EPSILON MAGAZINE. OCTOBER ISSUE 2005. P 34
WISDOM AND RELIGION
Teshuvah:
Making Yesterday's Heaven Today's Earth
By Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
SPECIAL TO THE WORLD JEWISH NEWS AGENCY
How can we know, when we stand before God time after time to do teshuvah,
whether we are truly "returning" to God, or if we are merely deluding
ourselves? Teshuvah is how the soul, our spiritual aspect that remains cloaked
in our earthly bodies, can repair or deepen its connection to its Source,
which is God.
Being
a sinner is tantamount to being cut off from God. Of course nothing, physical
or spiritual, can be a barrier before the Almighty. "Do I not fill heaven and
earth!" (Jeremiah 23:24). There is no free space into which something else
could interpose. God is not stopped by any kind of a barrier. Barrier suggests
an entity that is "other" - and what could be other than God? Whatever exists
comes from Him, is filled with Him. Yet as the prophet says: "Your iniquities
interpose between you and God." (Isaiah 59:2). A single exception is capable
of separating God and man: transgressing the will of God. Every transgression
is in a sense suicidal, severing the life flow between the soul and its
Source.
There are innumerable accounts of individuals who throughout their lives were
utterly apathetic, regarding Torah and commandments as irrelevant; but when
the moment of truth arrived, they sacrificed their lives to sanctify God's
Name. Every Jew, even the simplest and most oblivious to the love and awe of
God, is still a "lover of Your Name." True, his love of God is concealed,
invisible during his lifetime. But when the ultimate test presents itself, he
will forfeit his earthly existence rather than be separated from his Source.
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