Ten Levels of Teshuvah have many Aspects and Melodies
During the days of Elul-Tishrei—the days of teshuvah—there are ten levels of teshuvah (return to God) that we are called upon to work on, as individuals and as a community. This time of year is also associated with a great deal of original liturgy, prayers, and melodies. In fact, each level of teshuvah has its own corresponding melody that captures it in musical form.[1] If one learns to sing the ten melodies corresponding to the ten stages of teshuvah, it is will certainly provide them with a great and wondrous general rectification or tikkun (תִּקּוּן הַכְּלָלִי).
Stage One: Elul
Everything begins anew with Elul—the teshuvah of "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine"[2] (we will soon explain how this corresponds to the sefirot, ascending from below to above). The first teshuvah is the general teshuvah of the month of Elul, when "the King is in the field,"[3] and everyone must approach the King, and the King welcomes everyone with a gracious countenance. (Whoever does not want to go out to greet the King when He is receiving everyone with a gracious countenance, commits a grievance against their own soul, as they miss the opportunity to engage in this level of teshuvah).
Stage Two: Selichot
At the end of the month of Elul, begin the days of Selichot. For Jews of Ashkenaz descent, the month of Elul and the days of Selichot are not equivalent, whereas for the Sephardim among us, the first two stages completely coincide. These are days of teshuvah related to the sefirah of foundation (yesod), referring also to the rectification of the covenant. When kingdom (malchut)—the days of the month of Elul—foundation appear together, as they do for Sephardim, it reflects the secret of the Chamber of the Sapphire Brick (הֵיכַל לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר), which includes both foundation and kingdom, as is known in the secret of the Heichalot intentions.
Stage Three: Rosh HaShanah
After that comes Rosh HaShanah, which really consists of two days—it could be divided (because according to the Torah’s concealed dimension, each day is its own matter), but generally, the two days of Rosh HaShanah are considered “one long day”[4] (יוֹמָא אֲרִיכְתָּא) in the Talmud. The teshuvah of Rosh HaShanah, in general, is considered one day of teshuvah, which is, of course, higher than Selichot.[5]
Stage Four: Ten Days of Teshuvah
After that come the Ten Days of Teshuvah—between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.[6]
Stage Five: Shabbat Shuvah
During the Ten Days of Teshuvah themselves—a time when we are called upon to “Seek HaShem while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near”[7] (דִּרְשׁוּ הוי' בְּהִמָּצְאוֹ קְרָאֻהוּ בִּהְיוֹתוֹ קָרוֹב)—there is one special day known as Shabbat Shuvah. It holds its own special significance in terms of teshuvah. In one word, on Shabbat Shuvah we are called to the teshuvah described as “to gaze upon the glory of the King, and nothing more”[8] (לְאִסְתַּכַּלָא בִּיקָרָא דְּמַלְכָּא וְלָא יַתִּיר).
Stage Six: Eve of Yom Kippur
The next level is the special teshuvah we engage in on the Eve of Yom Kippur. This is explicitly stated in the Hayom Yom calendar. The Eve of Yom Kippur begins with the ritual of kaparot, followed by administering symbolic lashes, and various other special practices. But, the most important and unique mitzvah of this day is to eat—double the amount we eat on a regular day. This is a mitzvah from the Torah itself,[9] which seems to imply that we are doing teshuvah for not having eaten enough throughout the year. It is told that before passing on, the Sefat Emet performed the customary viduy (confession) and reportedly regretted only that he had not eaten more and slept less. There were other tzaddikim who were particular about eating, such as the Ohev Yisrael of Apt.
Stage Seven: Yom Kippur
The seventh level (have you been keeping track?) is the teshuvah of Yom Kippur itself. In Hayom Yom, the Lubavitcher Rebbe writes that the difference between the teshuvah of Yom Kippur Eve and Yom Kippur itself is that on the former, the focus is primarily on regret for the past, whereas on the latter, the emphasis is on accepting positive resolutions for the future. As much as one eats, drinks, and rejoices on Yom Kippur Eve, the special teshuvah is marked by deep regret for the past. This is a paradoxical situation of sorts. The paradox extends to Yom Kippur, when despite the many times we confess our transgressions in detail (Al chet) and are filled with regret for the past, our main focus throughout the confessions should be a steadfast decision to improve in the future.
