[THROUGH A MUSSAR LENS | Alan Morinis ]
Spiritual Ascendance Through Teshuvah
My new book, With Heart in Mind, was published last month. I mention this not in the interests of self-promotion (though I will be very happy to know that you bought a copy and benefited from it) but because a central focus of that book relates to the theme we are exploring in this essay—teshuvah.
The book opens by pointing out something that I believe to be entirely true, though it is not what people tend to see or experience in their encounters with the Jewish world, which is that:
The central concern of Judaism is that you and I accomplish a personal spiritual transformation in our lifetimes. That core intention can be lost in the welter of rituals, festivals, liturgy and other performative aspects of the tradition. It becomes even less visible when buried under the weight of buildings, institutions, campaigns and political struggles that are, for some, the face if not the totality of the Jewish world. But the fact remains that at its core, the driving concern of Judaism is personal spiritual transformation.
That’s what I focus on in the book, in a practical way. What I point to as proof for this assertion are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, holy days that are fast approaching again this year, once more bringing teshuvah into the spotlight. “Yes, there are hundreds of pages of prescribed prayers and many other ritual acts, but the central focus for these two days (as well as the 10 days that fall between them) is a personal stock-taking of the things one did or said in the previous year followed by steps to repair any damage, to set the stage for different behavior in the year to come. Jerusalem Talmud puts it clearly, ‘God said, “Since you all came for judgment before me on Rosh Hashana and you left [the judgment] in peace, I consider it as if you were created as a new being.”’
By Alan Morinis
Founder & Dean of