TESHUVAH; THE HOLISITC APPROACH
This week’s Parsha, Ki Seitzei, opens with the event when we shall go to war against our enemy. The commentaries explain that this verse alludes to the battle in which we struggle against our yetzer hara. As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we engage in the teshuvah process, the process of returning to HaShem.
This process requires us to battle the yetzer hara whose sole mission is to drive a wedge between us and HaShem. Hence, our Parsha advises us on how to battle the yetzer hara.
We find in the Shemona Esrei two requests which seem to run parallel with each other. In the fifth bracha we request from HaShem that He assist us in achieving a complete teshuvah. In the eighth bracha we request from HaShem that He grant us a complete recovery from our physical illnesses. What is the distinction between teshuvah and complete teshuvah or recovery and complete recovery?
Perhaps the distinction lies in whether the treatment deals with the symptom or the root cause. In medicine there is talk about a holistic approach in which the whole person with all his multiple components are given consideration. The assumption is that all components of the person’s physiology is interwoven with each other and therefore the problem may lie in the root and the solution should get to the source.
If a person has a stomach disorder the holistic approach sees that disorder as a symptom of something greater that is out of order and tries to find the root. The treatment may focus on stress related concerns. Alternatively, the practitioner may look at the stomach problem alone and resolves this disorder. Once the stomach is working, the individual has experienced a recovery although it may not be a complete recovery. If, in fact, there is an underlying disorder that has not been addressed then the recovery will not be complete.
When approaching teshuvah we often look at the various ways we conduct ourselves as they relate to the Torah. Whether it be the manner of our speech, the manner of how we eat, the conduct we have in shul, our mode of communication with family members and so on. All these examples are big deals and deserve our full attention. However, there are two paths by which to address them. One path is to work on the issue at hand, head on, by trying different ways of modifying our behavior.
There is, however, a holistic approach which recognizes that there is something closer to the root which may be generating this behavior. In this approach we would identify the root and work on correcting that issue, without losing sight of the issue itself. If we are successful, our result will be a complete teshuvah.
The Chovos Halvovos, by Rabbeinu Bachya, teaches us that the root of our service to HaShem is found in our heart. HaShem endowed Man with a sense of appreciation and indebtedness to the one from whom we benefit. This appreciation is the root of our relationship with HaShem and thereby the root of our service to Him. It therefore follows that if we have a shortcoming in the way we daven or in the way we talk to others, we need to check the level of our relationship to HaShem.
As our level of indebtedness to Him rises, our sense of self pride declines, and the level of our expectations declines as well. We will feel that we do not deserve all the good health and nachas that He have grants us. We can become overwhelmed with gratitude to Him which propels us to serve Him more diligently. This will, in turn, help us address our list of shortcomings. And in the end we can hope to achieve a complete teshuvah, a teshuvah that diminishes the gap that exists between us.
May Hashem grant us the humility to raise our level of indebtedness and gratitude to Him and draw us continuously closer.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind