Reply To: Short & Sweet

Vayelech: Reconnecting

Hashem tells Moshe some bad news in this weeks Parsha: after Moshe dies, the people will stray from the path, no longer doing what they are supposed to do and being who they are supposed to be. The consequences will be dire, mostly along the theme of: והסתרתי פני מהם, I will hide my face from them. If they turn their backs on me, I will turn my back them. There is no greater punishment than this. If you don’t want to develop a relationship with your Father in heaven, then you just won’t have one.

The מבי״ט writes in בית אלוקים that although חרטה and עזיבת החטא are necessary components of Teshuva, they are not the actual essence of Teshuva. Teshuva literally means to return. If someone gets into a fight with a loved one, it is not enough to merely say sorry; they have to rebuild the relationship in order for it to go back to being what it used to be. Teshuva is that process of making it up to Hashem, of fixing what we broke, of coming back to once again be with Him.

‎לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
‎לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום