by Rabbi Russ Resnik

Parashat Nitzavim, Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20                                                

The entire High Holy Day season beginning with Rosh Hashanah (the evening of September 12) is a period of  repentance, as we prepare for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar (concluding the evening of September 22).

Repentance in Hebrew is teshuvah, which is based on the Hebrew root shuv, meaning turn or return. During this season we return to God, trusting that he also will return to us in mercy. In ten verses of Parashat Nitzavim, Moses describes this return by employing the root shuv seven times:

And it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you . . . and you shall return your heart . . . and return to Adonai and heed his voice . . . that Adonai will return your captivity . . . and return and gather you from all the nations where Adonai your God has scattered you. . . . And you shall return and heed the voice of Adonai . . . and Adonai will return to rejoicing over you . . . if you return to Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut. 30:1-10, my translation)

In this passage, the verb shuv has two subjects; Israel must return to the Lord, of course, but the Lord also returns to Israel. In the drama of repentance there are two returnees, God and humankind. "‘Return to me and I will return to you', says the Lord of Hosts" (Mal. 3:7).

So how are we to return to God? Maimonides, or Rambam, noted eight hundred years ago, that teshuvah involves distinct phases or components.

And how does one repent? A sinner should abandon his sinfulness, drive it from his thoughts and conclude in his heart that he will never do it again, as it says, "Let the wicked man abandon his way (Isaiah 55:7). . . . Additionally, he should regret the past, as it says: "For after I repented, I regretted (Jeremiah 31:18). . . . And let the sinner call to Him who knows all hidden things to witness that he will never return to sin that sin again. (From The Laws of Repentance by Rambam)

We may summarize these phases of return as recognition of sin, regret, restitution, and resolve.

The first of the seven "returns" in Parashat Nitzavim speaks of recognition: "[A]nd you shall return your heart" (Deut. 30:1) or more literally, "you shall return to your heart," meaning "come to your senses," or "take to heart" what has happened to you. Without this inner awakening, there can be no return to God. Rambam compares this dramatic recognition to the wake-up call of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah:

The blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is an explicit decree of Scripture [Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1], and it is also a symbol, as if to say, Awake, O you sleepers, awake from your sleep! O you slumberers, awake from your slumber! Search your deeds and turn in teshuvah. Remember your Creator, O you who forget the truth in the vanities of time and go astray all the year after vanity and folly that neither profit nor save. Look to your souls, and better your ways and actions. Let every one of you abandon his evil way and his wicked thoughts, which are not good.

This wake up call leads to regret. Modern people often see regret itself as the problem, rather than as an indicator that something else is a problem. Instead of denying such feelings, however, we are to let them drive us to genuine moral change, which will be expressed in restitution, doing all we can to reverse the effect of our sin. Restitution often includes confession of sin. Rambam says,

And he must also confess with his lips and declare those things that he has concluded in his heart. If one confesses verbally but does not resolve in his heart to abandon his sinful ways, he is like one who immerses himself in the ritual bath while holding an impure creature.

Restitution may also mean paying back a debt, returning to the one that we have offended and offering to do whatever it takes to make things right.

Regret and restitution lead us to a fourth stage of teshuvah mentioned above-resolve to turn away from sin and back to God and his ways. "You shall return to Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

We can see these four stages of teshuvah-recognition, regret, restitution, and resolve-in a story that Messiah once told, about a man and his two sons (Luke 15:11-32).

One day the younger son said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself. . .

Here we see the first phase of teshuvah, recognition. The son came to himself, or returned to his heart, as our parashah would state it. He woke up and realized that he was standing among the pigs, and longing for their food! And so, when he recognized his condition,

He said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'" And he arose and came to his father.

The son displays regret for his sin and is ready to make restitution by returning to his father, confessing his sins, and offering to live with him like a hired servant. Finally, he resolves to return, changing his whole life direction from a journey away from home to a journey back.

The most remarkable element in Yeshua's story, however, is the response of the father. It reveals a fifth stage in teshuvah, which is restoration. The son comes to his senses and returns to his father; the father has been ready to return to the son all along.

But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.

Thus, the father embodies the words of God through the prophet Malachi, "Return to me and I will return to you." But the story doesn't end here. Messiah told the story because "[t]he tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them'" (Luke 15:1-2). Messiah welcomed the younger son-the sinner-and, with equal love, appealed to the older son-the religious expert.

Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf."' But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him." And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

Yeshua doesn't tell us the end of the story, because the end is up to us. So, whichever son you are, the invitation from the Father stands, especially during this season: "Return to me and I will return to you."

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah!

Russ Resnik This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Adapted from "Creation to Completion: Your Guide to Life's Journey from the Five Books of Moses," by Russell Resnik, published by Messianic Jewish Publications, www.messianicjewish.net.