The entire month of Tishrei is captured in the verse, “Blow the shofar with the new moon”[10] (תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר), which includes two aspects: “with the new moon” (בַחֹדֶשׁ) alludes to renew your deeds (חַדְּשׁוּ מַעֲשֵׂיכֶם) and “the shofar” (שׁוֹפָר) alludes to “improve your deeds” (שַׁפְּרוּ מַעֲשֵׂיכֶם). The climactic moment of Yom Kippur is the great shofar blast at the end of the fast, which can be seen as a moment that captures the essence of “improve your deeds”—a moment when we commit to being completely different moving forward.
What? How Can there Be More?
As noted, Yom Kippur is the seventh level of teshuvah and we tend to associate Yom Kippur with the pinnacle of teshuvah of the entire year and certainly of the month of Tishrei. Yom Kippur is also called “Shabbat Shabbaton,”[11] another way in which it is associated with the number seven; as such, it is the Shabbat of all the holidays, and thus the Shabbat of teshuvah.
For these reasons, one might think that with Yom Kippur, we have completed the process of teshuvah, and afterward, we move on to a different kind of service—after finishing teshuvah, everything shifts to joy. Thus, we might think that with this we have gathered all the elements of our model of teshuvah during the months of Elul and Tishrei. From here we might expect to move on to correspond these seven stages of teshuvah with a Kabbalistic model.
However, there is a well-known anecdote[12] that the day after Yom Kippur, the Rebbe Rayatz asked his father, the Rebbe Rashab, “Now what?” And the Rebbe Rashab replied, “Now, especially, one must begin doing teshuvah.” Seemingly, we have done all the teshuvah possible, and we believe with complete faith that God has forgiven all our transgressions—so what is the teshuvah that is required specifically now?
There are several explanations for this, but every time we repeat a teaching, there must be a new insight. The way we interpret this level will help us understand the three higher stages of teshuvah. It turns out that the seven stages of teshuvah up until and including Yom Kippur do indeed correspond to the most straightforward Kabbalistic model with seven elements known as the seven lower sefirot (ז תַּחְתּוֹנוֹת, or by their acronym ז"ת). But there are of course 3 more sefirot. These are known as the “first three” (ג רִאשׁוֹנוֹת, or by their acronym ג"ר). There is a significant shift between the seven lower sefirot and the three higher sefirot, and likewise between the first seven stages of teshuvah and the next three stages.
We associate the higher three sefirot and these three highest stages of teshuvah with the verse, “no eye has seen except Yours, O’ God”[13] (עַיִן לֹא רָאָתָה אֱ־לֹהִים זוּלָתְךָ). Our eyes can only see the seven stages up until (and including) Yom Kippur but starting from the day after Yom Kippur (known as God’s Name) a completely different kind of teshuvah begins. This is hinted to in the choice of words used by the Rebbe Rashab, “begin doing teshuvah”—now begins a completely different kind of teshuvah.
This can be connected to the idea that until now, the teshuvah we were doing was out of bitterness, and from now on, it is done out of joy. However, there is certainly more to this. There is a deeper dimension to this matter.
Stage Eight: Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot
The new type of teshuvah begins with the eighth stage during the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. According to the Torah’s concealed dimension, these four days form a single unit and they themselves correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah. For various other but related reasons, the day immediately after Yom Kippur is known as “God’s Name” (Gott’s Nommen, in Yiddish).
Stage Nine: Sukkot
Sukkot is the ninth stage of teshuvah. Though it is “the time of our rejoicing,” and “anyone who has not seen the rejoicing of the Simchat Beit HaShoevah has never seen joy in his life,”[14] nonetheless, it is also considered the “first [day] for the accounting of sins.”[15] If there are new sins (which arise due to our great joy), then a new teshuvah is also needed. Fortunate is the one who merits such sins, and fortunate is the one who merits to repent for them.
