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Teshuvah

תשובה

Teshuvah (return)

Returning the soul, which descended into physical things, to its source and root, to cleave to G‑d; not only leaving sin. Its two levels are the return of the lower and the higher hei.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3, ¶8Shabbos (תשב) and teshuvah are one: the return of things to their source. Teshuvah is not only from sins; it is returning the soul, which descended and was clothed in physical things, to its root, setting aside one’s will before the Supernal Will. So the Ten Days of Teshuvah and Yom Kippur were instituted for the completely righteous too. The higher teshuvah is from the depth of the heart.תשובה אינה מעבירות שבידו דוקא אלא תשובה היא להשיב נפשו שירדה מטה מטה ונתלבשה בדברים גשמיים אל מקורה ושרשה
  2. Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2, ¶8“One hour of teshuvah and good deeds” cannot mean merely leaving sin. Teshuvah returns the soul to its source to cleave to the Or Ein Sof itself; “teshuvah preceded the world,” for the world is drawn from the Name Havayah, which is only radiance (ziv), and teshuvah is above that radiance. Israel as a whole reaches it on Yom Kippur.והתשובה הוא למעלה מבחינת זיו שהוא ביטול והתכללות באור א״ס ב״ה ממש
  3. Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶29Teshuvah is “the spirit returns to Elokim who gave it”: to the soul’s supernal root, ayin and mazal, above the Name Havayah, through bittul and mesirus nefesh. This is why one should be “all his days in teshuvah”: each day, in saying Shema Yisrael, one gives over his soul in “One.”וזהו ענין התשובה שהרוח תשוב אל האלקים אשר נתנה דהיינו לבחי׳ שורשה העליון בחי׳ אין ומזל
  4. Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶2Teshuvah is tashuv hei, the return of the higher and the lower hei. It is needed by those who sit in the tent and study Torah: when one interrupts the Written Torah (higher hei) and the Oral Torah (lower hei) for worldly vanities, he must return these two hei’s to their source.כי העולם טועים לומר דוקא אנשים פחותי הערך ובעלי עבירות הם הם הצריכים לתשובה והאמת אינו כן
  5. Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 1, ¶12The Supernal Will, far above the bounds of the worlds and not in the chain of Chochmah and middos, is drawn by the inner point of the heart, the higher teshuvah that preceded the world: the heart turns from one extreme to the other, darkness into light, despising worldly pleasures to cleave to G‑d.בחי׳ פנימית נקודת הלב שהיא בחי׳ תשובה עילאה שקדמה לעולם

Stated differently

Where the line between the lower and the higher teshuvah falls: between thought and speech, or between the soul’s memalei (thought, speech and action that flow from intellect and middos) and its sovev

Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶2התבוננות בגדולת ה׳ ועיון תפלה וכוונתה במחשבה הוא בחי׳ ה׳ עילאה וכשמוציאם בפה בעסק התורה והתפלה היא בחי׳ ה׳ תתאה

Contemplating G‑d’s greatness and the intent of prayer in thought is the higher hei; bringing them out in speech in Torah study and prayer is the lower hei.

Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3, ¶27תשובה תתאה היא בבחינת ממלא שבנפש היינו במחשבה דבור ומעשה הנמשכים מהשכל ומדות

The lower teshuvah is the memalei of the soul: thought, speech and action that flow from intellect and middos, all bound to G‑d (“with all your heart… with all your soul”); the higher teshuvah is the sovev of the soul, “with all your might.”

Discussed by

  • The Rebbe · Likkutei Sichos vol. 39, p. 57

    The Rebbe asks why Iggeres HaTeshuvah divides the Name in the soul as mind and heart (yud-hei) against Torah and mitzvos in speech and deed (vav-hei), rather than Likkutei Torah’s division where the last hei is thought, speech and action, and answers that this division fits the two levels of teshuvah.

    כי חלוקה זו (די״ה שייך לעבודת הלב והמוח, ואותיות ו״ה לעסק התומ״צ בדיבור ומעשה) מתאימה לב׳ הדרגות דתשו״ת ותשו״ע

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Nach vol. 1, p. מט

    On David ‘who raised up the yoke of teshuvah’, the Tzemach Tzedek places lower teshuvah in memalei, guided by intellect and middos, and higher teshuvah in sovev, through ‘with all your might’.ועיקר הדבר כי תשובה תתאה הוא בבחי׳ ממכ״ע ע״פ השכל והמדות ותשובה עילאה היא בבחי׳ סוכ״ע ע״י בחי׳ בכל מאדך

  2. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga, old ed.) 5748, p. 136

    On Likkutei Torah’s reading of ‘before Havayah you shall be purified’, the Rebbe explains teshuvah as returning the G‑dly soul to its source as it was before descending into the body, which is above even the Name Havayah.וכיון שענין התשובה הוא להשיב את נפשו למקורה ושרשה, נמצא שענין התשובה הוא להשיב את הנפש למעלה משם הוי׳

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5717, p. שכח

    The Rebbe explains the two levels by the two effects of sin: lower teshuvah takes back the vitality drawn into the kelipos, and higher teshuvah draws down a new supernal will where the light withdrew; the lower comes first and surely leads to the higher.פעולת החטא היא בב׳ ענינים. הא׳ הוא המשכת החיות בהקליפות, והב׳ הוא סילוק האור. וב׳ ענינים אלו הם בב׳ מדריגות

Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶29Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Balak 5, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Balak 5, ¶34Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶9Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 1, ¶12

Where it appears

In 461 paragraphs of 168 maamarim.

Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.

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