Vayeilech
Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30
Hosea 14:2-10, Joel 2:15-27, Micha 7:18-20
Super Bowl Sunday is a good example of a day whose event defines it. The press coverage leading up to it is intense, people talk by the water cooler for at least a week prior, predicting the outcome, and the day is named after it. It isn’t just any other Sunday; it is Super Bowl Sunday.
Thanksgiving as well: If asked upon returning to work how Thanksgiving went, we know that the question refers to that particular fourth Thursday in November and its festive (and probably overstuffed) meal.
There are few Saturdays in the Jewish calendar that have a special name, but the one in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is one of them. It is called “Shabbat Shuvah,” the Shabbat of return. In thinking about the title of the special weekend, many questions arise: Who is returning, from where, and to what?
An easy link can be made to major concepts at the heart of the High Holy Days and this time of year, the themes of “chet” and “teshuvah” (same root word as “shuvah”). These terms are often translated into English as “sin” and “repentance” respectively, but those terms hardly capture the meaning of the Hebrew. Rather, these poor translations often muddy the issues further by introducing foreign overtones that are heavily laden with guilt and a sense that we are bad and need to be especially contrite as we beg for undeserved mercy.
In Hebrew, the term “chet” means to miss the mark or target, and “teshuvah” means return. As we shoot repeatedly at targets through our lifetimes, we inevitably fail and our shots go astray. We even lose sight of where we intend to aim. It is at that time that we refocus, returning our shots to the center of the bull’s-eye where they belong. In this sense, teshuvah is about the return of our attention to our most important and easily forgotten endeavors, about another hope for renewed success at our deepest callings.
The missing of targets and refocusing is also a return to the basics of our existence, and thus a return to our deeper selves. It is this very process of error and subsequent fixing (tikkun) that makes us human; it serves as the purpose of our existence. Midrashic literature is replete with stories whose point is that the universe already has enough angels that follow exactly as they are commanded. HaShem created human beings so that we should live, be tempted, make mistakes and then work to fix them.
Missing the mark is a concept woven into the basic fabric and purpose of humanity. We are the dynamic aspect of creation, ever changing and improving both ourselves and the world through continuous effort. By taking time to reflect on our actions and improve them ever so slightly in the series of tiny steps called teshuvah, we return to ourselves, to our own reason for being.
There is also a substantial textual and liturgical reason for the special name of this Shabbat, one that stems from the opening words of the Haftorah reading. The text taken from the book of Hosea opens with the words “Shuvah Yisrael ad HaShem Elokecha.” This is ordinarily translated in a slightly inexact fashion, “Israel — return to HaShem your God.” Yet the late Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Schneerson (of blessed memory), translated the phrase literally to help guide the path of teshuvah: “Israel — return until HaShem is your God.”
From this perspective, teshuvah is a process of re-establishing a personal connection with the Loving Creator. It speaks of a relationship that, while frayed at times, can never be broken. We are called upon to look deep inside and outside ourselves and find a point of connection with the Divine. Every relationship needs nurturing, and includes reflection, communication, struggle and time spent as vital ingredients. This is the Shabbat of return — to our focus, to our selves and to our relationship with HaShem.
Rabbi Judah Dardik is the spiritual leader at Orthodox Beth Jacob in Oakland. He can be reached at [email protected].