The Chasidic Soul (2)
And what is the portion of God from above, or the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Job 31:2 NASB
Portion – Let’s continue with our discussion of the article on teshuvah from Chabad.org.
“Teshuvah is therefore a spiritual repudiation of philosopher Will Durant’s statement: “We are what we repeatedly do.” Judaism teaches us otherwise. We are not our sins or our mistakes. We are all inherently good, holy, righteous souls that sometimes lose our way but can always make the choice to reconnect to our essence. Teshuvah is this choice.”[1]
We must also add this important statement: “While regret is undoubtedly a necessary component of teshuvah, it is only a detail, not its primary focus or goal.”[2]
What does this mean for those of us coming out of evangelical religion? It means that the idea of repentance-forgiveness-rebirth is not a Chasidic concept, and perhaps not even Jewish. As these rabbis point out, teshuvah is a return-ing to the essential goodness God created in us. It is not casting off some deteriorated shell and coming out of an anti-spiritual cocoon. It is taking up once more the original divine image, an image that may be have been forgotten in behavioral catastrophe but was never fully erased. God calls us to remember who we are. As Heschel wrote, “To believe is to remember.” He may have meant remembering the history of God’s interaction with His chosen people, but now we see another level in this statement. To believe is to remember who we are as God’s creation.
We have often noticed that the Hebraic view of faithfulness is essentially about perseverance. Faithfulness is continuing to seek God and obligating ourselves to His design for us despite the pressures of the world we occupy. It is not essentially a set of beliefs, a series of doctrinal statements, or creeds. Faithfulness is acting according to the divine image regardless of the cognitive chaos or mental confusion we may encounter. Teshuvah is the choice to return to that original design and destiny, to recover what was lost in the hustle and bustle of living. This means for those within the Hebraic community, conversion is an oxymoron. There is nothing to convert to. There is no “other world” that needs to be gained. Pagans or gentiles might convert because they leave behind the Will Durant idea of reality, but Jews do not convert—not just because the Messiah is already Jewish but because they are not becoming something different than themselves. Teshuvah is coming back home.
What is the portion of God from above? The answer is: God’s design. It is built-in and does not need correction. It needs expression.
Topical Index: teshuvah, return, convert, divine image, Job 31:2
[1] Repentance: Teshuvah (תשובה) Return to the Land of Your Soul
[2] Ibid.
The way of return to Eden (and God’s immediate presence) by Adam (Humankind)— (apart from a death that effects a restored and renewed life in relationship with God and in accordance with God’s own essence of being)— was prevented… guarded by cherubim and a flaming, turning sword… and Man was driven into exile.
Yet there remained but one, and only one, manner of return to the fruit of the “Tree of Life” found in the paradise of God… and that by obedience to God’s will in accordance with God’s own instruction, exercising one’s primacy of authority over the choice to sin. This “exercise of one’s will” to “rule” over sin comes by way of God’s conjoining the power and authority of his own Spirit with that of a person’s spirit and desire in relation to and in communion with God.
In this relationship of loving communion it is God’s desire that obtains a person’s delight, and God’s good pleasure that fills one’s heart and mind and motivates the will to do and be the desire of God’s heart. In such relationship, one’s own self-reflected desires are “dead” and the life that is thus lived in the flesh is lived by faith in the loving faithfulness of God to express the nature of his own being in activity and movement that is itself love.
“The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:8-10)
Setting aside the deep influences Hellenism has had on both Judaism and Christianity, repentance as presented in this TW is beautiful, profound, and quite compelling. “There is nothing to convert to. There is no “other world” that needs to be gained” Teshuvah is coming back home. Back home to the Kingdom of God. Wow! Powerful! So much to meditate on here. Thanks so much.