How Does One Do Teshuvah? - The Revolution of Chassidus in the Service of Teshuvah | Rabbi Asher Perkesh

00:00 Every one of us wants to do teshuvah. During these days, the days of mercy and forgiveness, as the month of Elul arrives, followed by Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, the Days of Judgment, every Jewish heart awakens. We want to feel remorse, ask forgiveness, do teshuvah, and enter the new year clean and worthy of asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu to inscribe and seal us for good, for a good and sweet year. The problem is that we don’t know exactly how to do it. When we begin thinking about teshuvah, the first thing is that there are so many details and finer points. We open books by great Torah scholars that explain and discuss teshuvah, and find so many conditions, points, details, and things we need to do that sometimes the sheer number of them leaves us confused. We don’t know what to focus on. Another thing happens when we hear the word “teshuvah”: it brings to mind remorse, pain, sorrow, bitterness, sadness, and sometimes even despair. In other words, teshuvah comes with all sorts of feelings of guilt that don’t help us feel strong or put us in the mood, with the desire, to enter into teshuvah. In general, teshuvah means sins to us; it means painful memories, things we’ve done, the dirt we’ve gotten ourselves into. It means going back into some kind of mud that takes us back to unpleasant situations we’ve lived through during the year or over the course of our lives. That doesn’t help our self-confidence or our joy in life. We end up sinking into a kind of sadness and despair, instead of teshuvah uplifting us and taking us in a new direction. The Baal Shem Tov and the teachings of Chassidus brought about a real revolution in everything to do with teshuvah. Today we’ll learn a few fundamental points

02:44 in the teachings of Chassidus that will open a window for us and give us a new perspective: a fresh, profound approach. We’ll understand, be able to focus, and know how each and every one of us can take ourselves in hand, begin a new period, make a new start, and devote ourselves to the path of teshuvah specifically with joy, as Chassidus teaches us. The Alter Rebbe addresses three misconceptions we have about teshuvah. A saying of his appears in several maamarim of Chassidus. In one place he calls it “the common misconception”: people think teshuvah is only about sins. Teshuvah is not just repentance for a sin, for sins, or for transgressions. Teshuvah is a path in serving Hashem. “And the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it.” We’ll explain that shortly. Second, it is a misconception to think that bitterness and sadness bring us closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the contrary, joy brings us closer. In other words, it’s a mistake to think teshuvah is something bitter and sad. No, teshuvah is something joyful. And the third misconception is that people translate teshuvah as remorse. The Alter Rebbe tells us in Tanya, Igeres Hateshuvah, that teshuvah is something else entirely. Of course, remorse is one detail, one part of it, but it isn’t the essence of teshuvah. The essence of teshuvah is found in the word itself: teshuvah means “to return.” What exactly does returning mean? How do we understand it? Today we’ll learn from Tanya, from the foundations of Igeres Hateshuvah that the Alter Rebbe wrote. There, in the twelve chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah, he explains the essence, the inner point, of teshuvah according to the Torah. That will give us direction and the strength to focus, and help us know how to do teshuvah. First, I want to mention something interesting that not everyone knows about Chassidus and teshuvah. We all think

05:40 of it as Chassidus, and call its followers chassidim. But not everyone knows that this name, Chassidus and chassidim, was not coined by the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, or the Alter Rebbe. In fact, the name developed over time. The Frierdiker Rebbe says in his sichos that when the Baal Shem Tov founded his approach, the approach of Chassidus, he wanted to call his group “baalei teshuvah”—people who return to Hashem. That’s because the fundamental point the Baal Shem Tov revealed to the world was teshuvah at its deepest level: essential teshuvah, which is not necessarily connected with sinners or people who have actually committed transgressions. On the contrary, among the Baal Shem Tov’s chassidim and his first disciples were great geniuses, tzaddikim, and Torah scholars. The Baal Shem Tov revealed essential teshuvah, and that is why he wanted to call the group baalei teshuvah. What exactly is teshuvah according to Chassidus? We were privileged to have the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, who were born on the same date. As we know, during these days we celebrate the birthday of the holy Baal Shem Tov, who was born on 18 Elul 5458, and of the Alter Rebbe, who was born on 18 Elul 5505. These two tzaddikim—the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidus, and the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad Chassidus—paved the way and gave us a fundamental, basic, and profound understanding of the path of teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe wrote a short work, Igeres Hateshuvah. It consists of twelve chapters. At first it was printed on its own. Later it was printed together with Tanya, and today it appears as the third part of Tanya, the foundational work of Chabad Chassidus. The overall structure of the twelve chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah

08:16 has three parts. In the first part, three chapters, the Alter Rebbe explains teshuvah according to the revealed teachings of the Torah, according to halachah. Then, from chapter four through chapter nine, the Alter Rebbe explains teshuvah through the teachings of the hidden dimension of Torah, Kabbalah, and Chassidus. He explains what are called in the hidden teachings of Torah and in Chassidus teshuvah tata’ah and teshuvah ila’ah—different levels in the service and the entire process of teshuvah. In the final three chapters, the Alter Rebbe explains joy and confidence in the service of teshuvah. Today we’ll focus primarily, first of all, on the central issue: the foundation, the basis, of the mitzvah of teshuvah. We’ll begin with halachah. What exactly is the mitzvah of teshuvah? When we look at it, we see that the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah has two parts: the act of teshuvah itself, returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the confession that accompanies teshuvah. Let’s look at the Rambam. The Rambam compiled a list of the mitzvos; he was one of the great Rishonim who set out exactly what the Torah’s 613 mitzvos are. In his work Mishneh Torah, also known as Yad Hachazakah, the Rambam lists one mitzvah. For the Rambam, the mitzvah of teshuvah is one mitzvah: confession. That’s very interesting. In the Rambam’s work, the mitzvah of teshuvah is not explicitly listed. He speaks of the mitzvah of confession. He says that when a person who has sinned returns to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he must confess. The same is true of Sefer Hachinuch, another foundational work, written by a Levite from Barcelona. It is said that he was one of the great Rishonim, a student of the Rashba. There are several opinions about exactly who he was, but Sefer Hachinuch is a well-known work, and it too follows the Rambam’s approach. The mitzvah is confession: when a person does teshuvah, he confesses. Minchas Chinuch, which is

10:56 A book that explains Sefer HaChinuch discusses at length what is going on with the mitzvah of teshuvah. Why don’t the Rambam and Sefer HaChinuch mention the mitzvah of teshuvah? He explains that, essentially, teshuvah is not a mitzvah. Teshuvah is a person’s decision. It is like the mitzvah of shechitah, slaughtering cattle or other animals. A person is not obligated to eat meat on an ordinary day. You want to eat meat? Then you have a mitzvah to slaughter the animal. Or take the laws of gittin: there is no mitzvah to get divorced. Rather, if a person wants to get divorced, the Torah tells us the process for giving a get—how to do it. The Minchas Chinuch says: This is the Rambam’s approach, and this is Sefer HaChinuch’s approach. The mitzvah is not teshuvah. Teshuvah is something left to a person’s choice. A person who sins has disconnected from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, G-d forbid. Do you want to return to Hashem? To come back? Then the Torah tells you how to do teshuvah: “They shall confess their sin.” You must confess before Hashem, ask for forgiveness and acknowledge the sin, as it says in Parshas Naso. The Rambam then explains the details in his ten wonderful chapters of Hilchos Teshuvah, which set out the particulars of teshuvah. The Ramban disagrees. In his commentary on the Torah, Rabbeinu Moshe ben Nachman disagrees with the Rambam and writes that there is explicitly a mitzvah—the mitzvah of teshuvah. The mitzvah of teshuvah is in the verse in Parshas Nitzavim. The Torah says: “And you shall return to Hashem your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.” “You shall return to Hashem your G-d” means the mitzvah of teshuvah. A Jew must return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But the Alter Rebbe offers us a wonderful insight in Tanya: the Rambam agrees too. The Rambam also holds that the mitzvah of teshuvah is a Torah mitzvah. It is not correct to say that, according to the Rambam, teshuvah is not a mitzvah. The Rambam too holds that the mitzvah of teshuvah is a Torah mitzvah. The Rambam only

