Even if a Jew falls into the abyss of sin and rejects the Divine authority of God, part of his soul will always be inseparably bound to God. Such is the power of the covenant between God and Israel – it unites them in such a way that they can never be torn asunder under any circumstances.
Similarly, Nefesh Hachaim (Gate 1 ch. 19) states that the soul consists of several parts, each higher than the one before. When a person sins, only the parts of his soul called nefesh and ruach are blemished by his transgressions. The part called neshamah, however, is so exalted that it cannot be affected by sin at all. Due to the lofty nature of the covenant, violating it is a particularly egregious offense.
When a Jew sins, his sin is not limited “merely” to disobeying God’s command; it also represents a violation of the bond between his Creator and the root of his soul. It damages the covenant that unites the Jewish people with God. As a result, the punishment he incurs for his sin is greatly compounded.
Indeed, many sources indicate that the primary damage caused by sin is the separation and spiritual barrier that it erects between man and his Creator, as the Prophet states (Yeshaya 59:2), “But your sins separated between you and your God.”
This concept – that every violation of God’s commandments also represents an abrogation of the unique covenant that binds the Jewish people with God – is introduced in Parshas Nitzavim. The Torah warns us at length not to sin so that we will not breach that covenant.
In fact, the verses at the beginning of the parshah make several references to it: “For you to enter into the covenant of Hashem, your God, and His oath” (29:11); “It is not only with you that I am establishing this covenant” (ibid. v. 13); and “Because they have left the covenant of Hashem, the God of their fathers” (ibid. v. 24). Thus, Nitzavim warns about the retribution for infringing on God’s covenant, which is in addition to the punishments incurred for the act of sin itself.
We also suggest that this is why it is specifically in Parshas Nitzavim that the Torah introduces the concept of the mutual responsibility that all Jews share for each other (see Rashi, v. 28).
This responsibility is an outgrowth of the unification between the Jewish people and God. Just as the Jewish people are bound to God with a covenant, they are also bound to each other, since every Jewish soul is rooted in the same place – beneath the Throne of Glory. Consequently, just as every Jew is responsible to avoid damaging the root of his own soul, he is also responsible to ensure that his fellow Jew does not do so.
Repentance: Returning to the Root
In light of the above, we can understand the essence of teshuvah. The word “teshuvah” is derived from the term “shivah” – returning. Teshuvah represents the return of the soul to its state before the sin, when the covenant of unification with God was in full force and in its purest form and the soul’s union with its Creator was utterly complete and unblemished.
Thus, Maharal writes (Nesivos Olam, Path of Repentance, ch. 2), “Teshuvah means that one returns to the beginning, and man’s beginning is beneath the Throne, because the soul is hewn from there.”
The concept we are elucidating here is that it is easier to repent and reunite with something with which one was already united than it is to form a new connection that did not previously exist.
