What is Teshuva
| A time of closeness |
The prophet Isaiah tells us:"Seek God when he is readily found" (Isaiah 55:6). We know that the Days of Awe are particularly appropriate for this task as we feel the great Presence pervading our senses. The Talmud teaches us that between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, God is somehow closer. That means that we are more apt to turn to God, thanks to the mood of this period.

In the face of judgment, people try to review acts and correct the evil deeds of the past year. In particular, wrongs done to fellow men are to be corrected. Yom Kippur does not bring forgiveness for these acts unless the injured person gets restitution and forgives the one who sinned against him.

| Making amends |
Special time should be set aside both for self-evaluation and for seeking out people to make amends. It is especially appropriate for families to review basic relationships and to seek forgiveness, amendment and reconciliation.

According to Nachmanides, repentance is a specific mitzvah: Vishavta ad HaShem elohecha - "you shall (re) return to the Lord your God" (Deuternomy 30:2). The Torah goes on to say, according to Nachmanides' interpretation, that this duty "is not hidden from you, nor is it far off."

Teshuvah is one of the most distinctively human acts. It involves change and the capacity to re-do the past - with the help of God.

The foundations of Teshuvah are threefold: regret, confession, and the forsaking of the committed misdeed.

| Encouraging others |
It is an act of great merit to help people repent and to welcome them and encourage them in their new ways. Thus, it is forbidden to remind a penitent of his former acts. One should respond with conciliation when a person asks for forgiveness. After all, "Whose sin does God forgive? He who forgives sins (against himself)" (Talmud: Rosh Hashanah 17A). If after repeated requests, a person still refuses to forgive, then the unforgiving individual is considered a sinner.

| Renewed relationships |
Such is the power of teshuvah that it restores the alienated person to closeness with God or with the other person. "Yesterday this one (the sinner) was hateful to God, repugnant, removed foul. Today (after repentance) he is beloved, precious, close, a friend..Yesterday, this one was alienated from God, the Lord of Israel - and today he is attached to the Divine Presence" Here the mystery of divine and human response comes into play. Repentance does more than undo the past evil. It brings healing and a new closeness and sympathy.

| Special favor |
The Talmud says that penitents stand where even righteous people cannot. Maimonides explains: he who sinned needs a greater effort to do the right thing; in that sense, the right act is greater when the penitent does it. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev observed that when one repents out of love, the previous evil acts are considered changed into good deeds. He explains: the sinners' drives and talents, up to now used for evil, will be used for good. The sinner thus has talents for good which the routine righteous person does not possess.

| Liberating process |
Although the focus of these days is on guilt and self-criticism, the purpose is to remove the burden of guilt and end the evil doing - not to increase or prolong them. Periodic purification is liberating. Guilt is not the superior religious emotion. It is necessary, given human tendencies, but it is to be grown from and overcome with new goodness. Rabbi Israel Salanter and his pupils used this period to draw up resolutions for new patterns of better living and to actually start the process of new living.

The Concept of Teshuva by Rabbi Michoel Schoen

The concept of teshuvah, repentance, seems to be an illogical one. True, a sinner must change his ways: One who wishes to avoid incurring further punishment must clearly cease his sinning. Yet by what logic can a previous sin be forgiven? If one changes for the better, should he not still receive the punishment he deserves for the bad that he has done, as well as the reward he deserves for the good he is currently doing?

One might answer that since Hashem is all-merciful, in His mercy He wipes away our sins even though logically He has no reason to do so. Whoever regrets the mitzvos he has fulfilled and wonders at his meritorious deeds, and says to himself: "What did I get out of doing them? Would that I had not done them," loses all of them, and no merit is remembered in his favor, as it says: The righteousness of the righteous shall not save him on the day of his wickedness -- this is if he regrets his original [good deeds]... (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 3:3)

This insight of the Rambam proves that Hashem's "forgetting" our past is not merely a question of His mercy, for the concept can work against a man as well -- one who regrets his past righteousness loses his accumulated reward. Surely, this is not an example of G-d's mercy. When G-d judges an individual, He does not simply weigh his sins and mitzvos on a scale, with a rasha being one whose sins are "heavier."

