“Dear Brothers, those who are anguished over the pain of our nation and who feel with all of their souls its awful destruction, tribulation and disgrace - the truth is clear that no cure, nor easing of the frightening situation of the nation can possibly occur other than the return to the cradle of our youth, to the Holy Land, to build it and to be built up by it!"
“The time has come that, from out of the quagmire of all our thoughts, we come to the conclusion and recognition that for once and for all time, the beginning and end of our national endeavor, which requires such great effort, such great talent, and so much self-sacrifice on all of our parts, these are all rooted in and welded together with the great key of redemption - t’shuva.
“However, there are many things which inhibit our t’shuva, and we are obligated to remove them from our midst and to overcome them with all of our strength. The principal barrier, however, which truly contains all others within it, especially when speaking about the general t’shuva of all of the nation with all of its factions, in relation to the course of the emerging redemption which is developing and budding in our midst, this is the false picture of t’shuva as being something associated with a poverty of spirit, with weakness, feebleness and the strangulation of life.
This picture also truly damages the t’shuva of every individual, as is widely known, but more than anything it obstructs the t’shuva of the nation, which is now destined to come at this time with the beginning traces of the redemption, with which we must be braced with strength and yearning to be satiated with the dew of life, with mighty creativity and vitality.
“And for this, we are obligated to reveal this secret, that the true t’shuva of all of the Jewish people - of which the return to the Land of Israel, which is continuing and increasing in our midst, is one of its greatest foundations - must be planted in our inner beings like a mighty, powerful vision, which gives us treasures of boldness and strength, to stand with a firm spirit against all of our oppressors, and to stir within us an exalted creative spirit, one which is dynamically growing with all of the spiritual and material values that we have in the valor of the Rock of Israel.
“This life-abounding t’shuva which flows not from individual downtrodden souls, but from the treasury of the soul of the entire nation of Knesset Yisrael which unifies within it all of its many different organs, this t’shuva comes to us through manifestations that can be divided into four eternal, absolute values which appear in a cognizant step-by-step fashion. These values are honor, love, knowledge, and life.
“Honor must return to us, the honor due to our people, the honor of the nation and all of its exalted, holy acquisitions, without allowing ourselves the habit of belittling any one of them.
“After honor comes love, for without honor (toward the nation in all of its aspects) an idealized love cannot find expression. Together with appearance of honor, the noble love (for our nation) immediately appears and sends us its rays.
“After love, knowledge must come - the banishment of ignorance (ignorance regarding our history, our religion, our heritage) must come speedily, engaging our attention all of the time.
“And all of these values will bring us life, the life of Torah, complete in all of its wholeness.
“From t’shuva that is learned in this form, the light of peace will also flow to us with all of its glow.
“We have no party that you will not find within its midst a proper relation to at least one of these values. And from the living relationship to the one, the soul’s inner striving toward completeness is prepared to link up the entire chain until its conclusion, and the soul of Israel in its wholeness will be ready to return to its great strength as in the days of yore.
“Listen please, my dear brothers, and place this golden key, the key of the true redemption - t’shuva - upon your heart. And a year of redemption and salvation, a year of peace and true brotherly love will befall us quickly in our days, Amen."
[From the book, “The Art of T’shuva" by Rabbi David Samson and Tzvi Fishman.]