Modern Masters: Teshuvah- Transforming & Healing | Rabbi Sam Shor | September 11th 2025

Everyone, our shar this morning, there are three dedications this morning. First of all, um I want to thank my friend Yseph Mayo, who is here in the building somewhere. He should be joining us any second, who is dedicating this morning's learning in loving memory of his mother Miriam Batabella Shalom on the occasion of her 21st yard site earlier this week. I'd also like I have two yard sight in backtoback in our family this week as well. First of all, my paternal grandmother Esther Esther Gas Shalom whose yard was on Yud yesterday and today is the is the uh yard set of my maternal grandfather. So I have two different grandparents from different sides of the family of yards and back toback one on Yudino, one on and my grandfather whose whose yard site is today his name is And so may our limu today be in the and the merits of an aliat and shama for all three of these special individuals. Um and uh just want to spend a second to just contextualize what we're going to do today. Last week last week what is that noise? Last week um does anyone know where that noise is coming from? He's going to check. >> Okay. So, last week we discussed several important themes and ideas associated with this time of we spoke about a little bit. We spoke about theem's 13 divine compassion. We spoke about the par of that we recite twice a day throughout this month of El. And so today we're going to continue along that continue along that mahal that journey of these days of el and the things we're meant to focus on during these days of el. So I want to begin obviously obviously probably the most familiar theme that we're talking about during these days of el is the theme of chuva. And I just want to begin with a few words. If you take a look at oliff on our sheets ruf cook everyone everyone knows ruf cook's work about about the kadush it's the safer o okay many people want to want to attribute this is and call this roof cook's master work in my humble opinion cookook's master work is another safer called a rot chuva the lights of chuva and this morning we're going to learn several pieces from a roach chuva here at Yoseph. Here's the source sheet. Okay, we already introduced that there's a dedicated in memory your of your mother Allah shalom. Okay, in his introduction to Chuva, this is a text shares the following words. This is just a snippet of his letter of introduction to this important savior. Cook says the following. Is it appropriate for me meaning Rabbi Abraham to speak about this concept of chuva? Okay. The the greats of all generation past generations have written and discussed chuva. The prophets sages who were much more pure than I. Okay. pious ones who are greater than me. The and who am I says to be included amongst their community? Who am I to step into their community and talk about chuva? But I will not allow myself any weakness of the this world to to exempt me from the inner calling that's being this feeling I'm being pushed from the inside me to speak about chuva. I feel compelled I'm compelled to speak about chuva. So if this is true about Rafuk okay if Rafuk felt this about himself who is he to speak about Chuva then the vakama who is Sam Shore to speak about Chuva but the just like Rif cook felt compelled when comes when we're in the month of El and we enter into the period to prepare for the yummy we have to talk about chuva we're compelled to talk about chuva so this morning we're going to spend our few minutes together exploring this concept of chuva. I'm going to start with just an introduction before we get into the further text on our sheets of it's not on your sheets says the following words. He says he says today when there's no mdash and therefore we can't bring carbonos to ask for forgiveness to demonstrate our desire to receive atonement the only vehicle we have for kind of improving the judgment whatever judgment we might face is what the vehicle of chua of self-improvement brings atonement for all our transgressions. Even if someone was a Russia, a wicked person their entire life and in the last moments of their life they did shuva then what happens? Then any of his rishes is not recalled in Shabbay. Okay, he's been transformed. The moment he does shuva he is transformed as the says okay that a the wickedness of a wicked one is not is not an obstacle to him from the moment that whats he does chuva once once that once a light bulb goes off in in their head then he has the capacity to transform and move forward I'll share a powerful story that's told about RF Cook. Ruf cookook if any anyone here has ever visited Ruf Cook's home in Shalam. I think we did a tour there. I think we had a I gave a shear there if I'm not mistaken a couple times. I think we did it. Um when you go into R Cook's home there's you can you can see first of all when you come in the door to the left you first see his small office that was open on all sides. I had sliding doors but most of the time Cook kept the doors open. He had a small little office where he would sit and write and and take meetings one-on-one with people. And one of those frequent visitors that came to Cook's house, believe it or not, was Elazab Yehjuda. Who was Elazab Yehjuda? Elaz Yehuda is credited as being the father of modern Hebrew. He wrote he edited a a newspaper in Hebrew. He ed he wrote and put together the first modern Hebrew dictionary. And when Elias was working on that project of building of writing that dictionary, he used to come frequently to speak to Rafkuk who Rafuk was a master of Kabala and Rafkuk knew the shoresim of many many words that that Elias bin was not able to figure out. He knew the roots of many words that Elias bin Yehuda was not able to figure out. So they used to come and speak. So one afternoon, okay, Elaz Yehuda comes, he spends two hours with Rafuk and as Elzar Yehudz gets up and he's about to leave to to uh to to to part ways of cook calls after him says Eleazar perhaps it's time for you to do chuva Elazzar maybe it's time for you to do chuva and Benjuda answers himote Maybe you're right. Elaz Yehuda died that evening. >> Did you say he died? >> He died that evening. Rafuk somehow intuited that these were the last hours of Elaz Yehuda's life on earth. And he wanted to give him the opportunity to at least have a hear. We're going to talk about her chuva today in a moment. At least have a thought that it's possible for him to change his ways. And in so doing, as we're going to, as we just learned from the rabb that once a person makes that switch in their head, any any previous behavior is forgotten once we say we're ready to change and we're going to make the effort to at least begin that process will bring us all the way home. So let's let's let's dive into our source sheets. We now look at source bet on our sheets. This is Ruk a oneliner from RKU. This is the the whole the whole se in in this a text bet in in par and it's alf dollar one the essence of all our failures all our shortcomings all our disappointments in life come as a result why because we don't fully understand and believe what how easy it is for us to change. How easy it is is for us to transform ourselves. How easy it is for us to heal and to move forward. Okay. So that's a very powerful idea. I think if we share this with most people, they say, "What are you talking about? What is talking about?" It's easy to chuva. It's easy for people to change. You ever hear the expression creatures of habit? Right? Human beings are creatures of habit. It's from from our human perspective it doesn't seem so easy to change. It's not so easy for us to transform ourselves. So what is Ro what is Rook saying that if all that the reason why people struggle and have failures in their life is simply because what they don't believe how easy it is to change. So we're going to come back to that question. We'll address that question as we go. So the Torah towards the end they say for dev just a few weeks we'll read this tells us the following this is uh gimmel on our sheets and you will return unto the Lord your God and listen to his words, heed his words, everything that he's instructed you today you your children with all your heart and with all your soul and Hashem will return to you. Okay? And return give you back all your possessions and he will gather you together from wherever you've been scattered wherever Hashem has decided you you you've been scattered to. Now, these these last two should be familiar to us because they're incorporated in the in the prayer for the state of Israel. If you've been scattered, dispersed anywhere to any other corners under the across the globe, under the heavens, from there, Hashem will gather you up and bring you forth. and Hashem will bring you to the land which you're meant to inherit from your ancestors and you will dwell there and it'll be you will prosper there and you'll be more successful there even than your ancestors were. Okay? And then the Hashem will perfect your heart and the hearts of your offspring and you'll come to love God with all your hearts, with all your soul for all your days, for all eternity. Okay. So these sukim are classically called para tatachuva. Okay. the par the the the the parha of chuva. Now it's very interesting. You see first the idea re you shall return to God. Okay but it doesn't say you shall turn towards God which means to come to God. Okay not turn towards God but come all the way to God. Okay if I say I'm going it means doesn't mean I'm stopping four stops before the Okay. If I'm saying I'm heading in the direction of but if I'm saying I'm going to say I'm going all the way to so the doesn't say turn towards God but what you're going to come all the way back to God and it seems like it's a promise and part of that promise by the way of truva of coming back to God is not only meant for us as individuals but it's talking about us collectively as a nation as a people hashm promises in those same sukim what that we're going to come back to is and we're going to thrive here that he's going to bring us back no matter where we may be scattered he's going to bring us back and we're going to thrive here that's part of the process of what we call collective chuva national chuva the chuva of the Jewish