Skip to main content

One Second, I am getting an invitation!

 שׁ֚וּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל עַ֖ד יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּ֥י כָשַׁ֖לְתָּ בַּעֲוֺנֶֽךָ  (Hoseah,14:2- Haftara of Shabbos Shuva)

Return, O Israel, to the [Hashem] your God, For you have fallen, stumbled because of your sin.


Why are you doing Teshuvah?

Do I need a Navie to tell me to do Teshuvah because I sinned?


What does the word עַ֖ד mean in the verse?

עַ֖ד means to come toward. 


Therefore, שׁ֚וּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Return, O Israel, is an invitation to reach toward Hashem, and not because you sinned but because you are down, so therefore the Navie says ,"just start the process".  If you are only doing Teshuvah because we are down it is still okay and that is this Nevuah, prophecy. 


That is why many people use this intention of coming toward Hashem, שׁ֚וּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל עַ֖ד יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ when taking the three steps up in Shmone Esray, the Amidah prayer.


First step: I am getting an invitation..שׁ֚וּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל, Return O Israel.  Hashem is reaching His hand   anthropomorphically out to us

Second Step: You come toward Me - עַ֖ד , Just start the process , one little step..

Third step: Hashem Elokecha, You have not lost Me.


It is not just an invitation to come back, but an invitation to fix the whole world!.


Why are you down? You know, just make a little bit better, and you will fix the whole world!  That is what is possible in Shabbos Shuva.


It's in that moment when you're in a world of Teshuvah,

A world in which you're approaching forgiveness, and atonement .

You don't have to give up hope completely because of an Aveira because we have this gift of Shabbos, which is your invitation to come back, and you can change the world.


Concepts Shared by: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n’’y 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Creation

 All was destroyed during the month of Av. Creation began on Elul, and, so it will again. We recite this prayer for the New Month focusing on Creation. “God created the world in order to do good to an other (Derech Hashem 1:2:1).” Creation was an expression of absolute love, the “other” had done nothing to earn it. This is why Elul, the month of Creation is also the month of intense love between God and Israel. I recite this prayer imaging myself participating in the final Heavenly planning meetings before Creation. I am not praying as one who has already existed and experienced success and failure, but as one who has the opportunity to see the world before Creation, and request in this moment of intense love all that I could possibly need and want. I use this prayer to prepare for all my Elul prayers until the 25th of the month when Creation began. For what shall I ask? What will I need to succeed? How will I define success? What do I hope to achieve? Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

Who clothes the naked

"Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of a young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it." "But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas." "Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to t...

Birchat Hamazon

By: Machberes Avodas Hashem The Chafetz Chaim taught: "At the conclusion of the main portion of Grace after Meals we add a series of,' May the All Merciful.' We add numerous such petitions, indicating that a request to God after the performance of a mitzvah is especially acceptable before Him (Michtevei haRav Chafetz Chaim, page 45)." One of the primary issues of the Exile is, "You wrapped Yourself in a cloud that no prayer can pierce (Lamentations 3:44)." It is more difficult to pray during the Three Weeks than other times during the year because we experience this "cloud." With COVID unfortunately around, this year proves to be even more difficult because our time in shul has changed drastically, and we have never experienced the pain of the three weeks while in a situation similar to the present state of the world. We can use this strategy of the Chafetz Chaim, that of praying immediately after the performance of a mitzvah, so that we may feel t...