BS’D
Rabbi Eliezer Papo the Pele Yoetz ztk’l writes that when we pray Shemoneh Esrei at the place of mechayei maitim we should have the intent that Hashem bring back to teshuva all of the holy Jewish souls who have gone astray from the Torah path; since Torah living revives the soul back to life.
The Maharal ztk’l teaches in his book Netiv Hateshuvah – just as mankind was first created without illness, so too when Klal Yisrael comes back to teshuva they return to the perfected state of Adam HaRishon before the sin. He continues and adds that the Ba’al Teshuva touches the Holy Throne as written in Hoshea (14:2), “Shuva Yisrael Ad Hashem Elokecha…(Return Israel to Hashem your G-d)” – bigger is teshuva that touches the Kisei Hakavod where Adam HaRishon was brought down. Teshuva remedies the soul and brings it back as though no sin ever was.
Sin causes malady to the individual and to the world; therefore teshuva showers healing to oneself and to the world. Rav Yechezkel Levenstein ztk’l clarifies teshuva should not be seen as simply a means of erasing our wrongdoing; it is a mitzvah in its own right. Aside from the irreplaceable benefit it provides, teshuva is a mitzvah created by Hashem prior to the creation of this world. Through teshuva we can mamash cleave to Hashem Yitborach.
All mitzvot enable a degree of closeness, yet teshuva enables the soul to ‘touch’ so to speak the Holy Throne. The gematria of Kisei Hakavod and teshuva are equal = 713. Although the understanding of Hashem’s Throne of Glory is deeply complex and beyond human thought, we understand it to be a place of eternal splendor and goodness; where all life is raised and nourished.
