22 Elul 5784

Cantor Michel Laloum

Temple Beth Israel

Inner and outer worlds: an interpretation of Ahavah Rabah [1]

“Love your neighbour as yourself, You said.
And light blinded we saw
that inner and outer worlds are one
as You are One.
You spoke and we wrote.
We reached down the centuries,
Your light moving before us
as we climbed, fell back and climbed again
Your Sinai of life
Baruch atah adonai, habocher be’amo yisrael be’ahavah
Blessed are You, Eternal One,
who chooses Your people Israel with love.”

“Inner and outer worlds are one as You are One”?

What is this concept? If God is omnipresent, then God is as much within us as around us. But even more so, if we are to understand what Teshuvah truly means, we have to also understand that forgiveness is not simply for “The Other”, but as much for a healing to be achieved within ourselves.

We can only be one with God when we are one with ourselves … and we can only be one with ourselves, when we repair the brokenness within. This truly is the definition of Teshuvah: when we repent, we also return, and we heal.

So too when we forgive, we make whole not only the other who has wronged us, but just as much and perhaps just as importantly, we make ourselves whole.

[1] From Mishkan T’filah page 231