The main religious value concept for our High Holiday season is teshuvah, repentance.

Given the centrality of teshuvah in Judaism, and in the Jewish calendar now, the Torah’s treatment of teshuvah is curious indeed. It appears very late in the game. There is zero mention of teshuvah in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers. Teshuvah does not appear until Deuteronomy chapter 30. Why so late?

And when teshuvah finally appears, it is only after total disaster has already struck. The Israelites will have angered God so much that God will destroy the land and exile the Israelites.

            The Lord uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them

            into another land, as is still the case.  (Deut. 29:27)

Is teshuvah meant to be our code red response to our code red disaster?

Finally, the last verse right before teshuvah is mentioned is one of the classic stumpers of the Torah.

            Concealed acts concern the Lord our God; but with overt acts, it is for us and

            our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching. (Deut. 29:28)

What does this verse mean, and why is it inserted here, in between the expulsion of the Israelites caused by the wrath of God, and the gift of teshuvah which will allow the Israelites to return to God and to their land?

What does the Torah’s treatment of teshuvah mean to how we practice it now?

One possibility is that the Israelites failed deeply and have teshuvah to redeem them. So too, we fail deeply, and we have teshuvah to redeem us. The Talmud teaches that somebody who sins, who fails, who grapples, who goes through a transformation and comes back to God is at a higher level than somebody who never sinned.

Over the next several weeks, we will double click on this teaching. Does our tradition really privilege transformation (I strayed, I sinned, I have come back) over a pure heart (I am disciplined, I am committed to being ethical, I did not stray)?

Over the next several weeks we will examine the case for the primacy of transformation versus the case for the primacy of a pure heart.