Parashat HaShavua - Nitzavim
Parashat Nitzavim repeats the root לשוב – to return – seven times. As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are invited to read God’s promise to b’nai yisrael:
וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד־יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ בְקֹלוֹ כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ בְּכל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכל־נַפְשֶׁךָ׃ וְשָׁב יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת־שְׁבוּתְךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ (דברים ל:ב-ג)
When you return to your God, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, then God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. (Deuteronomy 30:2)
But how do we accomplish this journey of return? Rav Nahman of Bratzlav offers an unconventional way of looking at the journey of teshuva that is taken from the halakha (set of laws) concerning lost objects. One of the questions the rabbis ask about lost objects (and which our 7th grade students learn every year) is: how long do you have to continue to try to return a lost object to its owner? The Mishna teaches that as long as we can assume that the owner has not despaired of finding it, it is still our obligation to try to return it.
Rav Nahman suggests that what is true for lost objects is also true for the journey of teshuva. As we make our way through the month of Elul, we may notice and even touch our own feelings of sadness about losses much deeper than any physical object: faith in God, trust in a significant relationship, even belief in ourselves. Who, Rav Nahman asks, will be the finder of these losses? His answer of course, is the Holy One of Blessing. As Rabbi Mimi Feigelson puts it, “God will hold on to it for us until we are ready to reclaim it and bring it back into our direct possession. We may need time to work through a relationship or a theological challenge. That is not a problem in Rebbe Nachman's interpretation…Our Creator will hold on to it, in faith, trust and love till we come to claim it.”
According to the teaching of the laws of lost objects, our job during Elul is not necessarily to find our way all the way back to faith, to love, to trust. It is simply not to despair that we will ultimately get there. As long as we can do that, God will hold onto the rest.
There is a story told of a prince who became very angry at his parents and ran away from home. He had many adventures and met many people but after a time, he began to miss his parents. His friends said, “Go back, for surely they miss you too.” “I can’t,” he replied, “I have come too far, the way back is too long and I do not have the strength.” At that moment a messenger arrived from his father the King. He opened it and read, “Come back as far as your strength will take you, and wherever that place is, I will meet you there.”
May we all go as far as our strength will take us this Elul — even (especially?) if all that involves is not giving up the belief that someday, we will get all the way home.
Rabbi Anne Ebersman
Director of Jewish Programming N-5 and Director of Hesed (Community Engagement) and Tzedek (Social Responsibility)