Return to Returning
In the Age of Moshiach we will fully experience all of the qualities and all of the accomplishments of the past. The difference between the past and the future, however, is that in the past the world’s qualities were incompatible with progress. In the future, we will recapture the innocence of the past and maintain it, even as we experience the most advanced spiritual experiences of the future. SHUVAH SHUVAH
A Special Shabbos
This Shabbos is known as Shabbos Shuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance, or, more accurately, The Sabbath of Return. The obvious focus of this Sabbath – and of the entire period from the beginning of the Month of Elul through Yom Kippur – is to return to the path of Torah.
There can also be another dimension to this Sabbath of Return. This is especially true considering the fact that the word Shabbos itself contains the word Tashev, which means return. Accordingly, we might say that this Sabbath is the Return to Returning.
Secular versus Jewish Progress
Our world is a world obsessed with progress. And this is the way it should be. We are constantly moving forward. This is true not only in the technological sense, but also in the spiritual sense. Indeed, one of the signs of life is SHUVAH movement and growth. Judaism does not allow the individual to stop, to stagnate.
But, Jewish progress, unlike secular progress and movement, requires of us to occasionally redirect our energies, by driving in reverse. This does not mean that we should allow ourselves to backslide, and it certainly does not suggest that we should deliberately regress.
What this notion of return means is to return to the qualities and characteristics of earlier stages of life as well as to return to the earlier stages of our history.
A little child is blessed with innocence. Youth is characterized by its intensity and energy. A person in his/her twenties waxes idealistic. People in their thirties through the first half of life experience creativity. This is when we engage in building our homes and families and, establishing institutions that are the bedrock of society.
Every new phase of life introduces us into new realms and new challenges. All this progress and change is positive if not for the fact that it is usually at the expense of some earlier quality that we lose.
Recapturing Youthful Innocence and Creativity
Shabbos Shuvah, teaches us to return to returning. There are times that we have to look back, not for nostalgic SHUVAH reasons, but, in order to recapture some of the qualities we left behind.
To return, then, is to recapture the youthful innocence, energy, enthusiasm and creativity we left behind when we matured.
Our personal lives parallel the historical development of the Jewish people. While, every generation represents progress and growth; while new spiritual vistas are constantly being opened before us, we must return and recapture the unique qualities of the past, even as we forge ahead and conquer new territory.
Returning to the Future
This notion of return is also inherent in the Jewish view of Redemption. In the Messianic Age, there will be new revelations of G-dly energy. There will also be a concomitant return to the past, i.e., to the innocence and pristine nature of existence, that characterized the world at the time of creation.
In the Age of Moshiach we will fully experience all of the qualities and all of the accomplishments of the past. The difference between the past and the future, however, is that in the past the world’s qualities were incompatible with progress. In the future, we will recapture the innocence of SHUVAH the past and maintain it, even as we experience the most advanced spiritual experiences of the future SHUVAH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Haazinu by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