The peak of the seven days of Sukkot is Hoshana Rabbah, but it is still included within the same theme—just as the Lubavitcher Rebbe was insistent that the seven days be one long continuous joy by extending Simchat Beit HaShoevah. The Rebbe emphasized that even on the first night (the first eve of Yom Tov), Simchat Beit HaShoevah should be celebrated (even before taking the Four Species), and it should also be celebrated on the eve and night of Hoshana Rabbah.
Stage Ten: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
Finally, we have arrived at the tenth and highest level of teshuvah associated with Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. It is known that the entire essence of Simchat Torah is beyond reason and intellect, above logic, and thus, the teshuvah here is also completely beyond reason and understanding.
Building the Correspondence
Now that we have identified the ten elements that belong to our model of ten stages of teshuvah in Elul and Tishrei, we are ready to build the correspondence between them and the best known 10-part model in Kabbalah: the Ten Sefirot. By casting this correspondence, we will gain insight both into the ten special days or groups of days we have identified and into the nature of the ten sefirot.
Though this is not always possible, our preference is to draw the simplest possible correspondence between the two models: the ten stages of teshuvah and the ten sefirot. What this means in this case is that since the ten stages follow a simple chronological order, we prefer to correspond each of the stages with a sefirah in the order of the sefirot. It should also not be too surprising that we are going to be following the order of the sefirot from the lowest (kingdom) to the highest (crown). This makes a great deal of sense, because we have already stated that the ten stages of teshuvah follow an order from the lowest, most common type of teshuvah to the highest pinnacle of teshuvah possible (which we already know is not teshuvah out of bitterness, but out of joy).
Kingdom: The Month of Elul
We begin with the last sefirah, kingdom or malchut. Kingdom is considered the most feminine of all the sefirot. It is therefore very fitting that the month of Elul—the first stage of teshuvah—corresponds to the zodiac sign of Virgo—the virgin. The teshuvah of the month of Elul is attained through a connection to the entire Congregation of Israel, which is likened to a virgin[16] captured in the verse, “I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.” The virgin of Israel has reached maturity, desires to marry, and yearns for her groom—the Almighty. Clearly, the awakening of the month of Elul also corresponds to the notion that the sefirah of kingdom suggests a community—a kingdom—in this case the Congregation of all of Israel that yearns to connect with her husband, as it were, with HaShem.[17]
Foundation: Selichot
The second stage of teshuvah corresponds to the sefirah of foundation, or yesod. The entire month of Elul is a serious month—there are many Chasidic stories describing how, in towns throughout Eastern Europe, when the month of Elul began, it could be sensed in the air. The atmosphere itself changed tangibly, and even more so when it came to Shabbat Selichot, when we begin to say Selichot; it marked a heightened level of seriousness in the atmosphere.
It is worth noting something very interesting: both the month of Elul and the days of Selichot represent a form of judgment located in the “surrounding light,” meaning in the environment. There is judgment in the air. Something changes—it is felt, but mainly in our surroundings and the overall atmosphere. From Rosh Hashanah onward, these expressions are different—it’s not about sensing something in the air. From Rosh Hashanah onward, there is certainly a tremendous shift—“the mitzvah of the day is the shofar”—but this is no longer a shift in the environment, in the surrounding, exterior energy; rather, something happens internally. Before Rosh HaShanah though, the shift is in the air—the Elul atmosphere—and with the beginning of the recital of Selichot on Motza’ei Shabbat, there is a marked difference in the midnight air.
Each of these ten stages of teshuvah also corresponds to a special melody of teshuvah. The melody corresponding to Selichot is Rachmana De’Anei La’aniyei (רַחֲמָנָא דְּעָנֵי לַעֲנִיֵּי). With this melody, the Lubavitcher Rebbe sung and danced to for hours after the first Selichot. These words, set to this melody, express how we feel poor and destitute, and beseech God to have compassion on us—the poor and needy. In Kabbalah, it is written that the destitute individual, the impoverished one (עָנִי) who pleads for God to answer him represents the sefirah of foundation, and it is with this feeling that we plead for God’s forgiveness during Selichot.
