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The Unique Duality of Shabbat Teshuva

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz ל"צז

he basic meaning of the Hebrew Creation. This is why teshuva contains on Shabbat Teshuva and Yom Kippur
word ת ָּ ב ׁ ַ ש is standstill, cessation. this pull towards the pre-Creation state. – teshuva emerges as a renewed ascent
TG-d “worked” on the six days of These two aspects of Shabbat, cessation whereby sin is erased, and we reach a
Creation, and when ת ָּ ב ׁ ַ ש arrived, He and teshuva, are found in the Shabbat higher state. Indeed, our Sages teach us
stopped working. But ת ָּ ב ׁ ַ ש has an addi- between Rosh Hashanah and Yom that a person who does teshuva out of
tional meaning, which is found also in Kippur, Shabbat Shuva, or Teshuva. It love merits to have his deliberate sins
Rabbinic literature: return. This meaning is a unique combination of the essences transformed. They are not simply less-
does not contradict the idea of cessation of both Shabbat and teshuva, which ened to the level of inadvertently com-
but rather complements it. together create a new entity. On the one mitted errors; they are turned into actual
Before Creation, it was as if the Almighty hand, it is the only Shabbat in the year merits (Yoma 86b).
had nothing to do with the universe. In when one can engage in teshuva. On the The teshuva of Shabbat is a teshuva of
fact, Creation does not pertain to the other, it is the only time in which teshuva love. We return to the Almighty not as
order of things that existed before it. In can be done in a Shabbat-like manner. people fleeing from their past but as
this sense, Shabbat is a return to the pri- On Shabbat, we are commanded both to individuals transcending the past. Like
mordial state. It can be said that Shabbat cease working and to turn the Shabbat all the preparatory work we do to honor
is the seventh day upon which all of Cre- into a day of pleasure (see Isaiah 58:13). the Shabbat, tikkun (repair) is hard,
ation is perfected. Yet at the same time, But the experience of teshuva – born out demanding work. But, like this work,
it is also a return to the pre-Creation of thoughts, memories and heart-rend- it is also what eventually makes Oneg
state. Every Shabbat is therefore both the ing compunctions – is usually not very Shabbat possible, and as soon as Shab-
Shabbat after Creation and the Shabbat pleasurable. In fact, this is precisely why bat comes in, we forget all our toil. Or,
that preceded it. we do not deal with teshuva nor confess if we do not actually forget the toil, the
our sins on Shabbat. However important pleasure of the Shabbat makes it taste a
These two elements also exist in teshuva. they may be, teshuva and confession mar lot sweeter.
On the one hand, the first step of teshuva our Oneg Shabbat. On Shabbat Teshuva,
is to cease our transgressions and then we are therefore called upon to enact a The pleasure of Shabbat Teshuva –
despite all our sins and transgressions –
detach ourselves from our sins. But Shabbat-like teshuva – namely, a teshuva stems from our adhesion to the aspect of
teshuva also means “return,” a return that does not touch upon the painful or teshuva imprinted in the very essence of
to the state of things prior to sinning. difficult sides of sin. Instead, we focus on Creation, which has nothing to do with
In daily life, it is so much easier to stop building ourselves from within. We can sin. This teshuva, which preceded Cre-
doing something than to restore things restructure ourselves – not by forgetting ation, has nothing to do with reverting
to their former state. So too in teshuva. the facts of our sins, but by erasing the back from sin. It is an ascent that makes
It is easier to cut and stop a sequence of experience of sin from within us. us see our failures as tests. Instead of
actions than to return to the innocence This point is fully expressed in a verse thinking about all we have impaired and
that preceded the sin. Yet the prayer we repeat both in the selichot and on blemished, this teshuva leads us to focus
and the heartfelt desire that accompany Yom Kippur: “I have blotted out your on the ways in which we will be able to
every act of teshuva is to effect a change sins like a thick mist and your trans- build our future in a loftier way. Even
of action, a total uprooting of one’s evil gressions like a cloud; return to Me, for if we are unable to regain our pristine
deeds and a return to purity. (We seek to I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22). innocence, Shabbat Teshuva reconnects
at least uproot the evil from our hearts Even after doing teshuva, we still retain us with the teshuva that preceded the
because certain actions are irreversible.) a certain amount of memory throughout world. Shabbat Teshuva helps turn our
This aspect of teshuva, a return to purity, the year, as it says: “my sin is ever before complex weekday life, with all its pains
underlies the Rabbinic saying (Midrash me” (Psalms 51:5). But during the Ten and inner struggles, into a new creation:
Tehillim 90) that teshuva preceded Days of Repentance – and especially holiness. 

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