Returning Home

For close to 2,000 years we have been waiting for the coming of Moshiach when the soul will finally return home and no longer feel alienated. However, we must first acknowledge that the soul exists, that it feels out of place and that its resources have been squandered for the wrong purposes. Once we have that recognition we reach the conclusion that we must return these “soul-possessions” to its rightful owner.

To be Human is to Correct our Mistakes

Being human, we are often reminded, means that we make mistakes. The Torah has a different take on this. In this week’s Parsha, the Torah states: “If a man or a woman shall commit any sin… they shall confess their sin.” While making mistakes is certainly consistent with the human condition, the ultimate test of our humanity is the recognition that we’ve erred and are prepared to confess ours sins.

It is curious, however, that the Torah teaches us this lesson in the context of the specific crime of stealing from a convert. Of all the crimes that one could commit, one can think of many more likely things that we do and must acknowledge. What lesson can be derived from the need to acknowledge the theft of a convert?

Stealing from a convert?

Upon some reflection it is apparent that all of life’s moral struggles can be characterized as “stealing from a convert.” Who is this convert and how does it relate to us?

We are all in possession of a soul, which is a part of G-d that was “sent” away from its celestial abode to animate our physical bodies. The soul is immortal. It existed before we were born and will live forever. Its presence in our physical world is but a temporary sojourn into a foreign universe. The soul, no matter how long it is in this world, always feels like a foreigner, a stranger. The Hebrew word for convert, Ger, actually means stranger or foreigner.

Both the body and the soul have possessions. Among the soul’s possessions are its intellect and emotions. The soul’s intellect is interested in understanding the G-dly wisdom that is the Torah. The soul’s passions are ignited when we pray to G-d and show kindness to others. The soul feels nourished when we think, speak and act in a manner that is compatible with its spiritual makeup. Whenever one learns Torah, performs acts of kindness or observes a Jewish Holiday, to cite just a few examples, the soul’s possessions are safe and secure.

When we take these intellectual talents, for example, and use them for criminal, or even selfish interests, we are then guilty of stealing from the “convert,” the visitor— the soul.

This explains why the law of acknowledging one’s shortcomings is mentioned in conjunction with the crime of stealing from a convert. While it is important that we acknowledge all of our mistakes, specifically, it is crucial that we also understand the full extent of our errors.

Stealing from Your Own Soul

For example, if one were to have squandered one’s intellect on devising some scheme that will hurt another person, one should not only acknowledge what he did to the other; one must also recognize that he had just injured his own soul by stealing and abusing the precious G-d given resource of intellect and diverting it for undesirable ends. If the purpose of the confession is to make amends, the confession must also include the realization as to how one’s very soul had just been victimized.

While this characterization of the soul as a convert and foreigner to our world is appropriate for everyone and in all periods of history, it is even a more poignant description of the period of exile.

The Jewish people were given the Land of Israel as their homeland, not just as a haven and refuge, or even to provide them with a national identity. Our possession of the Land of Israel was intended, primarily, to give us a spiritual identity. To put it more precisely, the Land of Israel—and more specifically, the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple— is where our soul is at home and not a stranger or alien.

When the Jewish people lost their Holy temple and were exiled from the Land of Israel, that is when the soul has become exposed to a strange and foreign environment, where spiritual values appear radical and secular values and mores become commonplace. This is the root of all of the problems we have in our spiritual lives.

Coming Home

For close to 2,000 years Jews have been waiting for the coming of Moshiach when the soul will finally return home and no longer feel alienated. To bring about this return of the soul to its home and sense of security, we must first acknowledge that the soul exists, that it feels out of place, that its resources have been squandered for the wrong purposes and that we must return these “soul-possessions” to its rightful owner.

Once we make this “confession” we can help the soul find its way home.

Interestingly, the word for confession in Hebrew—viduy— has the same root as the word gratitude. From the awareness of where we are and where we ought to go, we get our souls and bodies out of exile and bring the entire world to the ultimate state of peace, at which time we will express our profound gratitude to G-d.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Naso by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.