This Shabbat we read Parshat Ha’azinu, but the name of the Shabbat is Shabbat Teshuvah.

Teshuva means return. Return to God, return to ourselves. These days are called the days of Teshuvah because the gates of Teshuvah process are very accessible for us.  And that is why the holy book speaks that these days are special for repenting and repairing, for all of the sins in the whole past year, and the commitment we make not to return to the same mistakes after that.

The Teshuvah is the process of returning the person to himself, to his inner world; Therefore, the most appropriate time for repentance is THIS Shabbat, in which the whole of what we consider as reality returns to be united with its Source- God.

The basis of the TESHUVAH lies in the recognition by the person that even after the sin, there is a point of divine life in him.  From this consciousness the person can recognize that the sin was a momentary stumbling block, but at the root he is still connected to God, and the essence of the Return is the person’s return to the encounter with his root connection point to God.  This is how the book “Shefat Emet” interprets the verse that is said in the Haftara “Israel’s return to the Lord your God” – the RETURN is a return to God.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen