The Essence of Yom Kippur

Topics

• Yom Kippur, Light, and Teshuvah
• Teshuvah: Brokenness and Simcha
• The Ya’avetz on the Ba’al Teshuvah
• The Inner Chamber in the Neshama
• The Simcha of Teshuvah
• Eating on Erev Yom Kippur and the Meaning of Simchah
• Elul: Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li
• Teshuvah Begins With Us, and Continues With the Ribbono Shel Olam
• The Rambam on Paro and the Help Needed for Teshuvah
• A Pshat From B’sheila Belze
• Teshuvah Me’Ahavah and the Language of the Pasuk
• Teshuvah from Ahavah
• Rosh Hashanah and the Gift Given in Advance
• Teshuvah Requires Help and Clarity
• The Rambam on Separation from the World
• Clarity, Teshuvah, and Simcha
• The Baal Shem Tov on Teshuvah

Transcript

# Yom Kippur, Light, and Teshuvah

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.

Shalom aleichem. How good you are. I want to begin by thanking the host, Rabbi Yankiv. You should hear from far that I am thanking Rabbi Yankiv. Yeshar koach, and your home should be a makom of tefillah. For kinus, people should come together for tefillah.

Tonight we discuss Yom Kippur as we approach Yom Kippur tomorrow. What is Yom Kippur? I am sure everybody knows. Let us speak about, *vos is Yom Kippur?* What is Yom Kippur?

We begin Yom Kippur with the pasuk, "Or zarua la-tzadik, u-lishrei lev simchah" — a light shining, stretched out for the tzadik, and for those who are straight of heart, simchah, happiness. Why is this the opening pasuk of Yom Kippur? Why is this the pasuk with which we begin the tefillos and all that we do on Yom Kippur? This is the opening remark, so to speak: "Or zarua la-tzadik, u-lishrei lev simchah." What shaychus does it have with Yom Kippur?

Now, ba'alei seichel, the Chazal are already known. It is a famous Chazal: "L'David Hashem ori v'yishi." We say it in Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, as well as Elul, following up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Chazal say: "L'David Hashem ori" — ori is Rosh Hashanah; "v'yishi" is Yom Kippur. Why is Rosh Hashanah ori? Why is Yom Kippur yishi? Pay attention.

"Or zarua la-tzadik" — "L'David Hashem ori." The light: there is a lot of light that we talk about on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. What is this light? "L'David Hashem ori v'yishi" — Hashem is ori v'yishi. Ori on Rosh Hashanah, yishi on Yom Kippur. And who is the ori? Hashem. Hashem is my ori, and Hashem is my yishi. It does not say Rosh Hashanah is ori and Yom Kippur is yishi; it is Hashem. The Ribbono Shel Olam is ori v'yishi.

What does it mean? What is the intention of this Chazal, and what is the pshat in this Chazal? I believe the pshat speaks deeply into the understanding of what Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur really are, the essence of the day.

I want to begin with the Zohar. The Zohar has a kashya, and I am going to give you a kashya: How could a person ever do teshuvah? Teshuvah needs bechi, sachnunim; a person needs to be broken over his aveiros. And yet we know that when a person is ba'atzvus, ein haShechinah shorah. The Gemara says, ein haShechinah shorah loi mitoch atzvus. So how could a person do teshuvah to come close to Hashem, when teshuvah is necessary to have atzvus, or brokenness — let us use a nicer terminology — if the Shechinah runs away from it while you are trying to get too close to the Shechinah?

So the Zohar asks this kashya, a very deep question: How could a person do teshuvah? It is a dichotomy in teshuvah — teshuvah, bechi, sachnunim, tzo'ik, the Rambam. You know the loshon of Tefillah Zakah: "Hareini mis'abel." If you look in the hachdamah to your Yom Kippur tefillos: "Hareini mis'abel al chato'ai, aveiros." How is it possible? Teshuvah, aveiros, brokenness, and yet at the same time the Shechinah?