13:23 adds that the mitzvah of teshuvah is actually one mitzvah made up of two parts. There is the part of teshuvah—returning to Hashem, whose essence we will explain in a moment—and there is the part of confession: when you do teshuvah, you confess. According to the Rambam, it is one mitzvah. And one of the Rambam’s principles is that when a mitzvah has two parts, we count the more practical part as the mitzvah. A simple example is the mitzvah of prayer. According to the Rambam, prayer is a Torah mitzvah. Now, prayer also has two parts: there is the service of the heart, the intention in prayer, and there is prayer itself, the words of prayer. A Jew prays, stands before Hashem, and speaks, making requests. Those are two parts of one mitzvah. So, of course, whenever a mitzvah has two parts, we count its practical part in the enumeration of the mitzvos: What am I supposed to do? That is so even though the mitzvah also includes intention and feeling, especially with mitzvos that are, by their very nature, about feeling. The same applies to the mitzvah of teshuvah. Clearly, the mitzvah’s essence is teshuvah itself—returning to Hashem. The specific act is that when a person returns to Hashem, for his teshuvah to be teshuvah according to the Torah, complete teshuvah, he must confess. That is where confession comes in. So the first question is: What exactly is the mitzvah of teshuvah itself? Here the Alter Rebbe comes, in the first chapter of Igeres Hateshuvah in Tanya, and gives us a few lines. These lines are fundamental and essential: they give us direction and focus, the ability to concentrate and understand what the essential point of teshuvah really is, so that we do not get confused by all the details we see in the books that discuss teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe tells us: “The mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply to abandon sin.” As we said, the Alter

15:56 Rebbe is speaking here according to the Rambam’s approach as well, as he makes clear later. “The mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply to abandon sin.” That is the key to understanding teshuvah. Teshuvah means abandoning sin. What does “abandoning sin” mean? They are nice words, but what do they mean in practice? The Alter Rebbe explains. Listen carefully—it is very interesting what the Rebbe is about to tell us here. The Alter Rebbe says: “That is to say”—what does abandoning sin mean? When I hear “abandoning sin,” I think, all right, I should stop committing the sin. For example, I did not give tzedakah. Fine, I will start giving tzedakah. I spoke lashon hara. I will stop speaking lashon hara. I did something wrong during the year. I will stop doing it. No. That is a mistake. What does it mean to “simply abandon sin”? The Alter Rebbe tells us: “That is to say, he must resolve in his heart, wholeheartedly, never again to return to his folly by rebelling against His blessed sovereignty.” Abandoning sin does not mean abandoning the particular sin or sins, whether there are many or few. That is not what this is about; that is not what we are discussing here. We are not talking here about the particular sins you committed. The Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah means making an inner decision, in my heart, that I will no longer rebel against His blessed sovereignty and will no longer transgress the King’s commandments, G-d forbid—whether positive commandments or prohibitions. The Alter Rebbe is telling us something wonderful here. Do you know what the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah means? To return to the source. To return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Do not look at the details yet. Of course, further on we need to correct the details. We need to correct our actions. We need to know what we did wrong and what we are supposed to do. But that is not the essence of teshuvah. The very heart of teshuvah is accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven anew. When a Jew has committed

18:21 a transgression, it could be one, it could be ten, it could be a hundred. The moment a Jew commits a sin, a transgression, the essential issue is not just that specific transgression. The heart of it, the point, is rebellion against the Kingdom of Heaven. A Jew is a servant of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is who we are. We are servants of the King. We accepted the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. A Jew is a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that is our essence. The moment we commit a sin, it means we have cast off the King’s yoke. Casting off the yoke, rebelling against His sovereignty—that is the point. That is the root of sin. When I do teshuvah, what does teshuvah mean? To return—to come back to the King, to accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven upon myself again. And if we think about it, that is the literal meaning of the word teshuvah. That is what the Alter Rebbe goes on to say: “And this is the primary meaning of the term teshuvah: to return to Hashem with all one’s heart and all one’s soul, to serve Him and keep all His commandments.” The Alter Rebbe says: Think for a moment. Translating the word teshuvah does not take much. What does the word mean? It means to return to Hashem. Returning to Hashem means accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. People commonly translate it—as we said earlier, this is a common mistake—as regret. Even in different languages, when people say teshuvah in English, they say “repentance.” Other languages use the equivalent term. But regret is not the right translation. Regret is repentance. The essential meaning of the word teshuvah is to return. What does it mean to return? I had, so to speak, disconnected; I had distanced myself from the King and cast off the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. A Jew, in his essence, is a servant of Hashem. That is his nature; that is his essence. At the Giving of the Torah, all of us, the Jewish people, said, “We will do and we will listen.” We accepted the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the essence of a Jew.

20:51 I threw off the yoke of Heaven’s kingship. That is the sin: rebellion against the King. Teshuvah means returning, taking upon myself once again the yoke of Heaven’s kingship. So, at its core, teshuvah is one single point. The mitzvah of teshuvah in the Torah is one single point: returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, accepting anew the yoke of Heaven’s kingship. There is another interesting thing. When we think about the word teshuvah, it means not only returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Chassidus emphasizes another point as well: returning to my own true self. When we say teshuvah, “return,” there is the aspect of returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, returning to the King. There is also the sense of returning to who I really am. In other words, when I say teshuvah, I am saying that I do not need to start down some new path. If you call it “regret,” it sounds as though I was headed in a certain direction, going down the wrong road. I spent my whole life on the wrong path; now I regret it and must begin a new one. A person drives and drives along a road, and suddenly realizes he is not on the right road at all, not in the right lane. He has to start all over. That is a mistake. Teshuvah means returning. A Jew’s essential self is, as the Alter Rebbe explained in the first part of Tanya, Likkutei Amarim, “an actual part of G-d above.” In the following chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah, the Alter Rebbe explains this wonderfully. In chapter 4: What is a Jew? “Hashem’s portion is His people.” The Jew’s soul is part of Hashem’s name, part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak. Yud, hei, vav, hei—the four

23:05 letters are engraved in the soul, the body, the heart, and the mind of every Jew. The four letters of Hashem’s name—his wisdom, his understanding, his feelings, his actions—are all present within a person. He is, in essence, a part of G-d above, and that is my true self. I have grown distant from myself. Teshuvah means coming back. Return to your natural self; return to who you really are. You do not need to become someone new, just return to being who you truly are. When we hear it this way, teshuvah is something refreshing, joyful, uplifting. Because what we are doing in the process of teshuvah is returning to our own true selves. The king’s son, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, is always, in essence, together with the King. “Even at the time of the sin, it remained faithful to Him, blessed be He,” the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, chapter 24. Even when a person is sinning, his soul is always with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The soul is not interested; it does not want this. It cries. It does not want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that is why feelings of regret awaken in a person. He does not want to be there; he wants to return. So the moment the desire to return in teshuvah awakens within me, accepting the yoke of Heaven’s kingship means returning and reuniting with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a king’s son who was in captivity, in prison, and comes home to his father the King. There is no greater joy than that: the son’s joy at returning to his father the King, and even more, the father’s joy that his son has come home to him. That joy is the greatest joy. And so the Rebbe says: all his days in teshuvah, and all his days in joy. There are two teachings of our Sages that, at first glance, seem hard to reconcile. Our Sages say a person should spend all his days in teshuvah. Rabbi Eliezer the Great, Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenus—the Gemara relates that his students came to him and asked him... He was speaking to them. Rabbi, he

