Ascending Levels of Teshuvah

אמרו חז"ל גדולה תשובה שמגעת עד כסא הכבוד.

Chazal said: Great is teshuvah, for it reaches up to the Kisei HaKavod (the Throne of Glory).

Chazal teach that teshuvah is so great that it ascends all the way to Hashem's Throne of Glory.

פי' דיש כמה מדריגות בתשובה.

The explanation: there are several levels in teshuvah.

Teshuvah is not one thing but a ladder of ascending levels.

לכן נקראו עשרת ימי תשובה.

That is why they are called the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah (the Ten Days of Repentance).

The ten days correspond to the gradations of teshuvah one ascends through during this period.

וצריכין לשוב לתקן פגם הנפש במעשה.

And one must return to repair the blemish of the nefesh, in deed.

The first level is rectifying the nefesh, the soul-aspect tied to action, by correcting one's deeds.

והרוח בדיבור.

And the ru'ach, in speech.

The next level is repairing the ru'ach, the soul-aspect bound to speech.

והנשמה במחשבה.

And the neshamah, in thought.

The highest level is mending the neshamah, the innermost soul-aspect tied to thought.

וכשמגיעין לתשובת הנשמה שם אמרו שמגעת עד כסה"כ.

And when one reaches the teshuvah of the neshamah, it is there that they said it "reaches up to the Throne of Glory."

Only the teshuvah of the neshamah — repentance at the level of thought — ascends to the Kisei HaKavod.

ובשבת תשובה העיקר בבחינת הנשמה שהוא יומא דנשמתין ולאו דגופא.

And on Shabbos Teshuvah the essence is in the aspect of the neshamah, for it is "the day of souls and not of the body."

Shabbos Shuva is especially a day of the neshamah; its avodah is the inner teshuvah of the soul, not the concerns of the body.

כי בשבת אין מבקשין צורכי הגוף רק צורכי הנשמה.

For on Shabbos one does not request the needs of the body, but only the needs of the neshamah.

On Shabbos we set aside bodily requests and turn entirely to the soul's needs.

והנה איתא בגמ' שע"י תשובה מיראה עונות נעשין כשגגות וע"י תשובה מאהבה נעשין כזכיות.

Now it is brought in the Gemara that through teshuvah from yirah (fear), aveiros become like unintentional sins (shegagos), and through teshuvah from ahavah (love), they become like merits (zechuyos).

Chazal distinguish two teshuvos: out of fear, which downgrades willful sins to accidents, and out of love, which transforms them into actual merits.

וב' בחי' אלו [הם] תיקון האדם לכפר על עונותיו.

And these two aspects are the rectification of a person, to atone for his aveiros.

Both teshuvah from fear and teshuvah from love serve to repair the person and gain atonement for his sins.

ויש עוד תשובה למעלה מזה ונק' תשובת אמת לשמו ית' כי יש לך אדם שירא מעונש ושב.

And there is yet a higher teshuvah than this, called "teshuvah of truth," for His Name's sake; for there is a person who fears punishment and repents.

Beyond fear and love there is a still loftier teshuvah done purely for Hashem. The lowest type is repenting out of fear of punishment.

ויש מי שמשתוקק לחזור לדבוק בו ית' ושב מאהבה להסיר מסך העונות שיוכל לחזור לדבוק בו ית'.

And there is one who yearns to return and cling to Him, and repents from love, to remove the barrier (masach) of the aveiros so that he can return to cling to Him.

A higher baal teshuvah longs for deveikus; his repentance from love comes to tear away the screen that his sins erected between himself and Hashem.

והוא בחי' יראה ואהבה מדות אברהם ויצחק.

And these are the aspects of yirah and ahavah, the middos of Avraham and Yitzchak.

Teshuvah from love corresponds to Avraham (chesed/ahavah), and teshuvah from fear to Yitzchak (gevurah/yirah).

ויש מי ששב מצד האמת שמבין גודל זה החטא שעשה נגד רצונו ית'.

And there is one who repents from the side of truth (emes), because he grasps the magnitude of this sin that he committed against His will.

The highest teshuvah springs neither from fear of punishment nor from desire for closeness, but from a clear perception of the truth of how grave it is to go against ratzon Hashem.

ומצד שמבין האמת לאמיתו הוא שב ומתנחם.

And from the side of grasping the truth in its fullest truth, he repents and is filled with remorse.

His regret flows from seeing things exactly as they are — the unvarnished emes of his deed.

והוא בחי' יעקב תתן אמת ליעקב.

And this is the aspect of Yaakov: "You shall grant truth to Yaakov" (Michah 7:20).

This loftiest teshuvah of truth corresponds to Yaakov, whose middah is emes.

וכתיב בי' ושבתי בשלום אל בית אבי זה תשובה בשלימות שגדול עליו צערו של אביו ושוכח רצון עצמו ורוצה לשוב להתרצות לפני אביו שבשמים.

And it is written of him, "and I shall return in peace to my father's house" (Bereishis 28:21) — this is teshuvah in completeness, in which the distress of his Father weighs more heavily upon him [than his own], and he forgets his own desire and wishes to return to find favor before his Father in Heaven.

Complete teshuvah, the teshuvah of Yaakov, is when a person is more pained by the "distress" he has caused his Father in Heaven than by anything of his own; he forgets self-interest and longs only to be reconciled with Hashem.