The sefirah of foundation is also associated with the covenant—the highest form of connection. A covenant governs every marital relationship—known as the Covenant of Marriage (בְּרִית הַנִּשּׂוּאִין) as well as the covenant every individual has with their purpose in life. During Selichot we are primarily asking God for forgiveness for breaking these covenants. One description of the covenant is captured in the verse, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,” the verse whose initials spell Elul and which signifies the making of a covenant because of a desire for connection. Nonetheless, for all our desire to create a bond, be it with God, with others, or with our soul, we have ended up breaking the connection and breaching the covenant. During Selichot, we plead and ask for forgiveness, all the while accompanied by complete confidence that God certainly forgives and accepts our prayers.
Throughout these days of mercy, when God revealed His Thirteen Measures of Mercy to Moses, we sense that He is moving from sitting, as it were, on the throne of judgment to sitting on the throne of mercy, because we are His children and He is our Merciful Father.[18] In any case, the main focus of Selichot is our sense of impoverishment, which pleads with Almighty to restore our covenant. When the restoration is complete, our own sefirah of foundation will be a conduit for the new seed that will be planted in reality and will sprout and give birth to a living and enduring seed.
Teshuvah Regarding Our Previous Teshuvah
Before we move forward, let us mention that we did not identify the twelve final days of the year, beginning with Chai Elul—the 18th day of Elul—as a distinct level of teshuvah. In our gathering of these levels, we only mention levels that apply to the entire Jewish people in a simple and straightforward way, all this even though there are more stages in between. Still let us take a moment to contemplate what these 12 final days represent.
The Baal Shem Tov said he was born on the 18th of Elul (and after him, the Alter Rebbe was born on the same day many years later) because his purpose was to bring vitality into the work of the month of Elul. Before the Ba’al Shem Tov, Elul was only a month of teshuvah driven by a sense of bitterness. But the Ba’al Shem Tov innovated that teshuvah should be done with joy.[19]
When we surveyed the ten stages of teshuvah, it seemed that the transition from teshuvah out of bitterness to teshuvah from joy only occurs after Yom Kippur. But after the Ba’al Shem Tov’s influence, the shift to teshuvah from joy begins already with the month of Elul. Already in Elul, we are restoring our face-to-face relationship with HaShem. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that from the start, everything should be with joy—that even the so-called Days of Awe (which remain days of awe) should reveal the sense of “rejoice with trembling”[20] (וְגִילוּ בִּרְעָדָה).
According to this, we must say that, in truth, every ascent from one level of teshuvah to the next involves the concept of repenting for the previous teshuvah. The simple meaning is that each act of teshuvah is an acknowledgment that even the understanding I had of teshuvah yesterday and that I repented according to that understanding, must be upgraded and changed. Every day, I can potentially deepen and therefore change my understanding of what teshuvah is. Every time I understand more, I need to do teshuvah on my earlier teshuvah. As explained in the Tanya, when there is a closure of the heart (טִמְטוּם הַלֵּב), it means that I have reached a deeper level where the teshuvah was not fully accepted, and more teshuvah is required.
To this we now add that a new understanding of what teshuvah is includes a very important shift in understanding that my previous teshuvah was not joyful enough; we didn’t experience enough joy in our first teshuvah. From the very beginning, teshuvah should be done with joy, but each time, there should be more joy. On Rosh Hashanah, it’s "Eat rich foods and drink sweet beverages, for the joy of the Lord is your strength," and similarly, at each stage, there should be more joy. Otherwise, we have not reached our goal and have gained nothing. The real gain each time we repent is that there is more vitality and joy in the teshuvah, and thus, there is more Divinity in the teshuvah. Not only in each teshuvah I understand God more and therefore return to Him more; now we understand that not only do I understand more, but God is more present with me, within me. And the more God is present, the more complete the teshuvah becomes.
As mentioned earlier, certainly, something fundamental shifts between Yom Kippur and Sukkot—between the seven lower sefirot and stages of teshuvah and the three upper sefirot and their corresponding stages. Here, we’ve added the point of the 18th of Elul, which always comes before Selichot (according to Ashkenazi custom), and this already implies that to move from the teshuvah of malchut to the teshuvah of yesod, there must be an increase in vitality—an increase in joy and in the feeling of God's presence here with me, within me. This is especially necessary when one could have fallen into the opposite. This is a fundamental principle in Chasidut, explained in depth elsewhere[21]: if a person wants to bring to consciousness more and more layers of their soul that aren’t always rectified, it is crucial to feel God’s mercy more and more to maintain the right balance. Here, we explain that it’s about feeling God’s presence more and more.
