Every Elul at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, the Rosh Yeshiva, would add his father’s book “Orot HaTeshuva” to our program of learning.
For Rabbi Kook, t’shuva is a concept much deeper than the common understanding of repentance. It is much more than a penitence over sins and the remorse a person must feel when he strays from the pathways of goodness and truth. While teshuva includes these factors, Rabbi Kook teaches that the phenomenon of teshuva spreads out over all of the universe, bringing harmony and perfection to all of existence.
While teshuva is normally translated as penitence or repentance, the root of the Hebrew word teshuva means “return.” Teshuva is a return to the source, to one’s roots, to one’s deepest inner self.
Rabbi Kook writes:
“When one forgets the essence of one’s soul; when one distracts his mind from seeing the true nature of his own inner life, everything becomes doubtful and confused. The principal teshuva, which immediately lights up the darkness, is for a person to return to himself, to the root of his soul. Then he will immediately return to G-d, to the Soul of all souls. And he will continue to stride higher and higher in holiness and purity. This is true for an individual, a nation, for all of mankind, and for the perfection of all existence...” (Orot HaT’shuva 15:10).
Anything which is a return to the pure, original, natural state, whether it be physical, moral, or spiritual, is a part of teshuva. As Rabbi Kook develops his ideas about teshuva, he speaks not only about the individual, but about the Jewish Nation as a whole in its return to Jewish Statehood in Eretz Yisrael. In turn, the Revival of Israel in its Land triggers the gradually-unfolding uplifting and perfection of all of the world. It turns out that teshuva is the Divine Force which pushes all physical and spiritual worlds towards completion.
However, it is interesting to note that when Rabbi Kook begins his treatise on teshuva he doesn’t begin with the exalted secrets of Torah which form the spiritual blueprint of universal teshuva – he begins with the nitty-gritty of physical teshuva, of getting one’s body in shape. He writes:
“Our physical demand is great. We need a healthy body. Through our intense preoccupation with spirituality (during the Exile) we forgot the holiness of the body. We neglected bodily health and strength. We forgot that we have holy flesh, no less than our holy spirit. We abandoned practical life and negated our physical senses and that which is connected to the tangible physical reality, out of a fallen fear (fear of the physical), due to a lack of faith in the holiness of the Land of Israel (where everything physical is filled with the spirit of holiness).
“All of our teshuva will only succeed if it will be, along with its spiritual splendor, also a physical teshuva which produces healthy blood, healthy flesh, firm, mighty bodies, and a flaming spirit spreading over powerful muscles. Through the power of the sanctified flesh, the weakened soul will shine forth like the dead’s physical resurrection.”
Accordingly, health clubs are filled with people doing teshuva. If a person stops smoking, he is engaging in teshuva. If an overweight person goes on a diet, he is embarked on a course of personal perfection and tikun. When a teenager who is addicted to Coca-Cola begins to drink fruit juice instead, he is returning to a healthier state. In place of caffeine and sugar his blood will be carrying vitamins throughout all of his system.
In the language of the Rambam, this person is replacing a food which merely tastes good, for one that is beneficial to the human metabolism (Laws of Daot, 5:1). As he explains, a person should always eat what is healthy and not merely foods that give his taste buds a lift. Interestingly, the Rambam’s guide to healthy living, written generations ago, reads like the newest bestseller on the market.
While physical wellbeing is a rule of good living, the injunction to be healthy is a basic principle of Torah. We are called upon to carefully guard our life (Devarim 4:9). This is a warning to avoid needless danger and to watch over our health. Inflicting any kind of physical damage on oneself (like excessive cigarette smoking) is forbidden (Tzitz Eliezer 15:39). The Rambam explains: “Having a whole and healthy body is part and parcel of serving G-d, for it is impossible to have understanding and wisdom in the matter of knowing the Creator if a man is ill. Therefore one must avoid things which damage the body and to habituate oneself with things promoting health (Rambam, Laws of Daot 4:1).
Toward the end of the book “Orot HaTeshuva,” Rabbi Kook teaches that teshuva is bound up with personal strength and valor. Man was created to be a strong, active creature. This is true not only for athletes, but for spiritually enlightened people as well. The holy men of the Torah possessed not only great personal attributes and wisdom, but also great physical prowess. Though Yaacov spent all of his youth studying Torah, he could lift up a huge boulder when needed. The little shepherd boy David was able to overcome lions and bears. And the holy spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) which marked Samson’s life was not only wisdom, but incredible physical brawn.
Interestingly, Rabbi Kook was condemned by certain haredi groups who belonged to the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem when he extolled the virtues of exercise and a healthy physique. In his classic work, “Orot,” Rabbi Kook writes that the exercise of young Jews in Eretz Yisrael, in order to strengthen their bodies to become mighty sons to the Nation, adds overall strength to the Jewish Nation, which enables the righteous to bring more Divine light into the world:
“When young people engage in sport to strengthen their physical capabilities and morale for the sake of increasing the overall strength of the Nation..., this holy endeavor raises the Divine Presence ever higher, just as it is exalted by the songs and praises sung by David, King of Israel, in the Book of Psalms....” (“Orot HaTechiya,” pg. 80).
In the Galut, Diaspora Jews were helpless against the oppression of the gentiles. A philosophy developed whereby a Jew was supposed to look solely to G-d for salvation and rescue. The Jews were so outnumbered, how could they fight? Physical prowess was meaningless. A Jew had to rely solely on Torah and prayer.
While that might have been true in the Diaspora, with the return of the Jewish people to Israel, physical strength became a necessity if the Jews were to successfully settle the land and defend Jewish settlements against hostile neighbors. In the generation of National Revival, as the revitalized Jewish Nation returns to its Homeland, a new type of religious Jew must appear to take up the challenge.
Today, the soldiers of Israel are filled with great prowess and valor. This year may we grow ever stronger both physically and spiritually in order to work alongside Hashem in bringing our Redemption to a speedy completion. Amen.
Rabbi David Samson is an Orthodox rabbi and one of the leading English-speaking Torah scholars in the Religious Zionist movement in Israel, and an educational entrepreneur. Rabbi Samson has written six books, most of which are on the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook and Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook