Two Paths To Rosh HaShanah and the Yomim Noraim – Which Will You Choose?

As a person enters the Yommim Noraim there are two, possible paths and feelings that they may experience: Path #1: The teshuvah process starts with our supplications during Slichos the week before Rosh Hashannah with prayers such as “To us Hashem is shame-facedness; unto You is Tzedukah”. The days of Slichos pass with deep introspection [...]

Why Haven’t You Given Up on Fixing the Last Mile?

As BT’s we’ve made some pretty amazing changes in our lives. And we all know it was very difficult. But if you’ve been Shomer Shabbos for 10+ years, you know that teshuva becomes more difficult. The changes have to go beyond behavioral and deep into the character. So what keeps you going? What tools and [...]

The Joy of Repentance

Do you know anyone who relates to the idea of repentance with joy and happiness? Looking forward to that sore tuchas from sitting so long in synagogue? Can there be trepidation for the Day of Judgment and awe for the Day of Atonement and also an uplifted positive spirit? You bet your sore tuchas. It’s [...]

Elul – Some Resources for Motivation

Elul is coming which means that the Teshuva season is about to begin. If we want to have a successful Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur, seforim strongly advise us to start early in the month. It’s a tremendous opportunity for growth and we’d be foolish not to take advantage of it. Most of the current [...]

The Path Towards Truth is One You Often Tread Alone

Like everyone, I have my faults. I spoke a bit of lashon hara last week. I squabbled with my husband because our overdraft is plumbing the depths of our bank account; and I skipped bentching on shabbos because it was just us for lunch and I couldn’t be bothered. But ultimately, I believe that I [...]

The Ultimate Rebellion

By Rucheli Manville who posts great photos and writings at Rucheli’s Ramblings. There was once a young man. He was raised in a good home filled with positive influences. He had the best education in a great community. His parents set him on a straight path towards success, but he had his own ideas of [...]

Revival of the Dead

It was every author’s worst nightmare. Summer, 2005. Just another routine morning, or so I thought. The screen went dark on my computer, with no fanfare or warning, as sudden as a solid oak door slamming shut in the wind. And nothing I did brought it back to life. I tried restarting it, davening, begging, [...]

Do Teshuva Out of Love This Yom Kippur

Advantages of Doing Teshuva out of Love In the Aryeh Kaplan Reader article titled Yom Kippur Thoughts – A Good Day for Repentance, Rabbi Kaplan points out the tremendous advantages of doing teshuva out of love versus out of fear: 1) Your sins become merits 2) You require no further atonement even though we can’t [...]

Join the Clean Team. Al Cheit 2010

Today I did something I’d like to delete from my supernal report card. I googled the name of someone I dislike just to take him down. Yes, I’m jealous. X is an uneducated boor, crass, ostentatious, but blessed, it seems with a talent for earning easy money. What my search turned up wasn’t the stuff [...]

Prepare for Rosh Hoshana With These Great Shiurim

Rabbi Welcher on Tekios on Rosh Hoshana 2010 – mp3 can be download here. Rabbi Oelbaum on Teshuva 2010 – mp3 can be download here. Rabbi Yonason Sacks on Teshuva – mp3 can be download here. Rabbi Welcher on Selichos night from 2007 can be downloaded here. Rabbi Welcher on Halachos of Blowing Shofar from [...]

The Teshuva Diet

Its now been nearly two weeks since I stepped on the large metal scale at my produce market and discovered that I was overweight Until then, I rarely weighed myself.. I didn’t even own a scale because, hey, I wasn’t fat. I wore a small dress size and nothing I owned (except for two skirts [...]

Jump Starting The Teshuva Batteries

We are taught that although there were Seven Days of Genesis, still all of Creation is constantly being re-created. If at any moment, chas v’sholom [Heaven forfend], Hashem should so much as cease affirmatively desiring His ongoing Divine regeneration of the whole universe, all of it would immediately revert to tohu u’vohu — the primordial [...]

Keep the Change

As the Neilah service on Yom Kippur reaches its crescendo, the congregation cries out in unison: “Hashem Hu HaElokim” (Hashem is G-d) seven times. We can probably still hear this cry echoing in our minds. At that precious moment, we have reached the peak of the spiritual heights we have been climbing since the beginning [...]

The Yom Kippur Fast, Oh, How I Love You (Yeah, right)

When it comes to the Yom Kippur fast, I have experienced three basic emotions throughout my 48 years). The first was apathy. In our home growing up, we went to synagogue two days a year, Yom Kippur being one of them. And then we came home and had lunch. I didn’t fast for the first [...]

OJ and Me

In the Fall of 1995, I was employed at a small civil defense law firm on Wall Street. It was Aseres Yemei Teshuvah and OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. On October 3rd, the news broke that the jury had reached its [...]

Teshuva, Kiruv and BTs

By Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky This wonderful group is devoted to discussing issues that are important to ba’alei tshuva. And we are now in the season when everyone should be attempting, each in his or her own way, to grow to higher levels through teshuva. There are two Halachoth that the Rambam includes in the laws [...]

Shame on Me – An Approach to Approaching Teshuvah

Shlomo HaMelekh, the wisest of all men, tells us: Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. The surface level interpretation of this is simple. A scoffer doesn’t want to hear rebuke and, so, when you rebuke him, he will hate you. A wise person, [...]

Rosh Hoshana: Committing to the Plan

Rosh Hoshana is almost here and the focus of the day is on the creation of the world and on Hashem as our Melech or King. How is this different then the creation we recognize every Shabbos? Secondly, how are we to understand this concept of Malchus or Kingship, and how is it different from [...]

Taking the Next Step in Teshuva

By Micheal Sedley Elul is upon us and collectively the Observant community is getting into Tshuva Mode. Beyond BT poses an interesting question which I think applies to many people who are Ba’al Tshuva, or have moved in the level of observance over a period of years: When I first became a BT, Teshuva was [...]

Practical Guide to Teshuvah

In the Practical Guide to Teshuva, Rabbi S. Wagschal writes: The process of teshuvah which begins on Rosh Chodesh Elul and continues until Yom Kippur, may be successfully achieved if it is performed in a gradual manner. One should strengthen his tefillah by becoming more punctilious about the times of the tefillah. In addition one [...]

Popular Posts

• Teshuva, Kiruv and BTs
• Going Beyond Our Previous Teshuva in This Time of Need
• Ah it’s Elul…and Forgiveness is in the Air!
• We're All Baalei Teshuva Now
• The Path Towards Truth is One You Often Tread Alone
• Rav Soloveitchik on Awakening the Emotional on Yom Kippur
• The Yom Kippur Fast, Oh, How I Love You (Yeah, right)
• Jump Starting The Teshuva Batteries