Elul is an aspiration, the King is in the field, and we go out to meet the King, yearning for Him. But after that, during Selichot, it’s already a phase of feeling that the connection has been damaged—there’s a breach in the covenant. This can lead to an immediate fall, because the worst effect of a breach in the covenant is the sadness it causes in the soul, and the sadness is worse than the sin that broke the covenant itself. Therefore, before transitioning from "I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine" to Selichot where we say, “The Merciful One who answers the poor, answer us” and “To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us belongs shame of face [from breaking the covenant],” we must precede it with the 18th of Elul—the knowledge that all levels of teshuvah, from beginning to end, are ascents in teshuvah through joy.
Acknowledgment: Rosh HaShanah
The third stage of teshuvah on Rosh HaShanah is about accepting the yoke of Heaven’s kingship—accepting kingship, and crowning the King, "You shall surely place a king over you" in both the higher and lower realms. It is written that the power of commitment in our psyche—our ability to accept the yoke of Heaven—is associated with the sefirah of acknowledgment or hod. One of the most central rituals surrounding the crowning of a king is the blowing of trumpets, or in our case, the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah. The shofar itself is associated with the sefirah of understanding (or binah), which the Zohar states “extends until hod.” Thus, the commitment and acceptance of the yoke of Heaven on us on Rosh HaShanah is the teshuvah associated with the sefirah of hod.
According to this, the “Modeh Ani” that we say every morning when we wake up—“I give thanks before You, living and eternal King”—is also associated with acknowledgment. In Modeh Ani, hod delivers both gratitude and commitment (as well as many other aspects). This means that the “Modeh Ani” we say when we wake up daily is like the Rosh HaShanah of that particular day. It follows that the Modeh Ani of Rosh HaShanah—following the eating of the apple with honey the night before—is likely the most important Modeh Ani of the entire year. The core teshuvah of Rosh HaShanah is commitment.
Victory: Ten Days of Teshuvah
The fourth stage of teshuvah is in the Ten Days of Teshuvah. In many Chassidic essays, including the essay VeIshah Achat[22] (which we recommend studying), it is explained that the feeling of confidence in the soul, the inner aspect of the sefirah of victory or netzach, comes from the sense that God is close to me and is seeking me out. Thus, the "and my beloved is mine" that follows "I am my beloved’s" corresponds to the Ten Days of Teshuvah that follow the days of Elul. This develops and nurtures the trait of confidence in the soul.
Therefore, the work and teshuvah of the Ten Days of Teshuvah is to strengthen one’s confidence (bitachon)—confidence in the very fact that I am capable of doing teshuvah. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is famous for saying: “If you believe you can damage, believe you can repair.” Believing and having active confidence that one can repair comes from the feeling that God is close to me. Strengthening trust in my ability to rectify myself and everything connected to me in the world—my portion in the world—is the teshuvah of the Ten Days of Teshuvah, teshuvah rooted in netzach.
Beauty: Shabbat Shuvah
The fifth level of teshuvah corresponds with the sefirah of beauty or tiferet. On Shabbat Shuvah, we explained that the teshuvah is "to gaze upon the glory of the King," with the ultimate culmination of "to be absorbed into the essence of the King." This type of teshuvah is the teshuvah of beauty. It is as if we are gazing upon HaShem’s beauty.
