We are in the midst of the season of teshuvah, an elusive word that is often translated as "repentance" but more directly means “return.” 

Jewish mysticism explains that this “return” is a reversion to our original state– one of closeness and alignment with the Divine and with holiness. To explain this process, our sages break down the word teshuvah into tashuv + the letter heh, which means “returning the [letter] heh.” But what is this heh and where are we returning it to?

The heh in question is what is called the “lower heh” of the unpronounceable Divine Name YHWH (yud heh vav heh), and the mystical tradition argues that when we act in improper ways, we dislodge that heh from the Divine Unity. [1] Without the heh to complete the Divine Name, our alignment with the Divine itself is incomplete and it is our job in the month of Elul and during the High Holidays to work to find the places we have gone astray and return ourselves to a state of Holiness.

On a practical level, this re-turning refers to the psycho-social process of making amends with each other, with our inner selves, and with the Holy Blessed One. We do the heshbon hanefesh (“soul accounting”) necessary to discover the places we have gone astray— the places we haven’t acted in accordance with our holy callings— and to start the process of making things right. Through this undertaking, we restore the Divine Name which we have dislodged throughout the year with our misdeeds.

The 16th century Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordervo promises that if we go through this process of returning the heh to its proper place, “then the Holy Blessed One will return the Indwelling Divine Presence (Shekhinah) to you.” [2] This is to say that through the process of teshuvah, the Divine Presence will be made manifest in our lives. Making amends and accepting apologies brings the Divine into the world.

While it is lovely that the Divine scheduled into the annual cycle a season to focus on teshuvah, it begs the question of why the Holy Blessed One would include an option of sinning in the first place.

Beautifully, the answer to this is also found in the letter heh.

*****

The mystical tradition teaches that reality was created through the magic of the Hebrew alphabet, and the physical world that we live in was created specifically through the letter heh. According to the Talmud, the heh (ה) was chosen in particular for this role because it is shaped like a porch. Therefore it has one open side (on the bottom) out of which “anyone who wishes to leave may leave.” [3] This is to say that our world is one of free will, and the door is open to anyone to choose sin. 

The 18th century Hasidic rebbe Menahum Nahum of Chernobyl questions this explanation, asserting that “the evil inclination can’t [possibly] convince us to do a known sin, because who would listen to that?!” In his generous mind, no one would consciously choose to do something they know is wrong. Rather, he asserts that the evil inclination must “therefore make the sin appear as if it's a mitzvah” and close the top left corner of the heh (ה, representing holiness), thereby converting it into the nearly identical letter chet (ח, representing impurity). [4] 

This insight from the Chernobyler has become terrifyingly applicable to the world we find ourselves in today— particularly when we refract it through the thought of the 20th century Lithuanian pacifist Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Tamares. 

Tamares distinguished between two types of violence. The first he terms “natural violence,” in which emotions like anger— or material realities like hunger— get the best of someone and they enact violence. In this version, they retain the ethical knowledge they have done something wrong and claim “no rationalizations or justifications.” 

The second violence he describes as “flowing from the perverted intellect [which] do[es] claim justification and [is] accompanied by excuses.” The Chernobyler might describe this ideological violence as a chet passing itself off as a heh.

Writing amidst the violence of the 20th century, Tamares contends that this “political evil… has become the greatest destroyer on the face of the earth.” He argues that the fact “that whole populations are summoned to perform vile deeds openly and without shame requires the help of lying opinions which provide all manner of permissions and justifications for the murders.” [5]

While this description is always true, it is even more resonant this year.

No matter where we look in our world, it seems that the evil inclination has led us off the porch of the heh toward sin, while falsely convincing us that it is a mitzvah. 

In the US, shifts towards authoritarianism are well underway, with roving patrols of armed soldiers prowling the streets of our capital, masked ICE agents kidnapping over 60,000 immigrants and holding them in poor conditions, massive attacks on reproductive and gender-affirming care, and a war being waged against higher education and the environment. [6] 

In Israel/Palestine, we are entering the second year since the Hamas-led atrocities on October 7th and the continued retaliatory assault on Gaza. While the hostages enter their second year in captivity and Israeli soldiers suffer from increased rates of PTSD and suicide, Israel’s leadership has focused their attention on a “full conquest of the Gaza Strip." This is despite mass protests organized by families of the hostages arguing that a continued war would be harmful to both hostages and soldiers, and the only path forward is a ceasefire deal. [7] 

And while these internal politics are erupting in Israel, over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli offensive. Of these deaths, hundreds stem from the blockade-manufactured famine which is making mass starvation imminent. Simultaneously, we are seeing increased and unchecked settler violence in the West Bank, with entire communities being uprooted and nonviolent peace activists being killed with impunity. [8]

It is only through a chet masquerading as a heh that we can be taught to act so callously toward our fellow humans.

