Virtuosity In Teshuva: Rav Kook On Teshuva (Part VI)

As we have seen over the preceding weeks, Rav Kook sees in teshuva an expression of the nobility of the human spirit and the mechanism by which we bring about redemption. In this regard, teshuva enables us to engage as full participants in the creation of the universe, and it follows from this how and why it is so integrally connected with the holiday of Rosh Hashana.

We have already examined the dialectic between individual and national teshuva and how this dynamic impels the process of teshuva in a practical sense. In the conclusion of his book on teshuva, Rav Kook explains in more detail how tapping into this sensibility drives us forward and raises us higher, and how the ongoing spiritual elevation of Israel is inexorably tied to the redemption of all humanity.

The final chapter (17) in Rav Kook’s book on teshuva begins with a beautiful passage that warrants translating here in its entirety: “The rebirth (techiya – lit. coming to life) of the nation is the basis for the ‘Great Teshuva,’ referring to the highest level of teshuva that Israel can achieve and the teshuva of the whole world which must follow it.”

Rav Kook explains that the impulse to do teshuva stems from a sensitivity to a state of imperfection – an awareness that something is not as it should be and an impulse to rectify this. More often than not, we only sense the lack, and the response might begin as perfunctory, but as we proceed it impels us to refine our behavior and, in time, our character. Thus, he explains, the statelessness and ideological vacuousness of the people of Israel at the end of our long exile impelled us to seek to return to our land and reconstitute ourselves as a sovereign nation with its own unique culture – even without hearing an explicitly messianic call or any sort of religious impulse.

We as individuals and as a nation understand something is wrong and we are driven to fix it, even if we have no idea how to go about it properly. But it is precisely through this process, this “casting about” for something that will salve the pain of uncertainty and inspire us with a sense of purpose, that we connect through our teshuva with our higher purpose. In all likelihood, if we were to try in an abstract sense to figure out how to bring redemption, how to perfect ourselves and the world, we would fail. But the process of teshuva points us in the direction we must follow, and through this process we obtain ethical and aesthetic achievements that would never be available to us if we sought them in any other way. Through our teshuva, Rav Kook says, we bring healing and redemption into the world.

The debasement of Israel and our persecution at the hands of the nations illuminates a defect in the natural state of humanity that even the gentiles can sense, although they might not recognize its cause. The crisis is brought on by a spiritual imbalance, and no amount of intellectual rationalization can reveal its details or origins. The only way to understand what is wrong with mankind and to correct our path is to feel the brokenness in ourselves reflecting our broken world, and to follow the impulses that lead us to correct these parts of ourselves through a genuine desire to stop the pain and repair the damage.

This process begins, as we have seen, with the teshuva of individuals in Israel; it extends to the nation of Israel; and in time it will spread to the rest of the nations of the world. This also illustrates the importance of teshuva in the observance of Rosh Hashana and the centrality of Rosh Hashana as the birthday of Adam (or, as in our liturgy, “of the world”) to the realization of this “Great Teshuva.”

Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of the creation of the human race, and Hashem’s creation is – all of it – perfect. Regarding the creation of humanity, we know from Bereishit that He said “it was good,” and immediately thereupon he repeated “it was good” to describe the whole universe, including mankind. On Rosh Hashana we “coronate” Hashem as King of the Universe, meaning we also establish His kingship over us by conforming to His will. We envision humanity, by this light, in its refined state – a state of moral and aesthetic perfection. Our liturgy says that “every agent will know that You have deployed them and every created entity will understand that You created him…”

In his commentary on the siddur entitled Olat Reiya, Rav Kook explains that we are capable of achieving such universal understanding when we can transcend the individual, fragmentary perspective that traps us in the limitations of our self-interest. The higher the consciousness of the individual and of the nation – the Jewish nation, or any nation – the greater its values, its moral accomplishments, and its intellectual gains. The one who does true teshuva, and only such a one, is capable of the enlightenment of universal wisdom.

Rav Kook sees an allegory for this in the order of the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana. The tekiah is a state of intellectual, spiritual repose. The note can be extended indefinitely; the proper balanced state of human consciousness and being is in this long, sustained, singular voice. Rav Kook associates it with “a world that is altogether long.” (See esp. Kiddushin 39b also cited in the blessing after the Seder meal.) The two broken notes, shevarim and teruah, represent the disruption of our minds that accompanies the impulse to do teshuva. When we sense that something is wrong and we try to solve the problem, this is the long, broken pattern of shevarim. When we despair of solving the problem for ourselves and we simply cry out in desperation, we have the rapid exclamations of teruah.

In all the combinations of notes that are expressed on Rosh Hashana, we always frame each group with tekiah. We begin from our state of perfection, repose, and balance, and through teshuva we return to it. Shevarim always precedes teruah because it is preferable to come to a stance of desiring to improve our behavior in order to achieve better results, and it’s only once this has been exhausted that we see people falling back upon desperation. For the same reason, we find repeatedly that the shofar blows proceed tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah but we never, ever blow teruah-shevarim. This hints at a cosmic truth about human nature and the process of teshuva that we are seeking to tap into on Rosh Hashana, to internalize, and having been transformed by it, to broadcast to the world. Rav Kook explains this is why we recite following the first shofar blasts, “Happy is the nation that knows the trumpet call (i.e., teruah).” Because we understand the meanings of the notes of the shofar, and the aspects of human nature they illustrate, we are uniquely suited to bring about the redemption of all of mankind.

The verse specifically expresses the knowledge of teruah because this refers to the breaking of the heart and the fragmentation of calcified belief systems. Happy is the nation that can harness its despair and frustration with the pain of existence, to reorient itself toward personal growth that will lead inexorably to universal redemption.

May we merit in this year to learn the necessary lessons from our regrettable adversity so that we perform “Great Teshuva” and merit the rebuilding of our nation in our land to set in motion the events of the final redemption of all creation.