It is known—this is a well-known hint, somewhat connected to Rebbe Nachman as well—that the word tiferet has a secret relating to the Shabbat and to the Land of Israel. The Shabbat is the sanctified span of time, and the Land of Israel is the sanctified parcel of land. Therefore, Shabbat represents the inner essence of the Land of Israel (time is the inner essence of space). The word tiferet (תִּפְאֶרֶת) is made up of the word “beauty” (פְּאֵר) surrounded by two letters tav (תת). The filling of the 3 letters, פְּאֵר (פא אלף ריש) and their value is the same as Shabbat (שַׁבָּת). Besides the fact that the Land of Israel is 400 by 400 farsakhs in area and the value of each of the tav’s is 400, when we write the two letters tav in their filling, we get תיו תיו, whose value is 832, the same as “the Land of Israel” (אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל). This is all a beautiful illustration of how Shabbat is the inner point of the Land of Israel.
We saw earlier that kingdom-malchut is the service of going out into the field, where the King receives everyone with a gracious and smiling face. Here in beauty-tiferet, the soul is moved in a similar but to a far greater degree, leading to an actual longing of the soul, "to gaze upon the glory of the King, and no more," until it brings a person to "be absorbed into the essence of the King."
The verse, "Seek God while He may be found" describes the maintenance of our relationship with God. But here we are begin asked to go far beyond just having a relationship by realizing that God is present here, right now and that I want to be fully immersed in Him. On various occasions, we have explained that there are three levels of interaction between two (it could be a husband and wife, two friends, or man with God). These three levels are known as “relationship” (יַחַס), “togetherness” (יַחַד) and “oneness” (אֶחָד).[23] So whereas during the month of Elul, we are striving to build a relationship, on Shabbat Shuvah we are aiming that our teshuvah reach the level of oneness with God.
Might: Eve of Yom Kippur
The sixth level of teshuvah on the eve of Yom Kippur corresponds to the sefirah of might or gevurah. We are now regretting the past. The increased eating on this day is also connected with gevurah which is the attribute of our patriarch Isaac, the archetypal soul of gevurah. It was Isaac who said, “and I ate from all,” teaching us that there is a taste of the World to Come in one’s food when it is partaken of with the right purpose. It is easy to see that the custom of kaparot and the symbolic administration of lashes are connected to gevurah, which is also judgment. However, gevurah is not necessarily severe. Regret for the past can also be the most joyous and then it is called sweetened judgments (גְּבוּרוֹת מְמֻתָּקוֹת). The custom of dipping the challah in honey (instead of in salt, as we do all year round[24]) is an example of sweetening the judgments.
Loving-kindness: Yom Kippur
The seventh level of teshuvah is related to our commitment to not repeat our transgressions in the future. This occurs on Yom Kippur[25] and is the ultimate example of God’s loving-kindness. Yom Kippur is described as the “once a year”[26] day, echoing the first day of creation, which is described as “one day,” and which corresponds to the sefirah of loving-kindness. Like the first day of creation, which the Zohar describes as “the day that accompanies all days,”[27] our resolution about our future conduct accompanies us through all the coming days of the year.
Yom Kippur and its special brand of teshuvah as a commitment to future conduct is related to loving-kindness-chessed in many ways. The Chasidic masters describe our existence on Yom Kippur without the basic necessities of life with the verse, “Sustaining them in hunger”[28]; sustaining us in this state of fasting is an act of God’s loving-kindness.
Because God’s forgiveness on Yom Kippur stems from the highest place, we would be tempted to associate it with either the sefirah of understanding or even the crown, the higher sources of forgiveness. However, one of the most important concepts in Kabbalistic thought is the inter-inclusion and hence, the relative position of each sefirah. Indeed, the loving-kindness being revealed on Yom Kippur stems from the crown. More exactly, it is known as the loving-kindness of Atik (which enclothes within the gulgalta, the skull, of Arich)—the higher of the two personae that make up the crown: Atik and Arich. This type of forgiveness goes far beyond anything else we experience in life and the sages found fit to describe it with a special prayer that we say only on Yom Kippur at the very end of the Amidah of Ne’ilah: “You extend a hand to transgressors and Your right hand is outstretched to accept those who return.” The outstretched hand is the right hand, as it were, the symbol of loving-kindness in the body.
The motivation for our teshuvah on Yom Kippur, our resolve for the future, derives from the great love God shows us on this day. On Yom Kippur we too are filled with infinite love because we feel that God loves us with infinite love, and “as water reflects the face,” we answer in kind. Returning to the fast of Yom Kippur, many are familiar with the observation that “on Yom Kippur, we don’t need to eat.” This echoes the expression that “when there is love between a couple, they don't need to eat—they live from love.” On Yom Kippur, this is the great love we feel God has for us and that we have for Him.
