Shabbat Shuvah Sermon

Daniel Chesir was kind enough (or perhaps busy enough) to invite me to deliver the drash at his Shabbat Shuvah service this year, which he has led each of the 30 years since he co-founded Congregation Sha'ar Zahav. Since the rest of my preparation for the High Holy Days was going along OK, and since I had in fact been engaged in teshuvah during the month of Elul, I figured that it wouldn't be too hard. So, here it is:

Sermon on Shabbat Shuvah, 2007

This is Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return. The name comes from the Haftarah text, which Daniel just chanted, from Hosea, "Shuvah, Yisraeil, ad Adonai elohecha." "Return, O Israel, to Adonai your God, for you have fallen because of your sin."

The theme of return also appears prominently in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, "U-teshuva, u't'filah, u'tzedaka ma'avirin et roah hag'zerah." “But repentance, and prayer, and charity avert the severe decree.” Teshuvah means both return and repentance, or perhaps return to God by means of repentance: making a serious examination of our past shortcomings and making efforts to improve, especially to improve our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.

During the month of Elul we have had the special opportunity to examine ourselves and return to a closer relationship with God: to heal all our relationships by making necessary apologies, and to appreciate the relief that can come from getting rid of whatever it was we wanted to leave behind us when we cast our bread crumbs or pebbles into the Bay at tashlich.

But really, the opportunity to return to God is always ours. As our Yom Kippur prayerbook says, "Let us not blaspheme the Most High, by saying that there ever comes a time when sincere prayer is not heard, when sincere repentance is turned away. But if we cannot find prayer and repentance on this Day of Repentance, if we cannot make a start towards peace and wholeness before the sun sets on this one Day of Peace, then when shall repentance come?"

Teshuvah begins when we realize our need to act. If we sense that the distance between us and God has increased, God is not the one who has moved; we have.

On the bright side, to return to God does not require a vast journey. Towards the end of Deuteronomy, Moses talks of a time when the Israelites have turned away from God and been banished from the Holy Land, and the people "return to Adonai your God, and you and your children heed God's command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, then Adonai your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love." And to perform this return is "not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. ... It is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it."

In fact, God will help us to return. At the end of the Torah service, we pray, "Hashiveinu Adonai eilecha v'nashuvah." "Return us to you, O God, and we shall return."

Teshuvah is in our mouth and in our hearts: An examination of our hearts, to see where our distance from God is causing pain, to us and to those around us; then using our mouths to make apologies to those we've harmed and to God for our failures, and then making a renewed effort to live our lives as children of God. It can help us in this effort to remember that we were created in the image and likeness of God, and that we have in us a “yetzer tov,” an urge towards doing good, in addition to the "yetzer hara," the urge towards evil.

Making teshuvah is a bit like doing meditation: we try to focus on a word or image, or our breath, and our busy minds continually present us with other thoughts and images and sensations. However, we don't stop meditating when our minds do that. We simply notice that we've lost our focus, and we gently and kindly return our attention to that focus. This practice strengthens our spirit and our ability to keep our minds from going places that will do us no good. When we're trying to return to God, and we notice that we've swerved away from God and towards something that is, as the Buddhists would say, less skillful, we don't give up on teshuvah. We simply notice that we've turned in the wrong direction and gently turn ourselves back towards God.

And so I'd like to end with a prayer that I wrote about our continuing efforts towards teshuvah:

In the Divine image You created us, Adonai. We strive to measure up to that image, and we fail, and then we get up and strive again. Please teach us that we grow closer to Your image every time we get up again, and give us joy in that knowledge. Blessed are You, Adonai, who lifts up the fallen.