Transcript
Automatic transcript; may contain mistakes, especially in Hebrew.
This week's question. I'm not looking forward to Yom Kippur at all. It's not just the long davening and the fact that I'm mostly bored and shul. I don't get the entire concept of teshuva. Hashem knows my sins. Why do I need to bother admitting them? Everyone says God forgives, but honestly why would he? He knows the future and knows that I'm going to sin again anyway. I wouldn't forgive a friend if I knew they were going to make the same mistakes again. Why should God forgive me? This is an excellent question and frankly It goes back to the beginning of creation. Why did God create the world? The Medrash and Parsha's Nasso says, Niss ava Hakadosh Baruch Hu Liosloy Yis barach Direh petachtoynim God desires to have a dwelling place in the world down below. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the concept of sin and we have a proclivity, a natural proclivity towards sin. What does that mean? It means that sin presents us with an opportunity. As in every relationship, when we struggle in the relationship, when we do things that the relationship says are inappropriate, i.e. aviros, there are opportunities there. Although the V'y'av'era creates a separation between the spouse. The opportunity is to find each other in the dark.
And there's something exceptionally beautiful about coming together again. This is why Adam and Chava originally were created as one, but then were separated and told V'hayu l'basa echod become one again. There's something exceptionally beautiful about finding each other after the separation. And that's what it means to create a dwelling place for God in the world down below. If we never did any havayros, we wouldn't be living in the world down below. We would be living in the world above, like a maloch. But that's not what God desires. And so God created the concept of sin. And He knows that we are going to continue to sin throughout our lives. But what He wants is for us to bring Him into that conversation. That's what it means to be truly in a relationship with someone. When you're not only sharing with them your positive aspects, but also your negative ones. When you're willing to say to them, This is who I am, all of my frailty, all of my humanity. It's not necessarily who I want to be. It's not who I'm proud of but it is who I am.
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And when you look towards God and you share with Him your avarice and you commit to the relationship knowing that you're going to make mistakes again that's what builds a relationship with God. No different than it would with a spouse or a friend. So you say why Shabbat Kedosh Baruch Hu Accept Your Teshuva. It's true, the Ramban does say that it's not a chuvashlehme until you come to the same place, in the same time, in the same situation, and you don't do the avayreh again. That's true, it's not a chuvashlehme. But that doesn't mean it's not a teshuva at all. It could be that you will do the avayreh again. But the truth is, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows that you're going to do the avayreh again. But the truth is, there's something beautiful about continuing to come back to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and owning your mistakes.
Does God already know them? Of course. But just because God knows them doesn't mean it's not valuable to talk about them with Him. This is what often happens in a marriage when one spouse says to the other, you know I love you, why do you need me to say it? Because if we don't talk about it, then what's the relationship about? Why are we so afraid to kam takadosh baruch, admit and admit our frailty and our humanity? Isn't that what makes us human? And ultimately, isn't that what God desires? The challenge for those of us who struggle with Yom Kepir is as follows. We believe that because of our avaros we are unlovable. And Judaism says just the opposite. It's because of your avaros that you are created. There's a tremendous opportunity to do teshuva. By bringing Hakadosh Baruch Hu into your avaros, by doing teshuva, by having that conversation with God, we create a dwelling place in this world for God. And what does it mean to create a dwelling place? A place where God feels comfortable. God will only feel comfortable with us when we bring Him in to the most uncomfortable places in our own life and then will truly be in a relationship with God.
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