sorts of distractions, and has fallen into undesirable things, down to the lowest levels—he is still referred to in the singular. For a Jew, in his essential being, has the yechidah of the soul even while he acts this way. The yechidah of his soul always remains whole. As the Rebbe quotes in the maamar the well-known saying of the Frierdiker Rebbe: In the Haggadah we say, “One is wise, one is simple, one is wicked, and one does not know how to ask”—each one is “one.” Even the wicked son, whom the Haggadah calls “one who is wicked,” has that “one” within him: the yechidah of the soul, the essential point of the neshamah. Even when he falls, it always remains whole. A Jew, even when he falls into undesirable things, is always whole in his essential being and in the essence of his soul, and connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And because of this,

15:35 because of the yechidah of the soul that he possesses, even “if your scattered one” always remains in the singular. So the moment he makes a turn—teshuvah, the return of the soul, the movement of uprooting his will—“from there He will gather you” and “from there He will take you” come to pass. He can return to true unity. Indeed, as the well-known saying goes, “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand.” As the Rebbe said: “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand...” With one turn, one movement, in which the yechidah of his soul is revealed, he leaves the entire reality of evil behind. Not only that, it too is elevated together with him—to the point that the tzaddik, whose great stature is spoken of, cannot reach what the baal teshuvah has attained through his own work. This is the work we must do in these days, the days of Selichos, in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. As the Alter Rebbe once said, speaking about “For it is a statute for Israel”: Chassidus brings the good news that this is an engraving—the yechidah of the soul is engraved in every Jew, and within it is engraved the Essence and Being of the One. In the language of Chassidus, yechidah is a feminine form because it receives from Yachid, the One. And the Alter Rebbe cites the Baal Shem Tov, who heard from his teacher Achiya HaShiloni, that the yechidah is the Essence; it is our bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The essential bond connecting a Jew to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that is the yechidah of the soul.

17:06 And of this we say that, as with a baal teshuvah, in every state “for it is a statute for Israel” applies to him—that engraving—and this is “a judgment for the G-d of Yaakov.” In other words, the judgment determining how much G-dliness will shine for him—“for the G-d of Yaakov”—comes through the movement of teshuvah. In these days we approach Rosh Hashanah, so that we may merit that Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestow and grant a new year with new blessings, both materially and spiritually. As Chassidus explains in the second part, “statute” also refers to “Feed me my allotted bread”—bread, literal material sustenance, as quoted from the words of Agur ben Yakeh. The main judgment on Rosh Hashanah concerns material matters, and through material matters, how much material good will shine for him throughout the year. Accordingly, Chassidus divides the verse: “It is a statute for Israel” refers to physical food; and “a judgment for the G-d of Yaakov” refers to spiritual matters, the G-dliness within Yaakov. Rosh Hashanah encompasses both. And we say that when a Jew returns to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, through the movement of teshuvah that uproots his desire for the things of this world, and devotes himself anew to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with fresh vitality and renewed energy, and we crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King—“we accept upon ourselves,” “Long live the King”—the movement and the work of these days make us vessels to receive the material things, the physical

18:33 sustenance a Jew needs for the entire year. And may we also receive spiritual sustenance: the G-dliness, vitality, and sense of delight and goodness in Yiddishkeit and in serving Hashem that we will have throughout the year. The Rebbe said that we must prepare for and make use of these great days, the days we are in now. As is well known, the twelve days from Chai Elul until Rosh Hashanah correspond to the twelve months, one day for each month; each day is connected with taking stock of oneself and with teshuvah. In particular, with the teshuvah that Chassidus calls for—the return of the soul through studying the inner dimension of Torah. And the Rebbe says that in these days we must increase our study of the inner dimension of Torah, and our work in prayer as well, in order to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Through this, by creating the [unclear] and revealing the G-dliness in the soul, we will also merit the literal Geulah, as written in the parsha, in the plain meaning of the verse. As Rashi says, the verse does not say “He will bring back,” but “He will return”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself returns with them from exile. And “He has written redemption for Himself”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, “He has written redemption for Himself,” takes Himself out of exile, and together with Him He takes all the souls of Israel out of exile. As Rashi goes on to say, even more, on the verse “And you will be gathered one by one”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself takes each Jew by the hand,

19:59 brings him out of exile, and leads him to the complete Geulah. And may we merit, in this very year and in these very days, these days of the month of Elul in which we now find ourselves, when the King is in the field and receives everyone with a pleasant countenance, to see the Geulah with our physical eyes, [unclear] the literal ingathering of the exiles, and all the blessings written in the parsha. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestow abundant goodness upon us and upon all the House of Israel, a good inscription and sealing, and a good and sweet year—goodness in the plain, material sense, down here below ten handbreadths.