The Baal Shem HaKadosh, so yagen aleinu, says a muhdike yesod: teshuvah is both...

# Teshuvah: Brokenness and Simcha

It is at once part of teshuvah, b’chisach nunim, and at the same time simcha. There is tremendous happiness. They coexist in the act of teshuvah. It is an interesting, almost schizophrenic, if I may use that term, emotion: broken yet simcha, broken yet simcha — and that is teshuvah.

How does that work? What does that mean? On Yom Kippur, we are going to come. There is going to be a lot of crying, I hope. People are going to have emotions of tears and charatah. They have to feel bad about what they have done. And yet, as we will soon discuss at greater length, u’li yishra leiv simcha. There has to be simcha. Otherwise, you cannot do teshuvah. Otherwise, you do not have hashra’as haShechinah.

# The Ya’avetz on the Ba’al Teshuvah

There is a remarkable Ya’avetz, rabboisai. Chazal say: what is the ba’al teshuvah? The Ribbono Shel Olam takes him and makes a passage, a tunnel. He digs for him so that he should be able to reach the Ribbono Shel Olam. The Ya’avetz asks: what does that mean? He brings another Gemara. The Gemara says, b’makom she’ba’alei teshuvah omdin, ein tzaddikim gemurim yecholin la’amod. There is a place where the ba’al teshuvah stands, where even the greatest tzaddik does not reach. On the simple level, it means levels, as Rabbeinu Yonah says: there are levels of teshuvah.

But the Ya’avetz says: haf l’vatala, haf l’vatala. The Gemara in Chagigah says that the Ribbono Shel Olam has batei gavay and batei barai — outer chambers and inner chambers. In the outer chambers, the Ribbono Shel Olam is oz v’chedvah bimkomo; everything is extremely happy, joyous. Yet there is an inner chamber, a beis gavay. And in that inner chamber, the Gemara in Chagigah says, the Ribbono Shel Olam is boicheh. The Ribbono Shel Olam is broken, misabel, over Klal Yisrael, over the churban, over the inner pain.

So the Ya’avetz says: the Ribbono Shel Olam digs a tunnel for the ba’al teshuvah because he cannot come to teshuvah through the beis barai, through the outside. He cannot come with the outside, because the outside is simcha, and he needs to be boicheh. He needs to be mischarret; he needs to feel broken over what he did. So the Ribbono Shel Olam digs a tunnel, through which he is able to reach the inner chamber, the beis gavay, where the Ribbono Shel Olam is also boicheh.

That is b’makom she’ba’alei teshuvah omdin, ein tzaddikim gemurim yecholin la’amod. They do not reach there. They never get there. The tzaddik stands directly before the Ribbono Shel Olam, as close as possible from the outside. Yet a tunnel is dug so that the ba’al teshuvah should reach the inner chambers, where there the Ribbono Shel Olam is also boicheh. He is boicheh for Klal Yisrael. He misses Klal Yisrael. He longs for the kesher with Klal Yisrael, and the ba’al teshuvah is trying to reach that kesher. He is trying to get back. So the Ribbono Shel Olam digs, from within, a place where he can reach.

# The Inner Chamber in the Neshama

Where are these batei gavay and batei barai? Where is it? The moral says that it is actually in the neshama of every Jew. Every Jew has a neshama, chelek Eloka mima’al. The heart of the Jew has this beis gavay, because the Ribbono Shel Olam is within him. So the beis gavay digs deep into his own neshama to reach the Ribbono Shel Olam. The beis gavay goes deep, deep, to the kesher with the Eibishter in his neshama.

# The Simcha of Teshuvah

The Rabbi is taking him and digging in front of him that tunnel, so that he should be able to reach the Rabbi — a kirvah that even the biggest tzaddik does not have.

