5787/2026
In this past week’s Parashah, Parashat Nitzavim, we encounter a group of famous and profound Pesukim: “Ki HaMitzvah HaZot Asher Anochi Metzvaecha HaYom Lo Nifleit Hi Mimcha V’Lo Rechokah He, Lo BaShamayim He… V’Lo Me’Ever LaYam He… Ki Karov Elecha HaDavar Me’od B’Ficha U’Vilvavcha La’asoto” (Devarim 30:10-14). But what exactly is the Mitzvah that the Torah is telling us is so close to us?
Rashi understands that the Mitzvah that is close to us is the Torah. He says that the Torah is teaching us that the Torah is accessible to each and every one of us. However, let us focus on Ramban who proposes a different answer. He says that the Mitzvah the Torah is referring to is Teshuvah. But what does it mean that Teshuvah is close to you? Perhaps we need a clearer understanding of Teshuvah is to comprehend Ramban’s answer.
The most basic understanding, which is expressed by many, such as Rambam, assumes Teshuvah is repentance from sin. However, Rav Yerucham Levovitz points out, in his Sefer Da’at Torah, that there is a deeper level to Teshuvah. The Gemara (Pesachim 54a) says that Teshuvah existed before the world was created. This poses a problem for the understanding that Teshuvah is repentance. If there was no sin before the world was created, how could Teshuvah, which is a response to sin, exist before the world?! Rather, he explains that Teshuvah is something deeper than “just” repenting from sin. Teshuvah comes from the Shoresh of “Shav”, meaning to return. So Teshuvah isn’t just repentance; rather, it’s a return. A return to your true self. This idea is similarly expressed by Rav Kook and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. By doing Teshuvah, you are returning to the truest form of yourself. What is that true self? In Chassidic thought, the deepest essence of the Jew is his Neshamah, which the Ba’al HaTanya describes as a ‘Chelek Eloka Mi’Maal Mamash’. The Neshamah is intrinsically connected to Hashem, and therefore returning to one's deepest self is ultimately a return to Hashem. So Teshuvah is more than returning to yourself; it’s returning to your true self, which is returning to Hashem.
Perhaps we can now understand Ramban. How is Teshuvah “close” to us? Because Teshuvah is not the process of becoming someone entirely new; it is the process of returning to who we truly are. While Teshuvah may demand profound changes in our actions, those changes are not a rejection of our essential selves. They are a return to them. We are not searching for our truest selves somewhere far away. We are looking inward, returning to the deepest part of who we are. And perhaps that is precisely what the Torah means when it says, “Ki Karov HaDavar Me’od B’Ficha U’Bilvcha La’asoto; Teshuvah is so close because the destination is not somewhere else. The destination is you.
So no matter how far a person feels he has fallen, or how distant he feels from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he is never truly far away. His deepest self—the Neshamah within him—remains connected to Hashem. He therefore has to believe that he can return.
Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin writes in Tzidkat HaTzadik (154): “K’Shem She’Tzarich Adam Le’Hamin BaShem Yitbarach, Kach Tzarich Adam Le’Hamin B’Atzmo”; just as a person must believe in Hashem, so too must he believe in himself. Perhaps this is the final message of Teshuvah: you have to believe that you can return, because the person you are trying to become is, in the deepest sense, the person you already are. This doesn’t mean that Teshuvah doesn’t require profound change. But it does mean that fundamentally, every person can change, and therefore must believe that he can change and return to his true self, a Chelek Eloka Mi’Maal.