To Stumble and Return
This week is Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return that occurs between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The name derives from the Haftarah portion for the day from the Book or Hosea, which begins:
Return, O Israel, to the Eternal your God,
for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
The primary act of this season is teshuvah, literally a “turning.” Thus, the fairly abstract notion of “repentance” is given a kinetic quality that connotes action as well as intention. Hosea’s words expand that physicality, reflecting how even our most well intentioned efforts to heed God’s entreaties are constrained by our failings and limitations. We cannot fully and forcefully “return” to the right path, the Godly path, in that our very humanity compels a stumbling from goodness to error, from righteousness to sin. And yet, if our moral momentum keeps us leaning in and moving forward, though we may sway and falter along the path, we will eventually reach the destination of a better self.