A Real Deal Teshuva

Teshuva is not a once a year spiritual form of Pesach cleaning or something to be pulled out of the bull pen on the ruchniyas equivalent of rainy days, to level out the speed bumps that we invariably hit as we navigate our way through the minefield of life’s challenges.

And, according to the Rambam, it’s not enough to do Teshuva for the sins we have done. We also have to do Teshuva for who we are if we’re not who we should be, because a lot of life’s challenges reside within, in the form of bad character traits, which also require Teshuva. 

Teshuva is a growth process.  It’s the growth process for which we were created.  And according to the Vilna Gaon it’s even more than that.  The Gra says that Teshuva is the process of living in and of itself.  It’s not about taking on some more things and refraining from others as if culled from a checklist of dos and don’ts.

       

The bottom line here is that we don’t just change our actions and call it a day. 

It’s not simply that yesterday I did, while now I no longer do, but rather that yesterday I was, while today I no longer am.  The growth process of Yom Kippur, says Rav Yitzchok Berkowits, is about changing you.

Change your desires.  Change your ideals.

He also says that Hashem invented Teshuva to allow today’s bechira to re-arrange the effect of past free will decisions, which is another way of saying that when you take on not to do something anymore it’s only the real deal, Teshuva wise, if the you of your aspirations has changed to the extent that when faced with yesterday’s tests, as woven into the situations, environment, and understandings that obtained then, you would have been different enough to have survived.

And then there’s the credit of Rabbeinu Yona.

Credit?

Rabbeinu Yona says that once you have seriously accepted upon yourself to make a real Teshuva, it is accounted to you as if you already did it.  You have activated something that will carry you forward.  As Rav Berkowits puts it, “it’s a post dated Teshuva that can be cashed out now.”

And that means that anyone who takes on in Elul to do a real deal certifiable Teshuva, will have a brand new life license for the coming year, with all points removed, to put on the table when the roll is called on Rosh HaShana.