Return!

Hi,

"One should be aware that the word teshuvah (repentance) means first and foremost the return to the place from whence an individual departed."

(R' Yehudah Alkalai, The Third Redemption)

R' Alkalai penned this statement as part of his attempt to convince mid-19th century Jewry to return to Israel. He wrote that personal teshuvah is about changing one's self, reverting to a pristine, pre-sin state. He then wrote that for Jewry as a whole, pre-Messianic teshuvah on a national level (as described in Deuteronomy 4:30) would be a return to our "original place" - Israel.

חג אורים שמח,
Mordechai