Like water, teshuvah is both destructive and creative. It dissolves the person you were, but simultaneously provides the moisture you need to grow anew. It erodes the hard edges of your willfulness, but also refreshens your spirit. It can turn the tallest barriers of moral blindness into rubble, while it also gently nourishes the hidden seeds of hope buried deep in your soul. Teshuvah, like water, has the power both to wash away past sin and to shower you with the blessing of a new future, if only you trust it and allow yourself to be carried along in its current.
-- Louis E. Newman
Holy Days services
Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas
Rosh Hashanah: Evening service, 7:30 p.m. Sunday; morning service, 10 a.m. Monday; children’s service, 11:15 a.m. to noon Monday; potluck lunch, noon Monday; Tashlich, 2:30 p.m. Monday in Wilson Park; morning service, 8:30 a.m. Tuesday; Kiddush, 11 a.m. Tuesday; service continues, 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, followed by a potluck lunch.
Yom Kippur: Kol Nidre, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11; morning service, 10 a.m. Oct. 12: children’s service, 11:15 a.m. to noon Oct. 12; afternoon service, 4 p.m. Oct. 12; Yizkor service, 6:15 p.m. Oct. 12; concluding service, 6:45 p.m. Oct. 12; evening service, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12; break the fast, 7:35 p.m. Oct. 12.
Where: 699 N. Sang Ave., Fayetteville
Information: 973-2702, templeshalomnwa.org.
Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah (Jewish Lights, 2013)
During the High Holidays, on the first or second day of Rosh Hashana, Jews follow a tradition to go to a nearby body of water and symbolically cast away their sins or wrongdoings from the past year in a ceremony called tashlich. Monday, members of Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville will gather near the creek in the city's Wilson Park. Bread crumbs, representing sins, will be tossed in the water to ceremonially "cast away" the people's sins.
The next 10 days are the most important in the year of festivals for those of the Jewish faith. Rosh Hashana, which begins Sunday, is the Jewish new year, and 10 days later comes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. During the period between holidays, known as the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe or High Holy Days), Jews throughout the world spend time in prayer, reflection and repentance.
"You have a whole 10 days of repentance," said Jacob Adler, rabbi of Temple Shalom. During that time, Jews work to make amends for their actions during the past year.
Adler shared an important teaching: If a person has harmed or hurt the feelings of another human being, he might go to God for forgiveness. "But God will say, 'You hurt Adler's feelings. Go talk to him,'" the rabbi taught.
"It's a traditional belief that your fate for the year is determined on Yom Kippur," he said.
The tradition probably descends from the Babylonians, among whom the Jews lived, reads reformjudaism.org. The Babylonians marked a "Day of Judgment" each year, believing their gods "assembled on this day to renew the world and judge each human being, inscribing the fate of every individual on the tablet of destiny.
"The meeting of many deities evolved into a belief that the one God judged every Jew on that day, immediately inscribing the completely righteous in the Book of Life and consigning the completely wicked to a sad fate," the website reads. "Those 'in between,' however, had 10 days -- concluding on Yom Kippur -- in which to repent before the Book of Life was sealed for the New Year."
The Jewish word for repentance is teshuvah, Adler said, which translates to "taking a hard turn to turning your life around, turning back to God."
Abraham Isaiah Kook, the first chief rabbi of the Palestinians in the early 20th century said teshuvah is just the first step. "Once you have done this, you will think about how much better life has been," Adler said. "You will be 'making yourself great again.'"
"The essence behind teshuvah (as I understand it) is the process of fixing one's relationship with other people and one's relationship with God (to return to God)," writes the Rabbi Leora Kaye in a study guide found on reformjudaism.org. "This Jewish teaching says, that no matter how egregious the wrongdoing, one can always perform teshuvah. Further, it states that the reason we are not perfect is specifically so we can then choose whether or not to go through the difficult, but nourishing, process of teshuvah. When trying to come up with a less preachy word that still embodies the essence of this process, I chose to use 'repair.'
"Repairing a broken relationship or trust takes work, commitment and a desire to do what you can to fix what has been broken. 'Repair' (teshuvah) is encouraged throughout Jewish teaching; in fact, it is required in most cases when people make mistakes. Judaism's take is that repairing a mistake or apologizing for behavior is always an option, no matter the situation. The responsibility lies in your hands; the work of repair requires effort, but is not impossible and has a value in and of itself."
"Another teaching is that God accepts the atonement at any time," Adler said. "But we need a deadline, or we will put it off. We worry that we might be embarrassed or the person we have wronged might act harshly.
"During life, we all fall in ruts. We are too fickle to make a plan for ourselves and stick to it. We must set aside time to rethink."
On Rosh Hashana, the prayers are serious, continued Adler, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Arkansas. "If the wrongs of the year are written on the Book of Life, harmony will pass away, you will die by fire and water.
"It's like a [doctoral] exam. It's good advice not to let you take it unless you know you are ready to pass."
People want to be responsible, Adler said, and Yamim Noraim gives them a way of doing this.
"Kook believed teshuvah is even a part of the structure of the world," Adler said. "The world couldn't exist without teshuvah. If you are on the outs, you will never get back in.
"Just transcend yourself if you think you are too bad to be forgiven," Adler concluded. "You must go beyond yourself."
NAN Religion on 10/01/2016