people okay and then the pa closes with and hashem will perfect your hearts and the hearts of your offspring so what does that word maumal mean okay where is that word familiar to There's another there's a mitzvah of mila. What's ma? Okay. To remove it means well it's a a covenant of a breach is a covenant of ma of removal of taking a piece of flesh and removing it from the human body as part of a covenant that is established and a mavenu and his descendants. Okay. So what does that expression mean in the context of chuvaem? Hashem will rem will perfect and remove something from your hearts and the hearts of your offspring. So take a look at the Ramban text on our sheets. The Raman says and Hashem will perfect your hearts as the garabas teaches us Hashem will come what? to purify and complete you. Okay. What does that mean? That it's a promise that Hashem makes to every single one of us that if that we will at some point in our lives turn towards God and and make an effort to come close to Hashem and Hashem will what? Help us. So chuva, okay, and these are the this is the what we call the partial cha chuva from the Torah is not solely a mitzvah or a commandment or something we're obliged to do, but rather what? It's a promise. It's inevitable. Hashem promises us we will be able to do this. We can accomplish this. We will be able to do this and he will help us to get there. So Rahers which I guess is the next text I guess it's yeah it was which not numbered where it says Rabbi Samson Rafael Hersh okay whenever we learn Rahers in this in Lisa we learn Rafersh in English why because Rafersh wrote his perish he was the original art scroll he wrote his perish on Kish in German the vernacular so I don't think any any of us here are fluent in German I'm certainly not fluent in German so if we're going to already translate Ravk sorry Rhers from from his original writing, we may as well translate to the language we speak. And so we're going to learn reverse very quickly here. What does reverse say about our P va that you will return unto God. Had it said visha meaning you will turn towards God, it would have been possible to say that scripture means only a return toward God i.e. only a partial return. However, it says but it says you will not stop halfway. Your return will be so complete that you will come all the way back to God. Okay. So, how can we come all the way back to God? What does it mean to come all the way back to Kajbu? Does it mean that on our last day of our life? We described a couple extreme examples a few moments ago. Does that mean only on the last day of our life with to it means to be gathered unto God? Does that what it means that that Hashem promises us that we're going to come back to God? I don't think so. I think it's a promise that what that we have the capacity as human beings to come close and feel close to God and not feel dist often we create in our minds that for whatever based on whatever our life experiences and choices have been up till a certain point in our lives we create a sense of distance and dissonance between us and the reality is that's only from our human perspective and we're now going to learn a very interesting short piece from a great mubal, great mystic, a great cabalist, Rabbi, this is the Birk Shalom, Rabbi Bar Shalom Ashlag. He is the son of the more famous Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. Rabuda Ashlag wrote a commentary on the Zohar known as the Sulam. He's the Balisulam. This is the son of the Balisulam. And there and his son continues today to be the the Rebi of Ashlagidum today. And so let's just quickly learn a short piece from from the shalom. There are those that explain. Okay, this by the way is an an idea in Cababala both in theidic text of K Cabala as well as in the Lithuanian litish text of Cabala like the like um like the of there's an idea that a soul doesn't mean that every single human being is created in the image of God. It means that every single human being is given a spark of divinity that exists within every human being. Okay. is an actual portion okay metaphysically within every of God of divinity within every single one of us that's what we call the okay so says since the is an actual portion of divinity from above okay but as we become distant meaning the further away we are from God what happens it's only a meaning because we're only a we're not God we can't we're not close we're not as close to God as as as maybe the are right so we become a we're a portion we're not we're not whole we're incomplete we're a the local we're not whole the all this is a result of what the fact that the shama as it comes to This world goes through a transformation. When it's in the heavenly world that nama is part of this div this this this this divine collective soul when it comes down into this world it becomes an individual. It becomes a it goes through a a changing of its form. So how can we become more complete if we're if we're only aik if we're if we if if our shama is somehow a portion of a greater entity something bigger than ourselves how do we connect to that bigger entity how do we fix that and become more