Let us speak now about the simcha of teshuvah, the role it plays, and the importance it has in the process of teshuvah. There is a Midrash, brought in halachah, that teshuvah brings about that on Motzaei Yom Kippur we eat and we are happy, like a Yom Tov. The Mishnah Berurah says, as it says in Chazal, that a bas kol comes out and says: go eat, go drink, go be happy on Motzaei Yom Kippur.

Motzaei Yom Kippur, happy, a bas kol — what is a bas kol? Who hears this bas kol? The G-d of Rabbis, I believe it goes all the way back to the Chidushei HaRim, who explains the bas kol in Chazal beautifully. Chazal tell us that it speaks and it screams: people are not properly respecting the Torah, not learning it as they should. The Chidushei HaRim asks: who hears this bas kol? Why do you need this bas kol? What is the point of it?

He explains that every Yid, when he has an inyan in his heart to learn or to daven, that is the bas kol speaking to him. Every day there is a bas kol that speaks to the Yid from within his neshama. The Ribono Shel Olam is calling out to him: come back, I want you to learn, I want you to daven, I want you to be a good Yid. And the Yid is in tune with it.

There is something called a short-wave radio, a special frequency that it picks up, but not every radio is able to pick it up. The neshama of the Yid is a special radio, and it picks up this frequency of the bas kol. Regular people do not hear it; nobody hears it. But the Yid does, and that is his avodah of teshuvah, says the Chidushei HaRim. Every Yid feels and experiences from time to time a certain burst of: yes, I want to go do, I want to go learn, I want to go and fix, I want to do teshuvah. That is the bas kol, from deep in the neshama, deep inside, where the lev and the neshama of the Yid are calling out: come back, be in touch with the frequency, with the voice that is calling inside your neshama.

To be in tune with oneself, Rabboisai, is a very, very, very important yesod in spiritual health as well as mental health: to be in tune and to understand what the neshama and your heart are really telling you and need and want. Motzaei Yom Kippur, after kaparas avonos, after Yom Kippur, the heart is speaking. You had a kaparas avonos, you came back close to the Ribono Shel Olam, simcha, leich echol besimcha — that is the voice in the neshama, that is the bas kol.

Avdolis Lozei HaChatzadik Levrochel used to say: if you want to measure how much kaparas avonos you had, how much hatzlachah you had on Yom Kippur, see how much simcha you had on Motzaei Yom Kippur. That is a good gauge to measure how Yom Kippur went. This is the simcha — an inner simcha, a peace from within — that the neshama is now where it belongs, where it is supposed to be. This is the simcha of Motzaei Yom Kippur.

Now, Rabboisai, this simcha is not only Motzaei Yom Kippur; it actually escorts Yom Kippur in. It is supposed to be there on Yom Kippur as well. We all know, based on a pasuk, that one is supposed to eat a seudah on Erev Yom Kippur. Why do we have to eat a seudah on Erev Yom Kippur? The pasuk says it is to prepare for Yom Kippur, for the fast. Someone eats in order to fast, so it is as if he fasted, right? Like, for example, if someone sleeps...

# Eating on Erev Yom Kippur and the Meaning of Simchah

So he could learn better. The sleeping is part of the learning.

There is an interesting Aruch HaShulchan that says that the more one eats on Erev Yom Kippur, the harder it is to fast the next day. When a person is not full and then enters a fast, he does not feel the fast as much as he would if he were full. Therefore, eating on Erev Yom Kippur gives the milah of *ki’ilu hu yis’anah*, as if he fasted.

Rabbeinu Yonah, in *Shaarei Teshuvah*, says that the reason we eat a seudah on Erev Yom Kippur is because באמת we should be eating a seudah on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a Yom Tov; it is a day of simchah, a day on which we have a chiyuv to eat and to drink. But since we cannot eat on Yom Kippur, we are *magdim* the seudah to Erev Yom Kippur. The loshon of Rabbeinu Yonah is *lahar’os simchasoi*, to show how happy, how ecstatic one is that Yom Kippur is coming and that one will receive a kapparah for one’s aveiros.