Rather, Hashem makes His judgment on the individual himself. What is he? What does he represent? Is he the embodiment of good or of evil? True, a person's essential being will depend upon the mitzvos and sins that he has done, but he is actually judged for the gestalt of his being, the whole and not the parts.

When a person truly regrets his past actions, he is stating that this period in his life does not embody him. When being judged for what he represents, those sins or those mitzvos that he regrets are not factors in judgment, since they do no represent him anymore. This understanding of how G-d judges an individual is apparent in the Rambam: When a person's sins and merits are weighed, the first sin that he sinned is not counted, nor the second, but the third and on [are counted]. If it is found that his sins -- from the third and on -- are greater than his merits, the [first] two sins are included and he is judged on them all. But if his merits stand against his sins, each of his sins is canceled one by one. The third is considered as the first, for the first two were forgiven. And thus the fourth becomes the first, for after all the third has been forgiven, and so on to the end... (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 3:5)

According to the Rambam, when calculating our sins against our mitzvos, Hashem does not count the first two times we sin. Bearing our explanation of teshuvah in mind, the reason for this is quite clear. The Gemara considers that an action must occur three times to establish a status quo (a chazakah). The first two times a person sins he had not indicated that he is a person who embodies that particular transgression. He simply is one who gave in to his evil inclination. Only after he transgresses three times can one say that he represents the sin itself, and as such can be judged for his embodiment of the evil, not for one particular sin. Some of the ways of repentance are for the penitent to constantly shout before Hashem, with tears and pleas; to give as much charity as in his power; to distance himself from the object of his sin; and to change his name, as if to say: I am another, and am not the same person who did those deeds. He changes his actions entirely for the better, onto the straight path, and exiles himself from his former place of residence... (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 2:4)

How can the Rambam write that one should change his name and say he is someone else? According to our explanation this is exactly the point of teshuvah. One must declare that the periods and moments of one's life spent in sin do not represent him. He is a different person, represented by mitzvos, not by sins.

How to do Teshuva

The motifs of Repentance (Teshuva), Prayer (Tefila) and Charity (Tzedakah) are among the several recurring themes that weave through the customs and liturgy of the "Days of Awe."

It's one thing to talk about Teshuvah; it's another to achieve it. Maimonides offers practical steps to help us tip the scales.

There are three major steps in repentance, according to Maimonides:

| Recognition of Wrongdoing |
Recognition and confession of wrongdoing. This is the primary step.

It is not enough merely to recognize sin; it must be admitted, articulated. Note that it is confession of wrongdoing - not asking forgiveness - that is crucial, according to Maimonides. Once the basic act of confession is done, God forgives even without being asked formally to do so. Admission is perhaps the most difficult step in repentance, for there is an infinite human capacity for evil and self-justification.

Psychologically, the sinner feels that he or she has gone on a road from which one cannot turn back: because one cannot 'betray' what has already been done; because one will be shamed; because it is too far gone. However, God's promise is: "You (can and) shall return."

Once the admission is made, the rest is easier. The Talmud suggests that once the step of confession is taken by the sinner, there is divine help in the process of regeneration. "My children give me an opening of repentance no bigger than the eye of a needle, and I will widen it into openings through which wagons and carriages will pass" (Song of Songs Rabba, 5:2).

| Regret |
One should regret at having transgressed so that one rejects the miscreant deed.

| Commitment to Change |
A commitment not to repeat the wrongdoing. This is crucial to the integrity of the "turning." Repentance is not a momentary recoil or tiring but a basic turning to a new way of life and behavior.

Most commentators add a fourth step:

| Resisting Temptation |
The ability to overcome the urge to commit the same wrongdoing when faced with the identical situation.

Self Improvement

The motifs of Repentance (Teshuva), Prayer (Tefila) and Charity (Tzedakah) are among the several recurring themes that weave through the customs and liturgy of the "Days of Awe."

Unlike other holidays, Rosh Hashanah does not commemorate past events. More than just another "New Year," Rosh Hashanah is a good time to clarify for ourselves what we have achieved and what we want to do with our lives.

It is a good time to ask questions. In this season of reflection, why not check yourself out on some of these?

Do you want to be a better person? - Do you want to eat less? - Do you want to be less impatient? - Do you want to learn more?