Another point of view. by Yehuda HaKohen. “It will be that when all of these things come upon you – the blessing and the curse that I have presented before you – then you will take it to your heart among all the nations where HaShem, your G-D, has dispersed you; and you will return to HaShem, your G-D, and listen to His voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul.
Then HaShem, your G-D, will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will gather you in from all the peoples to which HaShem, your G-D, has scattered you. If your dispersed will be at the ends of heaven, from there HaShem, your G-D, will gather you in and from there He will take you. HaShem, your G-D, will bring you to the land that your forefathers possessed and you shall possess it; He will do good for you and make you more numerous than your forefathers. HaShem, your G-D, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love HaShem, your G-D, with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. HaShem, your G-D, will place all these imprecations upon your enemies and those who hate you, who pursued you. You shall return and listen to the voice of HaShem, and perform all His commandments that I command you today. HaShem will make you abundant in all your handiwork – in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your animals, and the fruit of your land – for good, when HaShem will return to rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your forefathers, when you listen to the voice of HaShem, your G-D, to observe His commandments, and His decrees, that are written in this Book of the Torah, when you shall return to HaShem, your G-D, with all your heart and all your soul.” (DEVARIM 30:1-10)
Upon a superficial reading, these verses can appear somewhat confusing. In verse 30:2, it appears that the Jewish people return to HaShem. We are then brought back to the Land of Israel and receive Divine blessings from G-D. But then verse 30:10 states that Israel again returns to HaShem, prompting a question on the chronology of events. Is Israel first brought back to our borders or do we first return to being Torah observant? Is the Hebrew Nation meant to experience two periods of tshuva?
The illustrious Ohr Sameach, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, explains in the Meshech Chochmah that these verses refer to two types of tshuva. He points out that in verse 30:2 the return to HaShem is written as v’shavta ad-HaShem while the later tshuva in verse 30:10 reads tashuv el-HaShem. Ad-HaShem, he teaches, is not necessarily a return to Torah observance but to Israeli nationhood. It is the Jewish people once again viewing ourselves as part of a single nation after generations of trying to assimilate into the populations in the lands of our dispersion. We suddenly desire our own country, want to speak our own language and seek to share in our own collective cultural identity. This tshuva is essentially a deep sense of nationalism as well as a feeling of unity and solidarity with Jews everywhere.
El- HaShem, the later return, is a renewed embracement of the Torah and its commandments in both our private lives and in the national life of the Jewish people. The Ohr Sameach teaches that once we return to a sense of Jewish nationalism, we will certainly return to observing the statutes of G-D’s Torah. National tshuva is the first stage of a process leading to tshuva on a level far greater than an individual’s personal return could ever reach. It brings Israel to a level of national kedusha and sanctification in every sphere of life, from farming and economics to warfare and international relations. The early stages of returning to national consciousness are part of a Divine historic process that even those participating in are often unaware.
The legendary kabalist Rabbi Yehuda Chai Alkalai (in Kitvei HaRav Alkalai) supports the Ohr Sameach’s view regarding two types of tshuva, defining them as national and individual. Rabbi Alkalai illuminates further that national tshuva is Israel coming back to our homeland. The Redemption, he explains, does not occur all at once but rather takes place in stages – stages in which the Jewish people must actively participate. Israel coming back to a feeling of nationhood – after bitter centuries of dispersion and persecution – is a response to the magnet of G-D’s Will for Creation. The initial stage of the Redemption process is a natural, healthy feeling of nationalism, similar to feelings of nationalism found amongst gentiles.
In Sha’ar 100 of the Akeidat Yitzhak, Rabbi Yitzhak Arama points out that the process of Redemption takes place with the tshuva of returning to nationalism, followed by G-D bringing Israel back to our homeland. Only following this national ingathering comes the tshuva of Israel returning to Torah and experiencing a complete and magnificent Redemption.
Rabbi Zvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook concurs with the above view and adds that the Redemption is in and of itself tshuva as it is the Jewish people returning to the fullness of what the Nation of Israel is naturally meant to be. Rabbi Kook calls on us to appreciate that the Redemption comes “slowly, slowly” (Jerusalem Talmud Brachot 1:1) and further demonstrates, based on several Biblical verses, that ad-HaShem is a collective subconscious tshuva of returning to nationhood in the Land of Israel whereas the tshuva of el-HaShem stems from a conscious understanding that loyalty to G-D necessitates certain beliefs and behavioral norms. While the tshuva of ad-HaShem generally has no conscious destination, the tshuva of el-HaShem carries with it a deep awareness of the Divine Source to which one is returning.
The concept of el-HaShem occurring after the ingathering of the Jewish Nation to our homeland is expressed throughout Scripture (YOEL 2:12, AMOS 4:6, EICHAH 3:40-41) with YISHAYAH 44:22 stating “return to Me for I have redeemed you,” implying that Israel returns to Torah after being redeemed. And one of the clearest examples of this process can be found in chapter 36 of the Book of YEHEZKEL.
“I will take you from among the nations and gather you in from all the lands, and I will bring you to your own soil. Then I will sprinkle pure water upon you, that you may become cleansed; I will cleanse you from all your contamination and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and I will make it so that you will follow My decrees and My ordinances and fulfill them. You will dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers; you will be a people to Me, and I will be a G-D to you.” (YEHEZKEL 36:24-28)
While it is often pointed out that the majority of Zionist pioneers in the pre-state period did not necessarily intend on fulfilling a Divine plan, the national Segula often shines through the level of a person’s individual free will. Even beyond what the early pioneers themselves understood on a conscious level, they were performing a great act of national tshuva and bringing Creation ever closer to perfection. The deepest yearning of Israel’s national soul is to bring G-D’s world to ultimate completion. Modern Zionism emerged as the external political expression of the ancient yearnings that for thousands of years existed deep within Israel’s collective spirit. History has awakened the Hebrew Nation in order to bring existence to the complete Will of HaShem. This is achieved through the vehicle of what will become the Kingdom of Israel – G-D’s throne in our world. This is the true essence of Israel’s national aspirations, culminating in the entire Jewish Nation living securely in our homeland with a Temple in Jerusalem, revealing HaShem’s light to mankind.
With Love of Israel,
-Yehuda HaKohen
Am Segula
