[Avodah] Teshuvah - Positive or Negative

[Madjsolomon at aol.com]

Dear Friends,
 
In response to Daniel Eidenson's query about how we promote Teshuvah to our  
youth and Baalei Teshuvah, I have attached the text of a talk I delivered  to 
youth directors in preparation for the Yamim Noraim. I hope it is of interest  
to some. All feedback greatly appreciated.
 
Johnny Solomon
 
 
The high Holy Days are by their nature misunderstood. They are high –  
unreachable to all but a few, and supposedly holy – although no student or  teacher 
or philosopher has ever been able to define this word meaningfully to  me. 
This confusion regarding the nature of these days means that the youth we  
encounter in our synagogues, as well as pretty much everyone else in shul, come  
with baggage, and generally the wrong type of baggage. 
Our generation are  not the first to misunderstand the nature of Rosh 
Hashana. We find in Sefer  Nechemiah (8:10) that on Rosh Hashana, Ezra read the Torah 
to the people, who  responded by mourning and weeping. His response, with 
Nechemiah and the Leviim,  was "Go your way, eat fat foods, and drink sweet 
beverages, and send portions to  them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is 
holy to our Lord; do not  grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Some Mefarshim say that the reason they cried was because the curses from  
the Torah were being read, and this made the people realise how much they had  
sinned. However, according to the Malbim, the regular Rosh Hashana Torah 
reading  was read. Only when hearing this did the people even realise that it was 
Rosh  Hashana! Like many of the youth we encounter in shul, it did not hit the 
people  that Rosh Hashana was coming until that very day. The people 
immediately reacted  – they started to cry. They wanted to fast. They realised that this 
was a once a  year opportunity that was soon going to pass. However, Ezra and 
Nechemiah  responded by stating “Go your way, eat fat foods, and drink sweet 
beverages  etc.” What the Malbim implies is that when you have the ‘
infrequent fliers’ –  those Jews who only realise the enormity of Rosh Hashana on Rosh 
Hashana (which  I think describes the majority of the kind of kids we 
encounter), don’t let them  mess about with the heavy stuff that takes serious 
preparation. Such a Jew does  not have the stamina to
revisit their wrongdoings. Instead, all that kind of  Jew has is their faith 
and their desire to do something positive. In my opinion,  we have a 
responsibility to actualise this desire. Such a Jew can achieve more  by doing acts of 
chessed such as sending “portions to them for whom nothing is  prepared” than 
dwelling on their
past misdeeds. 
This idea reminds me of  one of the most famous Talmudic debates (Eruvin 13b) 
between Beit Hillel and  Beit Shammai…"For two and a half years were Beth 
Shammai and Beth Hillel in  dispute, the former asserting that it was better for 
man not to have been  created than to have been created, and the latter 
maintaining that it is better  for man to have been created than not to have been 
created. They finally took a  vote and decided that it were better for man not 
to have been created than to  have been created, but now that he has been 
created, let him investigate his  past deeds (y'fasfes) or, as others say, let him 
examine his future actions  (y'mashmesh).
What’s the difference between the two final opinions? Somebody  with time to 
reflect, who makes time to reflect, who prepares for days such as  Rosh 
Hashana should rather investigate their past misdeeds as that Rambam  demands of us. 
However, like the people listening to Ezra, and like our kids,  their limited 
time deliberating spiritual ideas should focus more on their  future actions. 
That is, not what they have done, but
what they can be.
What we have just done, whether or not you realise it, is define our goal  
and the goal of our kids during these busy and complex days.
So, how can we  make our activities productive in formulating and planning 
the future spiritual  activities of our students post Rosh Hashana and Yom 
Kippur?
There is an  important idea in teaching. Something you might all know but you 
might not have  considered far enough. This is that theory of multiple 
intelligences. That is,  we all learn differently; our brains are more effective 
with more individualized  teaching to our learning style. Rav Kook, reflecting on 
this idea, noted in his  Orot HaTorah (9:6) "There were those that went off 
the path of the Torah because  they rebelled against a method of learning which 
ran counter to their unique  individual nature". That is, unless we recognise 
the individual needs of the  youth we encounter, we can actually have a 
negative effect on their Jewish  education.
 
 



   
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