25:32 said to them: “Repent one day before your death.” A person, it says in Pirkei Avos—Rabbi Eliezer says a person should do teshuvah one day before he leaves this world. His students asked him: “Repent one day before your death? But a person does not know when he will die.” He told them: Exactly. Spend all your days in teshuvah. That is one teaching of our Sages. A Jew should spend all his days in teshuvah. The second teaching says he should spend all his days in joy: “Serve Hashem with joy.” Serving Hashem is constant, all day long. A Jew should always be joyful. So how do we bring these two things together? This is exactly the explanation. True teshuvah is the greatest joy—the joy of teshuvah. If we think about it a little and spell out the details, there are several aspects to this. What, exactly, is the joy of teshuvah? One point is the mitzvah itself. Every mitzvah brings joy. A mitzvah is a connection. Every mitzvah connects me to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When a Jew performs a mitzvah, he does it with joy. The greatest joy is that I can draw close to Hashem. Teshuvah is one of the mitzvos, so we should do it with joy. Second, teshuvah is not just another mitzvah. It is a mitzvah that repairs all the mitzvos I did not do, or did not do properly. This mitzvah has the power to atone, to repair, to make up for everything I did not do well. So, among the mitzvos, it is a mitzvah that encompasses all the others. The joy is even greater. And the third point is what we said: the king’s son returning to his father the King. When I emerge from darkness into light, from gloom into brightness, that is the greatest joy possible. That is the joy of teshuvah. And this is what the Alter Rebbe tells us: not as people mistakenly think, that one draws close through bitterness; one draws close through joy. When a Jew contemplates the true nature of teshuvah, tremendous joy awakens in his heart. The Alter Rebbe explains this in the final chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah. So what do we discover here? The essential point of the work of teshuvah—what we need to do during these days, when we speak of the month of Elul as a time for teshuvah, a time for taking stock of ourselves—the essential point of teshuvah, the work we need to focus and concentrate on, is to accept anew the yoke of Heaven’s kingship. That is why Chassidus speaks constantly about the inner work of these days, the days of Rosh Hashanah, as crowning the King. In fact, it is written in the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah 16: Rav Yitzchak said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “Recite Malchiyos before Me on Rosh Hashanah so that you will make Me King over you.” On Rosh Hashanah, a Jew makes Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over himself, over the Jewish people, and over the world. Crowning the King is the essence of teshuvah: accepting the yoke of Heaven’s kingship. And really, all the work of Elul begins as the Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah, in the maamar “Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li”—“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” whose initials spell Elul. In the month of Elul, the King goes out into the field and the people go out to greet the King there. This is, in essence, accepting the yoke of Heaven’s kingship: greeting the King. And the King receives each and every person graciously and shows them a smiling face. That is the point of greeting the King: we receive the King, accept Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King over us, and devote ourselves to Him as the King’s servants. The King receives us and accepts our kabbolas ol with great joy and a gracious face. So this comes with tremendous joy, and from there we enter Rosh Hashanah, the day of crowning the King, and everything that follows.

27:41 Contrary to the common misconception that bitterness brings us closer, it is joy that brings us closer. When a Jew reflects on the true essence of teshuvah, tremendous joy awakens in his heart. This is what the Alter Rebbe explains in the final chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah. So what are we discovering here? The essential point of the work of teshuvah—what we need to do during these days that we call the month of Elul, a time for teshuvah and soul-searching, and where we need to focus our efforts—is to accept the yoke of Heaven upon ourselves anew. That is why Chassidus speaks so often about the inner work of these days, the days of Rosh Hashanah, as the coronation of the King. This is stated in the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah 16: Rav Yitzchak said, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: ‘Recite verses of kingship before Me on Rosh Hashanah so that you will make Me King over you.’” On Rosh Hashanah, a Jew makes Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over himself, over the Jewish people, and over the world. Coronating the King is the essential point of teshuvah: accepting the yoke of Heaven upon ourselves. In fact, all the work of Elul begins, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah, in the maamar “Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li”—whose initial letters spell Elul—with the King going out into the field during the month of Elul and the people going out to greet the King there. That is really the idea of accepting the yoke of Heaven: greeting the King. The King receives each person graciously and shows them a smiling face. That is the point of greeting the King: we accept the King, we accept Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King over us, and we devote ourselves to Him as the King’s servants. The King receives us and accepts our kabbolas ol with great joy and a gracious expression. So this comes with tremendous joy, and from there we enter Rosh Hashanah, the day of the King’s coronation, and everything that follows...

29:56 The month of Tishrei is really a process: from day to day, we go deeper and deeper. We accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven upon ourselves with awe and self-nullification, because accepting a king means awe and self-nullification. “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself”—so that his awe will be upon you. Alongside that comes tremendous joy that we have merited to be servants of the King. That joy keeps growing and bursting forth, until on the night after Yom Kippur we break into a dance. Then come the days of Sukkos, “the season of our rejoicing,” culminating in the boundless joy of Simchas Torah. So that is the process of these days: accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven upon ourselves anew. Of course, after that general acceptance, we have to bring it down into the details. That is what comes next: the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, “For the sin we have committed,” “We have been guilty, we have betrayed,” asking forgiveness for the past, regret and a commitment for the future. A person must take on practical commitments in every detail. But the essence of teshuvah is accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. The last thing we need to understand is the subject of confession. From what we have explained, this is the essence of teshuvah. So why do we say that the mitzvah of teshuvah—particularly according to the Rambam, who emphasizes confession—places such importance on confession specifically? A few words about confession. The Tzemach Tzedek explains in Derech Mitzvosecha, a wonderful book that explains the Torah’s mitzvos through Kabbalah and Chassidus, why, besides returning to Hashem through teshuvah itself, we also need to confess aloud, in speech. Interestingly, we always confess in alphabetical order: “We have been guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed, we have spoken…” We follow the order of the alef-beis. The “For the sin” confession we say on Yom Kippur also follows the order of the alef-beis. What is the meaning of that?