G-dwilling, it is not too late. The first step of teshuvah is seeing that something is wrong. In recent weeks, we have seen most major American rabbinic bodies put out statements denouncing the withholding of aid from Gaza, not to mention months of Jews protesting the draconian deportations happening in the US. In Israel, there is a growing movement of soldiers refusing to return to battle in protest of their government’s plans. [9] Now that more people are having their eyes opened, we must assure that they don’t look away. We must take action to make this teshuvah tangible. 

And this brings us back to the heh. 

*****

Cordevero writes that the penitent cannot enter through the same wide open door they left from; we cannot enter back through the open side of the “porch” of the heh. But the back door is always left open: the small opening in the top left corner of the heh. 

This narrow gap represents the process of teshuvah: it is not easy. It is not simple. It will squeeze us and make us uncomfortable. We must admit what we did wrong, where we were complicit. We must take steps to make things right. It is through the very nature of this difficult process that we are refined and ascend up to the top left corner. As a community we must do the work to— in Cordevero’s words— “enter by way of the narrow opening” in the heh. From there we can “mend the breaches” we created in our world. [10]

May this year be a year of transformation, both within ourselves and in the world.

May all peoples be written in the Book of Life.

May we “choose Life” together.

Endnotes:

Editor’s Note: As always, the views expressed in each contribution to this volume belong solely to its author and do not reflect the perspectives of other contributors in this or any other Gashmius publication. Gashmius Magazine holds a wide tent approach to the important role that mystical thought can play in having us live up to our values.

[1] For a more fleshed out understanding that presents this heh as either the upper or lower heh in the Tetragrammaton, see Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Parshat Noach.

[2] Moshe Cordevero, Tomer Devorah, 1:7. Translation from Rabbi Moshe Cordevero: The Palm Tree of Devorah, trans and annotated by Rabbi Moshe Miller (Southfield, Michigan: Targum/Feldheim, 1993), 26.

[3] Menachot 29b.

[4] Menahum Nahum of Chernobyl, Meor Enayim, Parshat Tzav. See a longer excerpt in Gashmius Magazine, Haggadah Companion 5784. The Chernobyler is using the materials of Passover to point out that the only spelling difference between the two words matzah (which represents holiness) and hametz (“leaven,” which represents impurity) is the little opening in the top left corner which distinguished the letter chet (ח) from the letter heh (ה). Therefore, he argues, the evil inclination converts the heh of matzah into the chet of hametz and convinces us that our sin is a mitzvah.

[5] Aharon Shmuel Tamares, Herut #3 (1906). Adapted from A Passionate Pacifist: Essential Writings of Aaron Shmuel Tamares, ed. and trans. Everett Gendler (Teaneck: Ben Yehuda Press, 2020), 75-77.

[6] https://www.npr.org/2025/08/18/nx-s1-5505419/trump-washington-dc-crisis-national-guard,   https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/donald-trump-record-ice-detentions-rcna223773  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigrants-overcapacity-ice-detention-say-hungry-raise-food-quality-co-rcna214193,   https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/pressroom/president-trumps-10-worst-attacks-on-reproductive-rights-so-far, https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5415678/president-trumps-war-on-higher-education, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/20/nx-s1-5474320/trump-epa-scientific-research-zeldin 

[7] https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-suicides-tied-to-combat-trauma-internal-probes-said-to-reveal/, https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-expansion-intl, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/protests-explode-across-israel-amid-growing-frustration-over-the-war-in-gaza 

[8] https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165618,  https://www.972mag.com/settler-impunity-west-bank-annexation/, https://www.972mag.com/awdah-hathaleen-slain-israeli-settler/ 

[9] For a few examples ranging from Reform, Conservative, to Modern Orthodox, see https://urj.org/press-room/reform-movement-statement-starvation-gaza, https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/statement-humanitarian-aid-gaza-and-freeing-hostages, http://www.toratchayimrabbis.org/gazahumanitariancrisis.html. See  

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/us/jewish-groups-synagogues-ice-student-detentions.html for Jewish responses to US deportations and https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/opinion/israel-defense-forces-reservists-gaza-refusal.html for stories of soldiers refusing to report for duty.

[10] Tomer Devorah 1:7. Trans from Palm Tree of Devorah, 24.

Editor’s Note: As always, the opinions expressed in this introduction belong to the editorial team of Gashmius Magazine alone and are not representative of the contributors to this volume or any other Gashmius publication. Similarly, the opinions expressed in any individual piece represent only those of its author, and not of the other contributors to the volume. Gashmius Magazine holds a wide tent approach to the important role that mystical thought can play in having us live up to our values.