וכל המתחיל לשוב בתשובה זוכה לעלות ממדריגה למדריגה כמ"ש פותח שער לדופקי בתשובה.

And anyone who begins to return in teshuvah merits to ascend from level to level, as it is said: He opens a gate to those who knock in teshuvah.

Once a person starts to do teshuvah, he is helped from Heaven to climb higher and higher; Hashem opens gate after gate for those who knock.

והם שערים בנפש.

And these are gates within the soul.

The "gates" being opened are inner gateways within a person's own nefesh.

כמ"ש נודע בשערים בעלה פי' בזוה"ק לפום שעורין דלבא שיש חמשים שערי בינה ואלה השערים נפתחים ע"י תשובה.

As it is written, "Her husband is known in the gates" (Mishlei 31:23) — explained in the Zohar HaKadosh as "according to the measures of the heart"; for there are fifty Gates of Understanding, and these gates are opened by means of teshuvah.

The fifty Gates of Binah open according to how a person opens his own heart, and teshuvah is precisely what unlocks them.

ולכן אחר עשרת ימי תשובה יש יוה"כ שבת שבתון שכולל כל שבתות השנה והוא שער הנ' משערי בינה.

Therefore, after the Ten Days of Teshuvah comes Yom Kippur, "Shabbos Shabbason," which includes all the Shabbosos of the year, and it is the fiftieth of the Gates of Understanding.

The climb through the ten days culminates in Yom Kippur, the supreme Shabbos that contains all others and corresponds to the fiftieth, highest Gate of Binah.

ולכן השבת מסייע אל התשובה שהוא זכר ליצ"מ שביציאת מצרים יצאו בנ"י משערי טומאה ונכנסו לשערי בינה.

And therefore Shabbos assists teshuvah, for it is a remembrance of Yetzias Mitzrayim — for at the Exodus Bnei Yisrael went out from the gates of tumah and entered the Gates of Binah.

Shabbos, which recalls the Exodus, aids teshuvah: just as Bnei Yisrael left the gates of impurity in Egypt and entered the Gates of Understanding, teshuvah moves a person from tumah toward those holy gates.

ויש להתחזק בשמירת שבת תשובה שהוא שבת ראשון בשנה מעין מ"ש חז"ל אילו שמרו ישראל שבת ראשונה לא שלטה בהם אומה ולשון.

And one should strengthen himself in the keeping of Shabbos Teshuvah, which is the first Shabbos of the year, in the manner of what Chazal said: had Yisrael kept the first Shabbos, no nation or tongue would have ruled over them.

Since Shabbos Shuva is the year's first Shabbos, guarding it well has special power — echoing Chazal's teaching that proper observance of the very first Shabbos would have secured Bnei Yisrael from all domination.

ובכל שנה יש סדר חדש.

And in every year there is a new order.

Each year begins a fresh spiritual order, set in motion from its outset.

ולכן כששומרין שבת ראשונה אין הסט"א שולטת אח"כ.

Therefore, when one keeps the first Shabbos [properly], the sitra achra does not rule afterward.

Guarding this opening Shabbos of the year denies the forces of the "other side" any dominion over the rest of the year.

ועיקר התשובה הוא בכח התורה כמ"ש תורת ה' תמימה משיבת נפש.

And the essence of teshuvah is through the power of the Torah, as it is written, "The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul (meshivas nefesh)" (Tehillim 19:8).

Torah is the true engine of teshuvah — it is "meshivas nefesh," that which returns and restores the soul.

כמו שכל הבריאה הי' ע"י התורה.

Just as all of creation came into being through the Torah.

Hashem created the entire world by means of the Torah, the blueprint of all existence.

כן מתקנים כל הפגמים ע"י התורה.

So too, all blemishes are repaired through the Torah.

The same Torah through which the world was made is the means by which every spiritual blemish is mended.

וז"ש קחו עמכם דברים ושובו.

And this is what is meant by, "Take with you words, and return [to Hashem]" (Hoshea 14:3).

The "words" to be taken are divrei Torah; armed with them, one is able to truly return.

וזהו הלומד ע"מ לעשות לתקן הכל ע"י התורה ונשלמה פרים שפתינו ע"י העסק בתורה מתקרבים אליו ית' כמו ע"י הקרבן:

And this is "one who learns in order to do" — to rectify everything by means of the Torah; and "let our lips fulfill [the offering of] bulls" (Hoshea 14:3) — through occupation with the Torah we draw near to Him, just as through the korban.

Learning Torah with the intent to act repairs everything, and our words of Torah take the place of the korbanos — through Torah we come close to Hashem exactly as the offerings once brought us close.

Summary: Teshuvah ascends through levels — repairing the nefesh in deed, the ru'ach in speech, and the neshamah in thought, which alone "reaches to the Throne of Glory" and is the essence of Shabbos Shuva, the day of the soul. Above teshuvah from fear (Yitzchak) and from love (Avraham) stands the teshuvah of truth (Yaakov), where a person is pained by Hashem's "distress" more than his own and longs only to find favor before his Father. Every beginning of teshuvah opens the inner gates of the soul — the fifty Gates of Binah — culminating in Yom Kippur, the fiftieth gate. Shabbos, recalling the Exodus from the gates of tumah, aids this return, and guarding the year's first Shabbos breaks the sitra achra's grip. Ultimately teshuvah is powered by Torah, "meshivas nefesh," through which all blemishes are repaired and we draw near to Hashem as through the korbanos.