32:05 What is going on here? The Tzemach Tzedek says this: When a person commits a transgression or sins, there are two things involved. There is the act of the sin, and there is the feeling, the vitality, the pleasure he had at the time. Every sin is, in effect, made up of a body and a soul. The act is the body; the soul is the pleasure, vitality and excitement he felt while sinning. Every sin creates a blemish—it creates, what shall we call it, an accuser. Something comes into being through the sin, through the act and the intent, the body and the soul. When a Jew does teshuvah, he erases, purifies and removes what came from the past. Through genuine teshuvah, deliberate sins become merits. So through teshuvah we need to erase both the body and the soul of the sin. This is what the Tzemach Tzedek says: Teshuvah itself—the return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, when a Jew returns to Him, regrets the past, abandons the sin, resolves for the future and accepts the Kingdom of Heaven upon himself with enthusiasm and joy—the vitality in that teshuvah is what, so to speak, kills and nullifies the negative vitality and excitement he had at the time of the sin. That is the soul of the sin. But to erase the body as well, the physical part—a person did something in the world, soiled something, harmed something in the actual world—for that we need confession. Speech is an action. The Gemara says that speech is a minor action. It is a small action: you move your tongue. In His great mercy, Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells us, “I am not asking you for a major action.” The movements you make with your mouth are enough of an action. And you say the confession in the order of the alef-beis. After all, the alef-beis is the basis of creation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world with the letters of the Holy Tongue; the world was created through ten utterances. When a person, through his speech, follows the order

34:19 of the alef-beis as he confesses and says, “I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have rebelled,” he also erases the body of the sin. Then he is left clean and comes before Hakadosh Boruch Hu clean, refined and pure, confident and assured of a good, sweet year. And indeed, action is the main thing, as we said earlier. Contrary to the common misconception, teshuvah is not only about sins. As we have now explained, teshuvah is not just a matter connected with sin and wrongdoing. Teshuvah is really a way of life, as we said: “And the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it.” The work of teshuvah means returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Whether a person has sinned or has not sinned, has sinned a great deal or a little—that is not really the point here. The point of teshuvah is to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to return to my true self. That is work for all of us throughout our lives. However close a person comes, he can always come closer and closer still. “And the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it”: drawing close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, returning to the source. The Alter Rebbe explains this at length in Igeres Hateshuvah: the essence of teshuvah—what is called teshuvah ila’ah, the higher teshuvah—is that the soul returns to its most essential, innermost, deepest bond, cleaving to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the greatest closeness through Torah study, the service of davening and the fulfillment of mitzvos. That bond is infinite; that is true teshuvah. “And the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it”—returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and drawing closer and closer to Him. It is in this teshuvah specifically that the joy is greatest. This is the joy we build day by day during this season, until we reach the great and complete joy of Simchas Torah. So may each and every one of us make the most of these great days, the days of mercy and forgiveness, and draw close to the King. And now,

36:34 in the month of Elul, as we said, the King is in the field. That means He is close to each and every person, wherever they are and whatever their state, and it is easier to draw close to Him. And not only that—He receives us with a welcoming countenance. May we merit to make the most of these great days, to draw close to the King and accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven upon ourselves anew, with the power of teshuvah. Then we will truly merit that Hakadosh Boruch Hu bless each and every one of us with a good inscription and sealing, a good and sweet year. May the coming year, which begins on Shabbos—Shabbos is also connected with teshuvah; the letters of Shabbos spell tashuv, “return,” as explained in Kabbalah and Chassidus—be a Shabbos of teshuvah, a year of Shabbos, a year of teshuvah, a year of rest, a year of delight, a year of joy and of the joy of the complete Geulah, in the days of Moshiach Tzidkeinu.