whole through the capacity of Torah mitzvah okay by the way this is a very important idea we say that there are mitzvah 613 mits so let Let me ask you a question. Does that mean in life we're required to do all tarits? >> They don't. I can't. >> What? >> Why can't we? >> They don't all apply to >> Exactly. They don't all apply to every single individual and every circumstance, but they apply to us collectively. Okay. And that's the idea. By the way, Raash in another beautiful mar talks about this concept of doesn't mean every single Jew is responsible to one another. Ar means to what? to be mixed together to be joined together. Okay, it's like a chalant. The Jewish people are one big cholen pot and by joining together in that collective chalink says raashlag what happens those individual that can only achieve x y and z in this world because like kaduma I'm not a I'm not a coin or ley so there many mitzvos that I can't fulfill in this world because I'm a regular old Israelite okay so by joining together with the collective of amisrael collectively though we can strive to be kind and call and therefore the vehicles the vehicle of Torah mitzos and committing ourselves ourselves to a life and the system of termitos becomes the vehicle collectively for us to transform ourselves from individual to coming back together both as an entity of clal as well as coming back together to feel whole and connected to the ultimate nama to the the the divine the itself. Okay. So therefore he says through the capacity of understanding that the mitzvah allow us to fix ourselves to feel more complete to complete ourselves that it's and that it's possible if we do everything we can. Okay. And through Hashem's help and commitment to help us get there. Okay, then we can once again become joined to the and that is what we call the mitzvah of what? Clinging to God, feeling close to God. By the way, the word here to to be joined to the all, the great all. Okay, that's a reference in cabal. We say that is called the mik. Everything exists within God. Everything comes from God. God everything is God. And our role here on earth, our journey here on earth as a of that coal is what? to come together as as one as am to join together through Torah mitzvah and in so doing then we can rejoin and come close once again to me and that's really what our life's journey is and therefore if there are times in our lives where we have maybe taken a wrong step a misstep and we've kind of jumped off that that trajectory then Hashem gives us a promises us what and if we dec if we come to our conclusion that We need to change and transform ourselves. We when that light bulb goes off in our head of the things we need to fix. The person tells us what Hashem promises what I'm going to help you. Come back. The door is always open. The door is never closed. A Jew can always can always come back. And the Bentadosh, okay, who's whose birthday is today, right? Today is the the birthday of the Bashant. So, so famously taught anyone who adheres himself to one portion of the meaning that we we give we give a map of of stuck every single day. We do we just drop a coin. We do nothing else. We drop a coin in the pushka every single day. We we help we help an elderly lady across the street. We we we we say a braha before we eat our before we eat our our nach at the at the oushir. We go to here one shir a week at the OU whatever that one thing that we do anyone who adheres himself to one portion of the of the great collective that we call it's as if he grasps the whole why because by being part of the system by being plugged into the system we have the we have the capacity to join together and lift each other up. Chuva is not perfection. It's not a desire to become perfect. Chuva is simply a desire to improve and move forward. To leave the consequences of past mistakes and choices and missteps in the past and have the capacity to move forward and the self-esteem to move forward. Okay. So, having said that, let's talk a little bit practically how this plays out in Chuva. We're now going to learn from a short little piece. This if you turn your sheet over or to Zion from the rebarba in this beautiful short teaching says the following. This is to say this is the path that's laid out directly in front of every single person. to know and believe always in all circumstances that certainly a person can come back to and his chuva will always be accepted by the creator. May he be blessed. And the Rebi of Ruptitz clarifies this idea further. But Ramshore in his beautiful cites the safer zerodeses from the Rebi ruptur. And this is going to bring this even even further. says the ruptured seres he explains a person thinks that what because he's had so many mistakes in his life he's done so many things wrong in his life it's difficult it's too difficult for him to do and comes upon him and convinces him what that he's too far gone to change and then what could happen? God forbid he could fall into despair and depression. But don't we believe that is a manifestation of Hashem's kindness? Hashem's and if a person therefore believes that his misdeeds are too many and he can't