Simchah brings one into Yom Kippur. Simchah is at the end of Yom Kippur; simchah is a big part of Yom Kippur, the essence of the day, and of the teshuvah that we do on that day. As we spoke, that is the beginning, the opening passage with which we start Yom Kippur: *erzu alah tza’uli yishrei leiv*, simchah. Yom Kippur is very, very based on simchah. We need to go further and dwell on this simchah properly. On one hand we are being mischarret, and on the other hand we are being b’simchah. On one hand we are crying, and on the other hand we are b’simchah. The Baal Shem Tov, as we said, explains that both emotions join together in the teshuvah process.

# Elul: Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li

What is the peshat? Perhaps we can say a mo’edike, mo’edike yesod, and this will really open our eyes, our mind, and our heart to understand Yom Kippur.

*Ani l’dodi v’dodi li* is Elul, which precedes and brings in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Elul, *ani l’dodi v’dodi li*. The Mishnah Berurah adds a word in *ani l’dodi v’dodi li*: *ani l’dodi v’az dodi li*, *l’kabel teshuvasi*, *li’os karev li l’kabel teshuvasi*. What is the *v’az*? What does the Mishnah Berurah mean? *Ani l’dodi v’dodi li* is a pasuk in Shir HaShirim. What is *ani l’dodi v’az dodi*?

There is a famous debate found in Tanach between us and the Ribbono Shel Olam. At the end of Eichah we tell the Eibishter, *Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v’nashuvah*. So who brings whom? Does the Eibishter bring us, and then we come back—*Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha*, and then *v’nashuvah*? In Yirmiyah there is a pasuk, *Shuvu eilai v’ashuvah aleichem*. The Eibishter says: you come to Me, and I will come to you. Who makes the first step in teshuvah? Is it *Hashiveinu*, where the Eibishter takes us? Or is it *Shuvu eilai*, where we need to come to Him, and then the Ribbono Shel Olam accepts us?

The Kozhnitzer Maggid speaks a lot about this, and Chassidishe sefarim speak a lot about it. I believe it is even in the Rishonim. I think the Mishnah Berurah is saying that Elul is *ani l’dodi, v’az dodi li*. In Elul, we make the first move. *Ani l’dodi*—we make a move. *V’az dodi li* is *karev li l’kabel teshuvasi*. The Ribbono Shel Olam takes over, to accept and to bring us back.

If you notice, the Mishnah Berurah brings down that the sofei teivos are *mal Hashem Elokecha es levavcha*, Elul, *mal Hashem Elokecha es levavcha v’es levav zar’echo*. I believe that is the connection here as well. The sofei teivos—what is the end? The end is *mal Hashem*; the Eibishter does it. Teshuvah.

# Teshuvah Begins With Us, and Continues With the Ribbono Shel Olam

The Rabbi actually does teshuvah for us, with us. We make the first step: *pischu li pesach, k’chut ha’sha’chat, va’aniyavtach lachem k’pis’chei shol ulam.* Elul is when we make the step of teshuvah, to return, and then the Rabbi takes over. The Rabbi takes over.

The Rabbi writes that you do not realize how teshuvah helps a person. He gives him everything, all the necessities, to be able to do teshuvah. The lashon of Rabbeinu Yonah is, *v’yizba b’tar*—the beginning of Rabbeinu Yonah, *v’yizba b’tar, ki yazir Hashem l’shavim, k’shen y’ativa maseges.* A person’s own character is not able to reach teshuvah.

You think it is easy to change? Anybody here married? Tell me, ever—okay. Anybody ever able to change? It is easy to learn Shas to change one characteristic. But why are we expecting a person to change, to become a changed person? The lashon of Rabbeinu Yonah and the Rambam always says, *b’er yachadash*—I am a new man, I am a new person. It takes years. And the answer is: you start, and then the Rabbeinu Sholelem fills in the process.

# The Rambam on Paro and the Help Needed for Teshuvah

There is an interesting Rambam. The Rambam writes that Paro sinned so much that the Eibishter took away his bechirah to do teshuvah. He says it is a lesson that sometimes a person can do such sins that they take away the bechirah. Yes, but Paro did do teshuvah. We find in Chazal that he did teshuvah. How can you have a Rambam saying clearly, and a lesson taken from Paro, that there is no teshuvah? What do you mean? Paro did do teshuvah at the end.

There are many terutzim; we do not have to go through them now. But I believe one of the basic terutzim, which is glatt pshat in the Rambam, is this Rabbeinu Yonah. Of course, there is no such thing as not being able to do teshuvah. There is no such thing. Chazal write that even if a person does the worst aveiros, teshuvah never gets closed. There is no such thing. If a person wants, he can fight his way back no matter what.

But does the Rabbeinu Sholelem help you? Does He give you this siyata d’shmaya in teshuvah? That is what the Rambam means, that they do not give. There is a deficiency sometimes that the Rabbeinu Sholelem does not help. We lost that Rabbeinu Yonah’s help, that the Rabbeinu Sholelem is there in the process to help the teshuvah.

And how do I know that this is the pshat? The Rambam continues, this is in Perek Hei, Halacha Dalet. After he discusses at great length in Halacha Gimel that Paro could not do teshuvah, he writes: this is what the tzaddikim ask from Hashem, that they should not be like Paro, that they should not fall into the same level and depth of aveirah as Paro. And they ask from Hashem, *l’azram.* The Rabbeinu Sholelem, *l’azram.*

So it is clear that what is the Rambam referring to when he says that Paro lost his ability to do teshuvah? He lost the help of Hashem in the teshuvah process. And the tzaddikim ask Hashem, *l’azram*: please, Rabbeinu Sholelem, help. I need Your help in teshuvah. Teshuvah is, let us use a strong word in English, dynamic. It is something very, very big. It is not easy. It is something complicated. It is deep. It is the change of a person. You need the help of the Rabbeinu Sholelem. And the tzaddikim used to ask, *l’azram, al ha’emes.*

# A Pshat From B’sheila Belze

I would love to tell you a pshat from B’sheila Belze. B’sheila Belze—half of a fella. *Rosh Hashanah, b’chodesh hashvi, b’echad la’chodesh.* You blow shofar. *B’chodesh hashvi,* it is the seventh month. *B’echad la’chodesh,* the first of the month.

# Teshuvah Me’Ahavah and the Language of the Pasuk

R. Shiela Belsa says that the more appropriate language would have been, “Be-echad la’chodesh ha’shvi,” because that means “in the seventh month,” not merely at the beginning of the seventh month. It should say, “Be-echad la’chodesh ha’shvi” — in the seventh month, and on the first of the month. Beautiful dikduk in the pshat of the pasuk, says R. Shiela Belsa. It is an eye-opening, deep understanding of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos. Beautiful, classic.

# Teshuvah from Ahavah

R. Shiela Belsa says that teshuvah cannot be done from eimah and yirah alone. It needs to come from ahavah. Proper teshuvah has to be with ahavah and simchah. When do we achieve that? Sukkos. You notice that the Gemara says that at Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah they would dance and say, “Ashrei mi shelo chata.” Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah was the moment, the epitome of teshuvah, because it is teshuvah me’ahavah.

And let us say this for a moment: what happens when you do teshuvah me’ahavah? Zedonos na’asim k’zechuyos. If you notice, we sing the Al Cheit. We are going to sing the Al Cheit. Tell me, have you ever put out a musical tape and have a whole cantata of how many chato’im you made? I don’t know, what are we singing? “Hashivenu, b’gadnu” — that is a niggun, that is a cheisla. It is brought in sefarim that since this is zedonos na’asim k’zechuyos, so we sing it. There is a song here. The song of teshuvah is that everything I did turned into something beautiful.

R. Shiela Belsa says that the epitome of that happens on Sukkos.

# Rosh Hashanah and the Gift Given in Advance

On Rosh Hashanah, if you notice, we say, “Yiratzeh sheyirbu zechuyoseinu.” What does that mean? Either you have it or you don’t. The famous question is: what are we asking? We ask the Ribbono Shel Olam that we should have teshuvah me’ahavah, that the aveiros should turn into zechuyos. “Yirbu” should multiply our zechuyos by taking the aveiros and turning them into zechuyos. But when does that actually happen? It happens on Sukkos. Yet we need it on Rosh Hashanah, don’t we? We are being judged.

The Ribbono Shel Olam gives it to us in advance. He knows where we are heading. That is where we are going. He says: I care about you, I love you, I will give it to you in advance. “Bechodesh ha’shvi, be’echad la’chodesh.” It works in reverse. It is not “be’echad la’chodesh”; it is “bechodesh ha’shvi.” It works backwards. It works in advance. It is so haflo’afel, “be’echad la’chodesh ha’shvi.” The Ribbono Shel Olam takes us at the beginning of the month of Tishrei and already puts us in the middle of the month, advancing the payment.

Why does the Ribbono Shel Olam do this? Because He helps us with teshuvah. It is only the Eibershter who gives us and says: let Me help. Let Me help them. Let Me give it to them so that they should have it. And that is “Ani le’dodi ve’dodi li.” It is love. There is a lot of love in teshuvah, because the Ribbono Shel Olam is saying, I love you, and therefore I am going to help you with it. It is “Ani le’dodi,” and then “dodi li” to receive teshuvah. So He steps into the process. He is sitting there and saying, okay, let Me be there. Let Me take this person and give him what he needs, the keilim, everything he needs to be able to do teshuvah. “Ani le’dodi, ve’dodi li.”

You know, rabosai, as an example: when you have two people fighting, even if it is a husband and wife and there is an issue, sometimes the wife will tell him, go fix your problems. Sometimes the wife will say, let us work on it together. You start, fix it, and I will help you with it. We will do it together. When there is dodi, when there is love...

# Teshuvah Requires Help and Clarity

Then it is together. It is me and you, Rabbi Nishlel. We are in this together. I can only do a certain amount. I can start, I can try, but the rest I need your help.

Rabbi Yisrael, what is the help that the Ribbono Shel Olam gives us in teshuvah? What is it? It says that Hashem helps us. I gave one peshat: He gives us help already in advance. The lashon of the Rambam is clear: Hashem helps us. *Lo’azram al ha-emes.* Teshuvah emes.

Why is teshuvah called emes? It is an interesting ha’orah. Rabbi Yisrael, we learned in yeshiva, we learned in Rambam: *lo’azram al ha-emes.* Why is teshuvah called *lo’azram al ha-emes*?

You know, Rabbi Yisrael, part of why we have issues, and why we do have errors, is that we lack clarity. We do not understand what is right, what is wrong, where we are holding, what we should be doing. We need guidance in that. The pasuk of Yom Kippur—what is the translation of *tehorah*? It means that when you are dirty, you become clean. Every chet, the mefarshim say, has in it the chet itself: you need a kaparah, and it also has the lichluch, the filth that it does to your neshamah, and you need *tehorah*.

Rabbi Yisrael, there is also, in the language of Gemara and Rishonim, *tehorah* as clarity, *kitayr ha-kerokia*. There is a certain clarity. Yom Kippur is clarity. We take away the kinah, the lashon hara, the tefillah, the jealousy. We take away the food and all the ta’avos, and all of a sudden teshuvah sets in *lo’azram al ha-emes*.

