Nitzavim
What is the final destination of teshuva?
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher Moran Peled
"Repentance (teshuva) is a spiritual awakening and a process of approaching the Divine Source. In the torah portion, teshuva, also translated as ‘return,’ arises in the people of Israel when they are in exile: 'and you take them to your heart amidst the various nations to which your God has banished you, and you have returned to your God and you have heard in his voice' (Deuteronomy 30:1-2).
A sense of exile is key to any return. Similarly, every mindfulness practice recognizes that we are still in exile – from our thoughts and imaginations, from our suffering and pain, from anger and the residues of the past. Over time, daily practice becomes our container of return.
The final destination of teshuva is also described in parshat Nitzavim: 'Then your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your offspring - to love your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live.' (Deuteronomy 30:6). Circumcision, understood metaphorically in our tradition to mean excess, what we carry around that does not serve us. Only the circumcision of the heart has the power to remove, after years of struggles and coping, all the barriers between us and God.
Every time we experience love – to a flower, to our physical sensations, to the breath, to our family members, to our students, to the text – we are in a state of circumcision of the heart. To paraphrase the words of a well-known Zen sage – I do not practice to reach love – every practice of mine is an expression of love.
The realization that we are repentant does not contradict the fact that we have already arrived – that it is enough for us to experience love in order to be in a complete state of the heart, in a whole state of being."