The central theme of Yom Kippur is not repentance; it is forgiveneness.
Repentance means regretting who you’ve become. Yom Kippur is about returning to who you truly are. Forgiveness means being embraced for being who you truly are.
Teshuvah, in English, is recovery. Recovering a lost inner self.
On Yom Kippur, we are all in recovery.
Soul Recovery
Our soul is sick, asleep, malfunctioning.
Its organs are disconnected.
The system is broken.
The organs do not give and receive from each other as in a healthy body.
The Kabbalists have the remedy.
Only the Light knows how to reconnect the parts!
They prescribe how to attract the 'Medicine', the Light. Then when we have the heartfelt intention to be as one man, one soul, with His Light flowing between us, we will feel the life of our soul!
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definition
I thought repentance meant "return".
Never heard the word narrowly defined as "regretting" to the exclusion of "return"
It seems as one returns there will be moments of feeling regret for past actions and behavior.
I wonder if the fullness of teshuvah is best when all its characteristics are present.
Just a thought. Thanks for your daily insights.
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Godly sorrow, a step toward acting justly, loving mercy, walking humbly with our G-d? Reply
"Return" can include "regret", when relating to sin. However as explained in Chassidus there is a Teshuva "return" without regret which is the idea of the neshama reconnecting and returning to Hashem. The need to return is not because it has sinned rather ecause it was distanced from Hashem being in a physical world and body.
That is why we specifically translate Teshuva "return" which includes both types of Teshuva.
Whereas "regret" is associated with wrongdoings.
As well as the term regret does not express the idea of of returning to one's real self, rather changing oneself.
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Sometimes we must regret who we have become in order to return to who we truly are. Reply
Differences between "return" and "recovery"
I would like to point out that in my understanding recovery does not fully express the concept of Teshuva. Since the term recovery has the implication of replacing something that was missing or ruined. For example recovery relating to health or mental health "He was recovering from his sicness or addiction" Or recovering a lost or stolen item.
However the term "return" usually implies returning the same item which was misplaced.
Chassidus explains that even when a person sins his neshama his complete and has complete faith In Hashem just misplaced being trapped and covered by sin. So we don't need to recover or replace something that was missing. Rther to return something that was there the entire time just misplaced.