change as a result of that. What is he doing? He's putting limits to what? Hashem's divine compassion. And Hashem has no limits. Hashem is limitless, is infinite. There's no end to the to the his capacity to forgive and to have compassion. And therefore, the gates of chuva are open for eternity. For every human being and for every circumstance that a person finds themselves, there's always the capacity to transform themselves and prove themselves. The essential messages to what that a person has to understand that chuva is a gift of hashem's compassion for every single one of us and chuva can can be is is relevant in all circumstances the and there's no there's no room ever to despair says says says the rebi of ruptures. Okay. So chuva is a gift is a manifestation of divine kindness. And what we learned from the ritzer, the lisk rebutter in these two short pieces that we just learned is that what that a person might think for whatever reason that they can't change or that hashem or that or that we've done so many things that hashem will never forgive us says says the rebi ruptitz this is absolute kafira okay to put limits on hashem's capacity to forgive and hashem's endless love that he has for every single member of krael is kafira is heresy and cookook takes it a step further that on your sheets in orcha it's a we're going to learn two pieces of cook in a moment in but there's a short piece that didn't make it on your sheets that I saw this morning that really really sums us up very nicely he says but if a person sees that you know there's some things where he may have wronged someone else another person and for for whatever reason because of their human frailty they're not strong enough even they themselves are not strong enough to seek forgiveness or the person who they wronged and harmed is not is not strong enough to forgive them so what might happen a person might fall into despair and think what all hope is lost I tried I did I know I did something wrong but I I just can't fix it. Despite this, a person should never give up on the great capacity of chuva. Because why? Because in addition to whatever things we might have done the wrong our our friends there inevitably what things that we've done okay against okay and if we do chuva on those things and yet despite our despite our our desire to come close to God and do chuva improve our circumstance but for whatever reason we still have human frailties and therefore we haven't fixed everything we need to fix says he says a person shouldn't fall into despair why because there other aanote other mistakes that we made okay that are between us and God and we hopefully have done chuva and certainly we know hashem has forgiven us for them in if that's true we could say suggest the following and if that's true if we've come back to god and we believe that not only we we want to come back to god but that hashem forgives us always no matter what we've He says then what that even there are still things that we've we haven't fixed but those things become what they become nullified okay against the greater amount of truth we done hashem because hashem has forgiven us for the things we done between us and hashem we cook in this revolutionary piece so something so powerful that a chuva is not an all or nothing enterprise chuva is But chuva means that we make the effort, we start, we do the best we can. And Hashem promises us as we learn as we learn both in the sukim from from from Dvarim as well as in the beautiful words of of of that if we make an effort and the Ramban also if we make an effort and Hashem promises us he will do the rest. Okay. Now let's return to one other idea before we get back to our sheets. There's this beautiful story that rebski ram tski rabbi Dr. Abraham Jay Torski uh he cites this is his commentary on the moxer. So Torski says the great master and this is the story of said master of the universe true I am filled with iniquity I'm a flawed human being I'm filled with iniquity but how big is leitzk altogether who am I he says as a person as an individual even if I am filled with iniquity it is infantismal even if I as a human being feel I am filled with transgression and mistakes in comparison to everything else that exists in the world and in the universe and in all of existence. I'm a nobody. I'm a nothing. And the things I've done are nothing. But you, Hashem, are infinite. But you are infinite are endless. And your mercies are infinite and endless. In comparison to your mercy, which is so overwhelmingly great, our transgression transgressions should appear minuscule. Hashem, compared to your ramanoot, it's consistent with everything we learned up till now. Hashem, your rahman is endless. Compared to your capacity to forgive, our mistakes are nothing. They're minuscule. They're non-existent. So with that as our introduction, I'm going to learn two beautiful pieces from Rafuk and Touva that are on our sheets. This comes from Parag Zion of Orcha. is text and you on our sheets. So says a person has to delve deep and believe in the belief of chuva and really really sink their teeth into the faith of chuva and therefore be certain