So the Ribbono Shel Olam is there to give us that clarity that we need, the emes that we need, in order to be able to fix, to be able to move ahead where we are supposed to go.

# The Rambam on Separation from the World

The Rambam, at the end of Zera’im, writes that there is a world out there that is completely tsetonelt. Of course, he does not use that language; I am paraphrasing. He says that there are people who stay in their corner.

First, the Rambam, at the end of Hilchos Shemitah v’Yovel, perek yud-gimmel, halachah yud-gimmel, says that it is not only Shevet Levi who is in the Beis HaMikdash, but any person is able to distance himself, to separate himself from the whole world and the tumult of the world.

He says, *בלוי שבט לוי בלבד על כל איש ואיש מכל בעולם.* בשניה קטלה, he used to say over, בשניה זרצה, he used to say over. It is not only Jews, *כל בעולם*—any person, any person is able to be like Shevet Levi, that he is what? *נודו רוחו אוי סבבינו מדוי.* He understands, *הבינו מדוי.* His mind is clear, to separate.

A man gets so confused with all his cheshbonos, gets knotted up in his mind and his heart. He is so mixed up: I need, I do not, I should, I stay, right, wrong. Man was created yashar. What is teshuvah, Rabbi? Teshuvah is the clarity. The clarity. It hits you. The Ribbono Shel Olam is the King. A Yid needs to be clean. He needs to be close to the Ribbono Shel Olam. That clarity is teshuvah.

And that is *yishrei lev*. The Ribbono Shel Olam sends out a light, clarity. And that is simcha. That is when the simcha sets in. Simcha is my light on Rosh Hashanah. For yishi, he helps me. He is my salvation because he helps me do the teshuvah. A person cannot do it on his own. We cannot.

# Clarity, Teshuvah, and Simcha

We need intervention from the Ribono Shel Olam, with His kindness and His rachamim, to guide us, to help us, to give us Yisrael lev. That is why we begin Yom Kippur with the pasuk of *Or zarua*. For the next twenty-four hours of Yom Kippur, we are going to follow a light: a light of clarity, a light of truth. And that will make Yisrael lev; that will make the heart straight and healthy.

Simcha, as the Rambam always writes, is not found where there are doubts. When a person is in limbo, when a person is confused, he is not happy. There is so much unhappiness because we are confused. We are not listening to our neshama. Our neshama is screaming, “You need this, you don’t need this,” and our brain is telling us, “We need this and we need that,” and it is not true. There is a conflict of interests, so to speak. A mensch is torod in his own mind. A person is complicated between the neshama, which is fighting and screaming one thing, and the brain, which is telling him, “No, you need this, you need that.” That clarity sets in, and that clarity brings simcha.

# The Baal Shem Tov on Teshuvah

Now let us go to the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Yisrael, the Baal Shem HaKadosh. The Baal Shem says that teshuvah contains both atzvus, bechiyah, and I do not want to use the word atzvus, because that is not the right terminology, but bechiyah, charatah, and tzevrochenkeit. At the same time, there is simcha.

You know what the greatest simcha is? *Asherah hashah Shechinah.* The Ribono Shel Olam is in the neshama of a Yid, helping him do teshuvah. So while he is doing teshuvah, the Ribono Shel Olam is taking him by the hand and bringing him back to where he belongs. That is where the simcha really is.

This, Rabbi Yisrael, is the chiddush of teshuvah. There is a chiddush of teshuvah. Where is this chiddush? *Avinu, avinu, avinu, avinu, avinu.* The Ribono Shel Olam takes you by the hand and guides you and helps you. You need to dig deep, Rabbi Yisrael, into your neshama. You need to listen to the bas kol that is talking to you on Yom Kippur and saying, *Shuvu banim shovavim, shuvu, shuvu, shuvu, shuvu, do teshuvah.* And this is going to bring simcha. *Lechech b’simcha lachmecha, u’sheseh b’lev tov yeinecha.*