In his book “Orot HaT’shuva” Rabbi Kook teaches that the path to Hashem lies in a person’s connection and involvement in the Nation of Israel. Because God’s blessings come down to the world through the vehicle of Klal Yisrael the baal teshuva must first forge a strong attachment to the Jewish People as a whole, and only then can a living connection to God be achieved. Before returning to Hashem we must return to the Jewish Nation (Orot HaTshuva 13:3).
To most seekers of Hashem this comes as a startling revelation. Usually, teshuva is thought of as repentance over transgression whereby the penitent must express remorse over past misbehavior, strive to redress his wrongdoings, and adopt a sin-free path in the future. While these are all a part of the teshuva journey, the way back to God is much more.
We live in an age obsessed with the individual. Spirituality has become a private journey, a solitary search for transcendence stripped of peoplehood, place, or communal responsibility. But in the world of Torah, there is no such thing as private teshuva. The path to Hashem is through the Divine collective soul of Israel. Clinging to Hashem without clinging to Am Yisrael is not only impossible, it is an all-out spiritual betrayal.
Teshuva begins not with personal purification, but with rejoining the Jewish People. Individuals, as great as they may be, cannot receive the same revelation as an entire nation. This is a very important point, especially since Christianity peddles the notion that it is possible to connect with God irrelevant of, or even without, the Jewish people. Sadly, many Jews believe that Hashem is equally close to all the individuals, even those who turn their back on the Jewish People.
In Jewish thought and belief, one who tries to forge a connection with Hashem by short-circuiting the path to God via the Jewish People is immediately blacklisted to the extent that he has no portion in the World to Come. This is what the Rambam has to say about such an individual:
“A person who separates himself from the community [may be placed in this category] even though he has not transgressed any sins. A person who separates himself from the Congregation of Israel and does not fulfill mitzvot together with them, does not take part in their hardships, or join in their [communal] fasts but rather goes on his own individual path as if he is from another nation and not [Israel] does not have a portion in the World to Come.”
The Rambam is saying something truly amazing. We usually view our association with the Jewish People as a social issue or as a means of facilitating learning Torah and doing the mitzvot. Here, the Rambam comes and teaches us that our affiliation with the Jewish People as a whole is not an optional preference but rather a prerequisite, an absolute necessity for the first step toward mitzvah observance.
The path to God goes through the Jewish People - period. All other paths are fallacious adventures of the imagination. Someone who wants to cling to God must first cling to the traditions, beliefs, aspirations, and mission of Jewish People. He must strive to take an active part in the welfare, building, and strengthening of Am Yisrael in the most productive way that he or she can. Ruth, the first convert, said, “Your nation is my nation” first, and only after that said, “Your God is my God” (Ruth 1:16). This is why, before we do a mitzvah, we recite a prayer proclaiming that we are doing this “b’sheim kol Yisrael - “in the name of all Israel.”
Only with this proper orientation can we approach and fulfill a mitzvah. This is also why the Arizal states that before praying a Jew must accept upon himself the precept of loving your fellow Jew like yourself. Without first fulfilling this mitzvah, it is impossible to properly fulfil any other mitzvah.
The Shemoneh Esrei (Silent Prayer)
The Mishnah teaches us that the original pious Jews would meditate for an hour prior to their Shemoneh Esrei prayer in order to properly focus their hearts on Hashem. The Vilna Gaon explains that to properly pray a person must put thoughts of himself out of his mind and pray for the welfare of Klal Yisrael. Instead of focusing on our personal needs (give me this and give me that) we pray for all of the nation.
When Hashem’s blessings comes down upon all of the nation each individual receives a share. Thus we become representatives for the welfare of the entire Jewish community. We are to pray for ourselves only after having completed the Shemoneh Esrei in the prayer of Elohai Netzor for this prayer is designed for personal supplication. This is what the Mishna means when it says: “They would meditate to focus their hearts toward their father in Heaven” - by focusing firstly on the nation as a whole.
This foundation is further highlighted by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the Shulchan Aruch. There, we are taught that while we pray the Shemoneh Esrei, we should visualize ourselves standing in the place of the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies, facing the cherubs, Keruvim. This means that in order to pray a basic, halakhically kosher Shemoneh Esrei, we have to work for hours every day relinquishing our own personal desires and seeing ourselves as representatives of Klal Yisrael. Only after we have successfully divested ourselves of our personal agenda can we begin the Shemoneh Esrei prayer and then envision ourselves standing before Hashem in the Holy of Holies as a messenger of the Jewish People, asking Hashem for our collective needs.
People who seek God without anchoring themselves to His people are lost at sea. The way home is through the nation, through its covenant, its language, its pain, and its resilience.
Teshuva means returning to Hashem by returning to one’s self, by returning to an identification with Am Yisrael and its destiny in our return to the Land of Israel and to the Torah of Eretz Yisrael. Or, in Rabbi Kook’s word, “There can be no comprehension of God’s light except through the light of Israel” (Orot Yisrael, 1:1).
Rabbi Samson
