Blessing for Torah Study
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.
Beginning with Our Own Torah
1) Think of a moment in time when a nation did teshuvah. How does that moment strike you? What do you feel when reflecting on it?
2) Do you think it's possible for a nation to do teshuvah?
Source #1. Deuteronomy
(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which your God ה׳ has banished you, (2) and you return to your God ה׳, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then your God ה׳ will restore your fortunes*fortunes Others “captivity.” and take you back in love.*and take you back in love More precisely, “take you in; restore your standing.” The image is of a (typically male) householder, who has the authority to determine the standing of his household’s members, especially as heirs. Cf. Hos. 1.6; 2.6; 2.25; 14.4; Isa. 54.8; Ps. 103.13. See the Dictionary under “householder.” [God] will bring you together again from all the peoples where your God ה׳ has scattered you. (4) Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world,*world Lit. “sky.” from there your God ה׳ will gather you, from there [God] will fetch you. (5) And your God ה׳ will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and [God] will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors. (6) Then your God ה׳ will open up*open up Others “circumcise.” your heart and the hearts of your offspring—to love your God ה׳ with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live. (7) Your God ה׳ will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you. (8) You, however, will again heed ה׳ and obey all the divine commandments that I enjoin upon you this day. (9) And your God ה׳ will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and your produce from the soil. For ה׳ will again delight in your well-being as in that of your ancestors, (10) since you will be heeding your God ה׳ and keeping the divine commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching—once you return to your God ה׳ with all your heart and soul.
Source #2. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Covenant and Conversation: Renewal of the Sinai Covenant (2019)
(9) The next verse continues, “For this command which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” Which command? Nahmanides says: the command of teshuva. Why so? (10) The most striking feature of the passage above is that it is a set of variations on the Hebrew verb lashuv, the root of the noun teshuva. This is almost entirely lost in English translation. All the italicised phrases – “take to heart,” “restore your fortunes,” “again,” and “turn” – are, in the Hebrew text, forms of this verb. The Torah often repeats a word several times to emphasise its significance as a key word: sometimes three or five times, but usually seven, as in the present instance (taking “restore your fortunes,” veshav et shevutekha, as one composite phrase). Thus Nahmanides is quite right to see the subject of the passage as teshuva. What, though, is teshuva in this context?
Source #3. Hosea
(2) Return (shuvu), O Israel, to the ETERNAL your God,
For you have fallen because of your sin. (3) Take words with you
And return (shuvu) to GOD.
Say:
“Forgive all guilt
And accept what is good;
Instead of bulls we will pay
[The offering of] our lips (4) Assyria shall not save us,
No more will we ride on steeds
Nor ever again will we call
Our handiwork our god,
Since in You alone orphans find pity!” (5) I will heal their affliction (mishuvatam),
Generously will I take them back in love;
For My anger has turned away (shav) from them. (6) I will be to Israel like dew;
He shall blossom like the lily,
He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree. (7) His boughs shall spread out far,
His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,
His fragrance like that of Lebanon. (8) They who sit in his shade shall be revived (yashuvu):
They shall bring to life new grain,
They shall blossom like the vine;
His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Source #4. Talmud
§ Further on the topic of repentance, Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said: Great is repentance, as it brings healing to the world, as it is stated: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:5), which teaches that repentance from sin brings healing.
Source #5. Rosa Blumenfeld-Romero
"Jewish Call to Healing and Action in Solidarity with Indigenous Communities," Reclaiming Indigeneity (2021)
I am Indigenous to Turtle Island (my people are the Muisca people in current day Bogota, Colombia), but most members of the Jewish community who live here are not. Regardless of where we came from and why we came here, as Jewish people we can still use our ritual of immersing in a mikveh, a sacred body of water, to start healing. I propose that we use that ritual now in an act of solidarity and healing with First Nations, Metis, and Indigenous communities who are grieving and in pain.
The news of the recovery of 215 remains of the schoolchildren broke in late May, 2021 just a day before I was scheduled to immerse as part of my monthly practice. I was heartbroken but also numb. When I went into the water though, it worked its way into a crack in my heart so that I could begin to feel this enormous loss. In addition to my usual prayers and reflection, I found myself praying for the spirits of these children, for healing and justice for their families, and communities. The crack widened into a full blown waterfall as I sobbed in the arms of a friend the next day.
We all have water around us and within us that is healing. I propose that any Jew who wishes to honor the spirits of these Indigenous schoolchildren immerse in a mikveh anywhere in Turtle Island. Starting today, July 1st, 2021: Canada Day. In the spirit of the Queer Mikveh project and the Open Mikvehs of the Rising Tide Network, I think of mikveh expansively. I am not here to tell you how or where to immerse. (But if you have questions this section on the Mayyim Hayyim website, my home mikveh where I guide and immerse myself, should help) Just get yourself connected to a body of water, take a picture of your feet in the water and post it to social media with the hashtag #everychildmatters #jewsforeverychildmatters. Originally I thought this would be a call only for the month of Elul, July 2021, which is a month for grieving in the Jewish calendar. But there have been more and more remains discovered, and more are still to come. I think that this needs to be an ongoing effort in every Jewish community on Turtle Island.
My hope is that this will break through the isolation that surrounds grief so that Indigenous peoples know that non-Indigenous peoples care and stand in solidarity with them in this time of grief. But that the Jewish community is also willing to do its part for truth and reconciliation. Click here to see some actions steps that you can also take, and organizations that you can donate to from the Cowessess Nation in Saskatchewan.