Understanding: Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot
With the eighth stage of teshuvah, recall that we are moving from the seven lower sefirot to the three higher ones: understanding, wisdom, and crown. Earlier we explained this shift using the words bitterness and joy. Let us look at this transition from a different perspective, one that is couched in the Kabbalistic understanding of what is happening during the month of Tishrei from a cosmic perspective.
The Arizal explains that during the Ten Days of Teshuvah a process of separation (nesirah) is taking place between the masculine and feminine (similar to the separation between Adam and Eve) and the feminine is built up as an autonomous entity—kingdom. On Yom Kippur, the kingdom-malchut that was being constructed ascended to receive energy from the crown. However, in its place it still stands back-to-back with its masculine counterpart.
It turns to face its masculine counterpart during the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. On Sukkot the union between them begins as a figurative embrace, continued with the willow branches service on Hoshana Rabbah, and finally ends during the Prayer for Rain on Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. This marks the moment of conception, which then lasts through the winter months, eventually giving birth on the seventh day of Pesach. This entire process brings into reality new souls.
The important features to take for our discussion are the two states described as “back-to-back” and “face-to-face.” These also represent the relationship between us and God. The Alter Rebbe explains that all forms of teshuvah are about restoring a face-to-face relationship between man and God. When we sin not only have we distanced ourselves from God, it seems to us that God distances Himself from us, or has turned His figurative back on us. As it turns out, all the teshuvah we have done from Rosh Chodesh Elul up to and including Yom Kippur has not yet restored a face-to-face relationship. Despite all the work we did, we are still back-to-back. This clarifies the saying that “now is the time to begin doing teshuvah.” No matter how great the ascents have been until now, according to the Arizal, we are still in a back-to-back state, and only now do we begin to turn face-to-face. One can understand the tremendous leap that happens here—after all the previous work, now we start a completely new level of teshuvah.
This idea beautifully aligns with the structure of the sefirot. Teshuvah is associated with the sefirah of understanding-binah. After the Ten Days of Teshuvah, it seems that everything is over, and yet, when we begin to return home, the very thing we've been working on is revealed to us.
This brings to mind the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teaching on the secret of inspiration: everything is revealed only once the work is completed (whether we feel we succeeded or did not); when we finish and turn to go back home or to a new destination, only then—precisely because one has distracted oneself from receiving the inspiration—that the light, or spiritual impact of what we worked on can be revealed to us.
So now that all the work of teshuvah seems to be complete: Elul, Selichot, Rosh HaShanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, the eve of Yom Kippur, and Yom Kippur are all behind us. Only now does the inspiration for teshuvah actually appear. Now that we have exhausted all our expectations of how we will subjectively benefit from teshuvah, the true objective teshuvah can begin. To use Talmudic language, up until now the teshuvah we were engaged in was the gavra of teshuvah—the subject of teshuvah. Now we are ready to engage in the cheftza of teshuvah, the objective aspect of teshuvah—restoring our face-to-face relationship with God. Indeed, the intellectual faculties (and sefirot) of the soul are more objective than its emotional faculties (and sefirot).
Wisdom: Sukkot
On Sukkot, the phase of "His right hand embraces me" begins. Until now, it was "His right hand is extended to receive those who return." The sukkah represents the encompassing light of the Mother Principle (Imma), associated with the sefirah of understanding. So how does this connect to the 9th level of teshuvah associated with wisdom–chochmah?
To understand this, we need to consider the Simchah of Beit HaSho’eivah—the Joy of the Water Libation that took place on every day of Sukkot in the Temple. All year long, only wine libations were offered. Wine corresponds to the (intellectual faculties of Imma, of understanding). But during Sukkot, the water libations were offered, and water corresponds to the intellectual faculties of Abba, of wisdom.
