Spiraling
Towards Repentance
There are five factors in teshuvah (repentance),
each of which can be a starting point for the entire process.
By Rabbi David J. Blumenthal
This piece is excerpted from "Repentance and
Forgiveness," which appears in the journal Crosscurrents, and is reprinted with
permission of the editors
Teshuvah [return] is the key concept in the rabbinic
view of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. The tradition is not of one mind on
the steps one must take to repent of one's sins. However, almost all agree that
repentance requires five elements: recognition of one's sins as sins (hakarát
ha-chét'), remorse (charatá), desisting from sin (azivát ha-chét'),
restitution where possible (peira'ón), and confession (vidui).
"Recognition of one's sins as sins" is an act of
one's intelligence and moral conscience. It involves knowing that certain
actions are sinful, recognizing such actions in oneself as more than just
lapses of praxis, and analyzing one's motives for sin as deeply as one can. For
example, stealing from someone must be seen not only as a crime but also as a
sin against another human and a violation of God's demands of us within the
covenant. It also involves realizing that such acts are part of deeper patterns
of relatedness and that they are motivated by some of the most profound and
darkest elements in our being.
"Remorse" is a feeling. It is composed of feelings
of regret, of failure to maintain one's moral standards. It may also encompass
feelings of being lost or trapped, of anguish, and perhaps of despair at our
own sinfulness, as well as a feeling of being alienated from God and from our
own deepest spiritual roots, of having abandoned our own inner selves.
"Desisting from sin" is neither a
moral-intellectual analysis nor a feeling; it is an action. It is a ceasing
from sin, a desisting from the patterns of sinful action to which we have
become addicted. Desisting from sin involves actually stopping the sinful
action, consciously repressing thoughts and fantasies about the sinful
activity, and making a firm commitment never to commit the sinful act again.
"Restitution" is the act of making good, as best
one can, for any damage done. If one has stolen, one must return the object or
pay compensation. If one has damaged another's reputation, one must attempt to
correct the injury to the offended party.
"Confession" has two forms: ritual and personal.
Ritual confession requires recitation of the liturgies of confession at their
proper moments in the prayer life of the community. Personal confession requires
individual confession before God as needed or inserting one's personal
confession into the liturgy at designated moments. The more specific the
personal confession, the better. One who follows these steps to teshuvah is
called a "penitent" (chozér be-teshuvah).
The tradition is quite clear, however, that recognition of
sin, remorse, restitution, and confession, if they are done without desisting
from sin, do not constitute teshuvah. Without ceasing one's sinful activity,
one has only arrived at the "preliminaries to teshuvah" (hirhuréi
teshuvah). Actual desisting from sin is what counts.
Thus, if one desists from sinful action because one has been
frightened into it, that is still teshuvah and the person is considered a
penitent. For example, if a person ceases to gamble compulsively because
someone threatens to beat him severely the next time he does it, such a person
is considered a penitent. Or, if a person ceases to steal because he has been
told he will be sent to jail the next time it happens, such a person is
considered a penitent. Furthermore, if a person becomes convinced that he or
she will be punished in the life-after-death and ceases sinful action on that
account, this person too is considered a penitent, though this motivation for desisting
is higher than the previous ones because it is a function of a larger religious
worldview which considers the wrongdoing as actual sin.
Teshuvah which is
rooted in fear of humans or God is called "repentance rooted in fear"
(teshuvah mi-yir'á) and, while not the highest form of teshuvah, it is
the core thereof. Reform of one's character through analysis of sin, remorse,
restitution, and confession, when combined with the ceasing of sinful action,
is called "repentance rooted in love" (teshuvah mei-ahavá).
"Repentance rooted in love" is desirable but, without cessation of
sin, reform of one's character is useless. Maimonides, the foremost halakhic
(legal) and philosophic authority of rabbinic Judaism, lists desisting from sin
as the very first step to teshuvah.
Rabbinic tradition teaches that all the steps to teshuvah
are necessary. Their interrelationship is best described as a spiral which
touches each of the five points, yet advances with each turn. Thus, one may
begin at any point--with action, analysis, remorse, restitution, or confession.
However, as one repeats the steps of teshuvah again and again, one's analysis
and remorse deepen, one's restitution and commitment-to-desist become firmer,
and one's confession becomes more profound. As one cycles through the five
phases of teshuvah again and again, one's teshuvah becomes more earnest, more
serious. At its height, one achieves "full teshuvah" (teshuvah
gemurá), which would require full consciousness and action such that, given
the same situation, one would refrain from the sin for which one had repented.
Sinfulness is a very deep dimension of human existence and
dealing with it calls upon all our spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and
moral resources--even when we recognize that ceasing to sin is the base line of
repentance.
Rabbi David R. Blumenthal is Jay and Leslie Cohen
Professor of Judaic Studies at
Emory University, Atlanta. His books include Facing
the Abusing God: A Theology of
Protest and God at the Center.
