Parashat Nitzavim is always read on the shabbat before Rosh Hashanah, and in it, quite fittingly, is a poignant passage that speaks of the process of teshuva, of our return to God and to the land, after a long period of distancing and exile and scattering. The passage (Deuteronomy 30:1-10) uses the root שוב, shuv, “return,” seven times. I have listed those uses below and bolded the “return” words (the numbered Hebrew letters refer to verse number):
א. וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ֙ אֶל־לְבָבֶ֔ךָ (you)
ב. וְשַׁבְתָּ֞ עַד־ה’ אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ (you)
ג. וְשָׁ֨ב ה’ אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־שְׁבוּתְךָ֖ וְרִחֲמֶ֑ךָ (God)
ג. וְשָׁ֗ב וְקִבֶּצְךָ֙ מִכׇּל־הָ֣עַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֧ר הֱפִֽיצְךָ֛ ה’ אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ שָֽׁמָּה׃ (God)
‘ח. וְאַתָּ֣ה תָשׁ֔וּב וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ בְּק֣וֹל ה (you)
ט. כִּ֣י ׀ יָשׁ֣וּב ה’ לָשׂ֤וּשׂ עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ (God)
י. כִּ֤י תָשׁוּב֙ אֶל־ה’ אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ (you)
To start with, paying attention to the subject of the verb, to who is doing the returning over time, we find the following order: you, you, God, God, you, God, you.
You have to start the teshuva process, to take the initiative in the relationship. Indeed, you may have to work hard at first on your own, to try more than once before God responds. But once you do put that effort in, once you set yourself on this path and show your earnestness by doing it twice, by continuing to seek God, making it clear it wasn’t just a throwaway phase, but a sincere intentional desire, then God responds in kind, returning and helping you to return, twice to correspond to your twice.
After this initial strengthening of the relationship has been established, where you both put in a lot of initial energy, you move into another phase, where there is a back and forth, reciprocal nature to the seeking. With each step forward you take, God, too, takes a step towards you. You return and God returns, until you take the final step, with full heart and soul, back into connection.
Sometimes when we think of the teshuva process, we think of it as one-sided: we are returning to God. If we imagine the distance between us and heaven, then we imagine ourselves climbing up to heaven, as far as we can go, and that is the extent of the return. But this passage makes it clear that teshuva is a beautifully two-sided process. We move towards God and God moves towards us. We seek God, and once we do, we discover that God has always already been seeking us, waiting for us, wanting us to come home. We are not alone in this process; once we start on the journey, we move forward in leaps and bounds because God helps us and supports us with tenderness and love, moving towards us – as we move towards Him – with open, joyful arms.
The final meeting point in this passage happens at the seventh use of the word “return” and this is no accident. Seven implies a wholeness and a completion. We have arrived. And where have we arrived? At שבת, Shabbat, the seventh day of the week, the culmination point of creation, a word that, though not officially from the same root as teshuva, shares the same letters, as if to imply this connection, as if to imply that part of what happens each Shabbat is that we complete our teshuva journey and return home to God; each week, we arrive again in the ultimate resting place. Return, teshuva, and rest, shabbat, are deeply intertwined; we come to a resting place in our journey when we have returned home to dwell in God’s house.
Indeed, לשבת lashevet, “to dwell,” is a third word that makes use of the same letters, and one that is also connected to this holiday season. In Ps 27, which we recite twice daily this time of year, we say that there is “one thing” we seek and that one thing is shivti beveit Hashem, “to dwell [שבתי] in God’s house.” To dwell, shivti, in God’s house is the culmination point of our teshuva journey; this is where we want to end up, this is what we were seeking all along.
And, in fact, the season does have dwelling, shivti, in God’s house as its culmination point: Sukkot. This is the holiday whose entire purpose is simply this dwelling – לישב בסוכה leishev basukkah – this coming to dwell in the sukkah, a symbol of God’s house.
The ability to dwell fully in God’s house – shivti – to live with a sense of ourselves as always being in God’s presence, this is the endpoint, the goal, of our teshuva process. As we begin our return, we can aim our hearts in this direction.
Photo by cottonbro CG at Pexels
