Erev Shabbos Teshuvah, 5711 [1950]

Brooklyn, N.Y.

The[27] following days share one theme:

In a general sense, the ten days from Rosh HaShanah through Yom Kippur. (Concerning these days the prophet commands us,[28] "Seek G-d when He is to be found, call upon Him while He is near," for at this time[29] "the Luminary is close to the spark.")

More particularly, Shabbos Teshuvah. (Every Shabbos Teshivah hints [by its spelling] at the phrase,[30] "You cause man to return," but on this Shabbos in particular it is customary to address congregations in order to arouse a desire for repentance.)

Likewise, Yom Kippur. ("This is a day of repentance for all, for the individual and for the community...; all are therefore obliged to do teshuvah and to confess on Yom HaKippurim."[31])

The underlying theme of the above days is teshuvah, at both of its levels: (a) the lower level of teshuvah,[32] which is repentance for sins, iniquities and transgressions; (b) the higher level of teshuvah,[33] in which the individual, in a spirit of self-effacement and self-sacrifice, returns his soul[34] "to G-d Who bestowed it" -- to its essential Root and Source, to the state which preceded its descent, and higher.[35]

Hence, the lower level of teshuvah can also be restricted to only specific matters and to only some of the soul's faculties -- to those matters and faculties in which the individual's sin caused a blemish.

The higher level of teshuvah, by contrast, is [the avodah of] Shema Yisrael -- "Hear, O Israel!" Its task is to gather together all the soul's scattered faculties; to elevate them aloft[36] in a sheer expiry of the [entire] soul;[37] and finally, to elicit and draw [spiritual energy] downward[38] into all components of the soul.

Moreover, just as this avodah is the task of the individual, it is also the task of the "complete stature"[39] of the entire Jewish people, at all its diverse levels:[40] "[From] the heads of your tribes... to the drawer of your water." All these people must be gathered together and must stand together as one, so that all the souls of Israel will return to their Source and Root.[41]

One of the factors that helps towards the unification of any set of individual elements is their connection with the common source in which they were earlier comprised as one -- and at that level they are all of a kind, even now.

As far as we are concerned -- the chassidim of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], members of the chassidic brotherhood[42] who are bound to him or who even merely (so to speak) belong to him -- this applies to the hiskashrus that connects us with him, by studying his Torah teachings, and by proceeding along[43] "the straight path that he has shown us," and so on, as has been explained many times.

Doing so helps to pave the way towards the fulfillment of the blessing that my revered father-in-law used to bestow upon those who approached him on the afternoon of erev Yom Kippur with a request for a blessing:[44]

"May G-d grant that your inscription [in the Book of Life] be sealed and confirmed for a good and sweet year, materially and spiritually, so that you will be able to engage in Torah and avodah. As to those who have families, may G-d grant them nachas from them, and an ample livelihood. Those who still have to build a home, may G-d help them materially and spiritually."

Menachem Mendel ben Chanah Schneerson

   

Notes:

27. (Back to text) This letter appears in Sefer HaMaamarim 5711 [1951], p. 22; in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XIV, p. 380; and in Igros Kodesh (Letters) of the Rebbe, Vol. IV, Letter 768.

28. (Back to text) Yeshayahu 55:6.

29. (Back to text) In the original, kiruv haMaor el hanitzotz; see Kuntreis HaAvodah, end of ch. 5.

30. (Back to text) Tehillim 90:3; Iggeres HaTeshuvah, end of ch. 10.

31. (Back to text) Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 2:7.

32. (Back to text) In the original Aram., teshuvah tataah.

33. (Back to text) In the original Aram., teshuvah ilaah.

34. (Back to text) Koheles 12:7.

35. (Back to text) On the above theme, see: Likkutei Torah, beginning of Parshas Haazinu; the maamar beginning Dirshu Havayah 5691 [1930] (which appears in Kuntreis 14, in Sefer HaMaamarim -- Kuntreisim, Vol. I, p. 132b ff.); Iggeres HaTeshuvah, ch. 8ff.

36. (Back to text) In the original, milmatah lemaalah.

37. (Back to text) In the original, klos hanefesh.

38. (Back to text) In the original, milmaalah lematah.

39. (Back to text) In the original, komah shleimah; i.e., the complementary and interdependent souls of the entire Jewish people together constitute -- like the organs comprising the body -- one integral and indivisible whole. Cf. Tanya, ch. 32 (in Lessons In Tanya, Vol. I, p. 421ff.); Derech Mitzvosecha, the chapter entitled Mitzvas Ahavas Yisrael, pp. 55-6, and sources there.

40. (Back to text) Devarim 29:9-10.

41. (Back to text) In Likkutei Torah see: beginning of Parshas Nitzavim; in the Derushim LeRosh HaShanah, the beginning of the maamar, VeHayah...BeShofar Gadol.

42. (Back to text) In the original, Anash.

43. (Back to text) Tanya -- Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 27 (in Lessons In Tanya, Vol. V, p. 169).

44. (Back to text) This was the text (translated from Yiddish) of 5707 [1946]. The following year the text (likewise translated) was as follows: "May G-d awaken [our people] with an arousal of true teshuvah springing from the innermost point of the soul. And may this be a year of light, a year of Torah, a year of avodah."