From the Sages

Teshuvah preceded creation (Pesachim 54a).

We generally translate teshuvah to mean repentance. The Rabbi of Pshis'cha emphasized the literal translation of teshuvah, which is "return." "I must go back to my place, because I do not belong where I am now. I must return to the place that was designated for me in the six days of creation." That is teshuvah.

The universe has an order. The heavenly bodies do not deviate from their designated orbits. Plants and animals have the order of their lives in their natural growth and instincts.

The human being is unique in that he was given free will and the capacity to make moral choices. In contrast to everything else in creation, man is free to deviate from the proper order in the universe. When he does so, he is out of place, and when one think in the universe is out of its place, this brings disorder into the entire universe. When humans transgress the Divine will, they upset the harmony of creation.

Teshuvah is ore than repentance. It is returning to where one belongs, and it is the restoration of harmony to the universe.

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Let the honor of your friend be as dear to you as your own (Ethics of the Fathers 2:15).

Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg came to a city where he was greeted by a throng of his followers. Before meeting the crowd, he asked for a few moments of seclusion.

In the privacy of his seclusion, he was overheard to be saying to himself, "Welcome, great Rabbi. What a great honor to have you here," and such other expressions of praise.

When asked about this practice he said, "When you say praises to yourself, they sound absolutely ridiculous. That is about the same effect on the ego it should have when others say them to you. I just wanted to make sure that my head would not be turned by the welcome I was about to receive. "Rabbi Shmelke interpreted the passage, "Let the honor of your friend be as dear to you as your own," to mean that just as the honor you give yourself does not inflate your ego, neither should the honors accorded to you by others impress you.

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If one pursues honor, it will elude him, but if one flees from honor, it will pursue him (Eruvin 13b)

We understand this to mean that the person who seeks glory exposes his false pride, and therefore his pursuit is self-defeating, whereas the humble person will be apreciated and recognized for his modesty.  But this Talmudic passage also seems to have a flavor of reward and punishment, asserting that if one tries to avoid honor, he will be rewarded by having honors heaped on him.

One of the Chassidic masters asked, "What kind of reward is it to be honored, if one sincerely dislikes being honored?" The master answered, "It is not a reward at all.  It is his just deserts for giving honor any substance and value whatever.  For the truly humble person, public recognition should simply not have any significance whatever.  It should be so meaningless to him that he does not acccord it the attention of even avoiding it."

How true.  False pride can be manifested as much by avoiding honor as by pursuing it.

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These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Yisrael (Devarim 1:1).

The Rabbi of Lelov said that, "Every person felt that Moshe's words were intended only for him, and for no one else."  The Rabbi of Kosov said, "Whenever I speak to a group of people, I have no intention for anyone in particular.  But if anyone feels my words were directed towards him, then it was really him for whom they were intended."

We no longer have the privilege of prophets who convey to us messages from G-d.  Today, G-d speaks to us through various people.  When we hear a person speak about character defects and the need for spiritual development and growth, and we feel that his words where intended for us, we may be sure that they were indeed so.  Somewhere deep down we have an awareness of what it is that we are lacking spiritually. When someone strikes a chord that calls our attention to our spiritual needs, that message was indeed intended for us.

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How can we reconcile the verse, "The earth and its fullness belong to G-d" (Tehillim 24:1) with the verse, "The earth He gave to man" (Tehillim 115:16)?  The first verse refers to the status before one says a beracha (blessing), and the second is after one has said a beracha (Berachot 35a).

"What is the essence of a beracha?" asked Rabbi Tzadok of Lublin.  "It is an acknowledgment that everything belongs to G-d, and that we have only what He gives us."

This is one of the many interesting contrasts.  If we are aware that everything belongs to G-d, then whatever He gives us becomes ours to own.  If we think we can attain something completely on our own, then even what we have is not truly ours.

Similarly, if we recognize that we are in fact powerless over our destinies, and we turn our lives over to the will of G-d, then He grants us the power to achieve our goals.  if we believe that we are powerful on our own without the assistance of G-d, then we soon learn how powerless we really are.