Teshuvah - Meaning in Mitzvot

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is one of the Jewish world's best-known lecturers and educators in the area of business ethics. Rabbi Dr Meir is known by a wide audience from his Ethics@Work column in the Jerusalem Post, through the popular syndicated column "The Jewish Ethicist," and through his lectures and books. His extensive background includes being educated at Harvard, and obtaining a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. He has worked on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Regan Administration. His rabbinic ordination is from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Dr Meir's works combine a professional grasp of the detailed workings of the 21st century economy with a highly-developed sensitivity to the eternal ethical messages of Jewish law and tradition. For a number of years he served as a Senior Lecturer in economics and business ethics at the Jerusalem College of Technology. Rabbi Meir's first book, The Jewish Ethicist, was released in February 2005 and rapidly obtained remarkable reviewer approval. The American Library Association's Booklist applauded it as "an important source of ethical insights for Jews and non-Jews alike," while the Jewish Press noted that the author "combines up-to-the-minute knowledge of his field with thousands of years of Jewish tradition." Rabbi Meir's second book, Meaning in Mitzvot, distributed by Feldheim, provides insights into the deeper spiritual and ethical meanings of the daily practices of Jewish law, has been warmly received by readers. Dr Meir is a regular member of the Ethics Committee of the Prime Minister's office, and of the Israel Economic Association. He has spoken as an invited expert before the Knesset Law Committee. He is a frequent speaker at professional gatherings on business and economic ethics, as well as a lecturer for popular audiences.

Thursday night, the month of Elul begins. The day specifically mentioned in the Torah as the day of atonement is the tenth of Tishrei, Yom Kippur, but the entire ten days from Rosh HaShana until Yom Kippur are also called the "Ten days of repentance". And to a lesser extent the entire month of Elul is devoted to repentance as well. For this reason this month has special customs such as blowing the shofar each morning and for Sefaradim saying selichot each night or morning.

This pattern was established by Moshe Rabbeinu, who climbed Mount Sinai at the beginning of Elul to seek forgive- ness for the sin of the Golden Calf, and finally descended forty days later on 10 Tishrei with new tablets of the law, proving that God had forgiven us. (See Rashi on Devarim 9:18.)

The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for repentance, "teshuva", is "return", and the prophets have revealed that repentance brings us back as it were, to God Himself (Malachi 3:7). This is the ultimate return, to return to our source in the Source of holiness. So it seems strange that the tenth of Tishrei, Yom Kippur, the day that Moshe succeeded in bringing complete forgiveness to the Jewish people, was the day that he descended from the mountain, from G-d's presence.

It seems that the ultimate goal of our repentance is not to completely withdraw from this world into an attenuated spiritual existence, but rather to take advantage of our return to holiness to then go back and infuse this holiness into the world.

It is true that anyone who wants to approach holiness needs to withdraw to a certain extent from involvement in the world and its pleasures - like Moshe Rabbenu, who went without eating and drinking for forty days and nights. This is the importance of the various customs of asceticism that begin in Elul and increase as we approach Yom Kippur, when we eschew all the main material comforts.

But exactly when we achieve the highest levels of sanctity and insight, we are called to descend the mountain, to show how sanctity and insight can be applied and experienced without completely withdrawing from the main areas of human activity and aspiration.

Just as Moshe brought us the Torah on Yom Kippur, we use our spiritual ascent to strengthen our ability to live Torah lives - not to climb by drawing away from the world, but to sanctify the world through performance of mitzvot and hence draw the world upwards with us.

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