19 Sep SHABBAT SHUBA: THE EASIEST MISVA

Many of us find Teshuba
to be a difficult, grueling
process. We often feel
too intimidated to even
begin thinking about
Teshuba and changing who we are.
And yet, ironically enough, the Torah indicates
that Teshuba is actually the easiest Misva. In
Parashat Nisavim, we read, “For this Misva…
is not too difficult for you, nor is it distant
from you… It is very near to you, in your
mouth and in your heart…” (Debarim 30:11-
14). The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe Nahmanides,
Spain, 1194-1270) explains these Pesukim
as referring to the Misva of Teshuba. It is
regarding this Misva that we are reassured
that it is easy, that it is not difficult or distant,
that it can be easily achieved.
The Torah does not make this point about any
other Misva. We are never told that it is easy
to observe Shabbat or Pesah. Yet, specifically
when it comes to Teshuba, to changing our
characters, which seems to be the most
difficult Misva of all, the Torah tells us that is
easy. How could Teshuba be an easy Misva?
To answer this question, we turn our attention
to an esoteric comment of the Arizal (Rabbi
Yishak Luria of Safed, 1534-1572) concerning
the widespread custom to wear a Tallit on the
night of Yom Kippur. It is generally customary
to ensure to put on the Tallit before sundown,
so that we are able to recite the Beracha over

the Tallit. Since a Beracha is not recited
when putting on Sisit at night, and we want
to “cash in” on every possible Misva before
Yom Kippur, we try to put on the Tallit before
sundown so we can recite a Beracha. The
Arizal, however, held differently. He writes
– astonishingly enough – that one does not
recite a Beracha over the Tallit worn on the
night of Yom Kippur, even if he puts on the
Tallit before sundown, because the Tallit does
not belong to him. Even though he paid for
the Tallit and he wears it every day, it is not
his. On Yom Kippur, the Tallit belongs to the
Almighty.
How are we to understand this concept, that
the Tallit on Yom Kippur actually belongs to
G-d, and is not ours?
Rabbi Shimshon Pincus (1944-2001) offers
a beautiful explanation. G-d relates to us in
many different ways. On some occasions,
He relates to us as a mighty warrior, and at
others as a loving father. Sometimes He acts
as judge, and other times as a king. Forgive
the expression, but we might say that G-d
wears many hats, as it were, playing a wide
range of different roles in our lives. On Yom
Kippur, Rav Pincus says, G-d relates to us as
a mother. More often than not, when a father
is caring for an infant, he returns the infant to
the mother as soon as the infant soils himself
and his clothing and needs to be cleaned and
changed. Fathers certainly enjoy coddling and

spending time with their baby, but they rush
to pass on the childcare responsibilities once
there is filth involved.
Sin soils the soul. We cannot see the filth with
our eyes, but the filth of sin exists, and the
great Sadikim are able to sense it. On Yom
Kippur, G-d comes to us as a loving, tender,
caring mother to clean up our mess, to get rid
of our sins and make us clean as new. We enter
Yom Kippur like an infant that has just dirtied
himself, and we emerge from Yom Kippur
like an infant wrapped in his towel after his
bath, fresh and clean. The Tallit, Rav Pincus
says, symbolizes the “towel” in which G-d
wraps us, like a mother wrapping her clean
child. This is not our Tallit. After all, on Yom
Kippur we are like infants, who own nothing.
This is our “Mother’s” Tallit, the Tallit which
G-d wraps us in as He cleanses our souls.
The Sages describe Yom Kippur as one of the
happiest days of the year. It is not a sad day;
it is an exciting day, because becoming clean
is exciting. We are transformed from a state of
filth to a state of perfect cleanliness.
And this is why Teshuba is so easy – because
it is the only Misva we do with G-d nearby
as a loving mother helping us. G-d comes to
clean us. As the Mishna says, “Fortunate are
you, Israel! Before whom you are purified,
and who purifies you? Your Father in heaven!”
Hashem cleans us on Yom Kippur, He holds
our hand and leads us through the process of

repentance, and this is what makes it easy.
There is, however, one condition. A baby must
cry out to his mother when he is dirty and
needs to be cleaned. The mother won’t come
unless she hears the infant’s desperate cries
for help. And the same is true of us and our
“Mother.” G-d comes to clean us only after
He hears us crying for help. This means that
at some point on Yom Kippur – and the earlier
the better – we have to cry out desperately for
G-d to come help us. We need to sincerely feel
the discomfort of the accumulated filth on our
souls, and to genuinely cry out to G-d to help
us. He will then immediately come to clean us
off like a mother devotedly tends to her child,
and warmly wrap us in His Tallit, eliminating
all our sins, leading us back to His service,
and granting us complete forgiveness and the
precious opportunity to begin the year with a
perfectly clean slate.