The primary teshuvah performed on Sukkot is not during the day but at night, during the Simchah of Beit HaSho’eiva. It is from there, say the sages, they “they would draw the spirit of prophecy,” which though it originates in the “shade of faith” (צַלָּא דְּמֵהֵימָנוּתָא) and begins even before taking the Four Species in the morning, to be internalized must pass through wisdom—a state of self-nullification.
Crown: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
The tenth and final stage of teshuvah corresponds to the crown–keter and occurs on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. In a sense, the joy on the eighth (and outside the Land of Israel on the ninth) day continues the Simchah of Beit HaSho’eiva. However, there is one key difference. Whereas during the latter it was the learned scholars of Torah that rejoiced, while all the common people (including the women) observed, on Simchat Torah everyone is equal before the Torah.
This is the signature attribute of the crown: before it everyone is equal. The crown is a realm that is beyond reason and intellect, and there is no distinction between scholars and common folk there. Thus, on Simchat Torah, everyone participates equally.
Thus, the joyful teshuvah of the 9th level focused on the scholars who danced in the Simchah of the Beit HaSho’eivah in the Temple while everyone else participated passively. This was joyful teshuvah of the intellectual Jews. But thanks to the water libation that connected the joy to wisdom and a state of self-nullification, the joy of Sukkot extends into Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah and becomes joyful teshuvah that is beyond reason, where scholars have no advantage over common people. This is the joyful teshuvah of the crown.
[1]. See the list of “Ten Melodies of Teshuvah” at the end of this article, with links to online performances of these melodies.
[2]. Song of Songs 6:3.
[3]. Likkutei Torah Re’eh 32b.
[4]. See Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 600:2.
[5]. This is one possible reason why the Chabad custom is not to say Selichot from Rosh Hashanah and onward (apart from the Fast of Gedalyah, when Selichot for a fast day are recited)—we are finished with that stage—although it appears from the talks of the Previous Rebbe that in the time of the Rebbe Rashab, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Selichot were said during the Ten Days of Teshuvah (technically this refers to the first 10 days of the new year, from the first day of Rosh HaShanah until and including Yom Kippur, but colloquially it refers to the 7 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur). However, this changed, like many Chabad customs more recently and according to the customs of the area known as Reissin (known today as Belarus).
[6]. See previous note.
[7]. Isaiah 55:6.
[8]. See Zohar 1:199a, 2:134a.
[9]. See Berachot 8b.
[10]. Psalms 81:4.
[11]. Leviticus 23:32.
[12]. Sefer HaSichot 5689, p. 25.
[13]. Isaiah 64:3.
[14]. Mishnah Sukkah 5:1.
[15]. Tanchuma Emor 22.
[16]. For example (Jeremiah 31:4), “I will build you firmly again, O’ Virgin of Israel” (עוֹד אֶבְנֵךְ וְנִבְנֵית בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל).
[17]. Moreover, the connection the Congregation of Israel seeks is one that will revivify and restore its younger years described by Jeremiah (2:2) as, “the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride; How you followed Me [God] in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” This is the renewal we long to experience as a people, particularly in the month of Elul. See more about this renewal in Wonders issue 118 in the article “Second Innocence.”
[18]. Deuteronomy 14:1.
[19]. This innovation stems from the Torah of Mashiach whose Hebrew name (משיח) permutes to spell the word “will rejoice” (ישמח), or “will make others rejoice” (ישמח).
[20]. Psalms 2:11.
[21]. See Lev Lada’at, Perek Be’Avodat HaShem.
[22]. Rabbi Hillel of Paritch, Pelach HaRimon, Bereishit.
[23]. See in length in our Hebrew volume, Yayin Mesame’ach vol. 4, pp. 15ff.
[24]. Many have the custom of dipping the challah in honey until after Shabbat Bereishit (usually, in addition to dipping the challah in salt).
[25]. See HaYom Yom for the 9th of Tishrei: “On the eve of Yom Kippur the service is one of remorse for the past; on Yom Kippur itself—resolve for the future.”
[26]. Leviticus 16:34.
[27]. Zohar 3:103a-b and 3:191b. See also Eitz Chaim 25:2 and Pri Eitz Chaim, Chag HaSukkot, ch. 1.
[28]. Psalms 33:19.
