Breslev Tsfat

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur. The inherent energy of the day itself is astounding and miraculous. God created one day in the year, where no matter where and who you are, the day itself purifies and atones for you. This means that in certain instances, God actually erases the sin, even for a Jew that is unaware that it is Yom Kippur. Because of this, Yom Kippur should be the happiest day of the year. Many are rightfully solemn on this day, but it is not forbidden to smile and radiate happiness in your home and to your friends on this day. By all rights, we should be dancing in the streets.

Taken from a recent shiur of Rav Ephraim Kenig, shlita.

G'mar chatima tova to all of Am Yisrael.

Ratzo v'Shov: Running & Returning

A person needs to be an expert on how to go along the path of teshuva. According to Rebbe Nachman, this is called ratzo v'shov, running and returning.

A person can take something lofty upon himself. He runs headlong into it, thinking he is really getting close to God now... but his expectations extend far beyond his actual ability. When he fails to meet his own high expectations, he falls completely in frustration and despair, failing to even accomplish what is within his ability. This is the concept of ratzo, running.

When one comes crashing down from unrealistic expectations, a person is greatly weakened. This can happen even with normal expectations, when one sees that he has not reached them in the way he wanted. This is the meaning of being expert in Running and Returning. "I will run to it, but whatever I achieve, I will be happy with what I managed to achieve without being frustrated." Then renew your energies and try again with more realistic expectations. This is shov, returning.

The dynamic of ratzo v'shov can be expressed another way: When a person ascends so high in his spirituality and feels so close to God (ratzo, running), he needs to know that he is still far and has not attained God, as it were. On the other hand, the idea of shov, returning, is when a person is in the lowest of depths, feeling like nothing, thinking he will never get up again. The Yetzer HaRa says, "You should know yourself already. You will never change. You will just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Why even try to get up?" It is here where God says, "I am with you in this place, let us ascend together."

These ideas are the secret of teshuva.

Taken from a recent shiur of Rav Ephraim Kenig, shlita, based on Likutey Moharan 6:4.

Doing Teshuva on Teshuva

It is true that Yom Kippur completely atones for a Jew. But looking deeper, it is more accurate to say that it completely atones for one at the level he is currently holding. Since there are many levels to teshuva (repentance), we cannot possibly wipe out all of our mistakes at once. Initially, we did not realize the gravity of our actions. When we begin to realize the seriousness of our deeds, we are aroused to return to God. Yet as we grow spiritually, so does our awareness of the greatness of God. When we do teshuva, we are purified and ascend to a higher level and our perception of God is correspondingly heightened.

At this stage, we need to repent for our more inferior perception, which is now considered "material" compared to our relatively higher spiritual awareness. We now understand that our deeds were more serious than originally thought. Therefore, we need to ask forgiveness again according to our new level. Practically, this means that there are times we need to recall old misdeeds we thought we were finished with and repent on a level consonant with our newer spiritual level.

Not only that, due to our limited perception at the time of our misdeed, it was as if we "limited" the God's honor (in our own minds). We now must repent for this seeming insult to God's honor. If God is called Ein Sof, the Unlimited One, how can we understand the true depth of what that really means? For this reason, the process is endless. We must ascend higher and higher to attain greater levels of understanding the greatness of the Creator.

This is the dynamic of Olam HaBa, the World to Come, a continuous coming close to the Endless Light.

From a recent shiur of Rav Ephraim Kenig, shlita, based on Likutey Moharan 6:3.