by doing so. If we believe in chuva then it means what? We have to be certain heard that even with a thought of chu only a thought of chuva alone came attacking hero a thought of chuva alone okay just that idea of the desire that I want to grow and transform and change my my reality that's enough not only to metaphysically impact ourselves greatly but also it also impacts the world greatly And we are compelled as a result of that as such that after every thought of chuva, listen to cook's words. And if that's true, if we believe, if we fully put our trust in and we're certain that we have the capacity to prove our ourselves and move forward and leave the past in the past, then what then what happens? He says that we should what? That we should feel more happy and more content have our self-esteem should be restored and should be elevated than we were before we began that process. Chuva is a restoration of self. It's a restoration of self-esteem. It allows us to leave whatever guilt, shame, feelings of disappointment, of unfulfillment in the past and have the capacity to move forward. And therefore in the second piece echoes even further what he says in the first piece. A person has to delve deep in this in into this fundamental chuva. Okay. until its light enlightens within us. Till that light bulb goes off in our heads, right? Wow. Listen to Cook's words. Okay. Many of us go through a lot through life and there are episodes in our lives that we're very still, you know, even from our childhood that we're still very ashamed of. Okay. And when we think about those episodes, it brings us sadness, pain, we're ashamed. Says, "Okay, self-esteem of the capacity to transform ourselves, if we get to that head space and the light, that light bulb goes off in our heads, then listen to his words. We're going to read it again because it's unbelievable. We have to get the point that that the memory of every transgression we've had in the past. Okay. Brings us great joy and satisfaction. Why? Because we make a clean break. We believe what that's in the past. I'm not there anymore. I can look back and laugh and say, "Wow, look how far I've come. I can leave that behind me. It brings me deep great joy says through the the knowledge of the great merits of the enlightenment that comes through the sanctity of chuva and that is the light of God which works to fix the world which is the essence of all creation. The first step to healing the world says Ruk Cook is the capacity to heal ourselves. To let go of the guilt of our past transgressions, to put the past in the past and have the strength, the fortitude, the self-esteem to move forward with confidence and full trust and faith in Hashem that he indeed will allow us to do so and enables us to do so. Just want to close with one last idea because this Messiah Shabas everyone knows we actually are our our brethren of the of of the have already been involved in this for the past few weeks but begin this shabas we'll begin to recite. So ever wonder why we call these these okay means forgi forgivenesses okay to be okay so really if you look at the of theos we're not saying that I forgive you or we're asking for forgiveness they're really requests okay they really should call these bakash requests so the rebi of not sheets the ambi says the following and they ask that question you know what does it mean that we call these this this period this not a period the period of this is the reason why we call this call them how do we know that we're going to where does it say that we're going to be forgiven how do we know this and therefore we should really call these prayers what requests we're asking these are things Hashem we're asking you to forgive us how do we know that that we're going to be forgiven. So listen to these words. But we are certain but we are certain that Hashem will forgive us. And therefore we don't call these we call them because every time as we learned last week every time we recite those we are reminded that au has unending compassion for us unending love for us and will enable us to come closer. We just need to make the first step as the garra famously tells us that if a person opens up makes an opening okay to come close to Hashem even if that opening is the size of the eye of a needle will open it up to us like we stepped into a grand auditorium. My braha for every single one of us as we look ahead to the Messiah Shabas and the days ahead of the Yay and as we take advantage of these days of and everything we've discussed today is that indeed we should be able to move forward with the spiritual fortitude the self-esteem and confidence that we can transform ourselves that we can accomplish things we can achieve even greater things than we did in this past year and that any mistakes or challenges we faced as individuals and as a people in the past here should indeed be we should indeed have the fortitude to leave that in the past to be able to look back on that soon with a sense of of deep joy as Rook says because knowing that it's in the past and knowing what we will be able to achieve in the days ahead. That's my brah for all of us. Shabbat shalom.