A magician worked on a cruise ship. The audience was different each week so the magician did the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The captain’s parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the magician did every trick. Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show, “Look, it’s not the same hat!” or, “Look, he’s hiding the flowers under the table!” or “Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?”

The magician was furious but couldn’t do anything. It was, after all, the captain’s parrot. Then one stormy night in the middle of the Pacific, the ship sank, drowning almost all who were on board. The magician found himself alive, floating on a piece of wood. As fate would have it, another survivor was floating on the same piece of wood: the parrot. The magician and the parrot stared at each other with hatred, and did not utter a word. A day went by—two days, three days…. Finally, on the fourth day, the parrot couldn’t hold back any longer and said, “Okay, I give up! Where did you hide the ship?”

* * *

  Haazinu: Returning Stolen Goods

The Midrash says that Scripture records ten true “songs” that the Jews sang or will sing throughout history.[1] One of these songs is found in the Torah portion of Haazinu. One of the verses of this song challenges, “Is it to G-d that you do this, O vile and unwise people? Is He not your Father…?”[2]

RETURNING THE HEI
1.) The letter Hei in ““Ha Lashem, “Is it to G-d…?”, is unusually large. Why?

2.) Also, Haazinu is usually read between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur on Shabbos Shuvah, the Shabbos of teshuvah, repentance. What does this large Hei have to do with teshuvah?

3.) According to Kabbalah, teshuvah is an acronym for tashuv-hei–returning the letter Hei. What does this mean?

A HALACHIC APPROACH
G-d gives us the 365 days of the year, the twenty-four hours of each day, and the sixty minutes of each hour. The purpose of all this good fortune is to serve G-d. If we allow a precious moment to slip away, or if we selfishly take that minute for ourselves instead of using it for it’s real purpose, we are stealing from G-d. A thief, according to Torah law, must pay back double. As Tana D’vei Eliyahu asks,[3] “If one sins…what should he do? If he regularly reads one page of Torah daily, let him read two pages. If he studies one chapter of Mishna, let him study two, etc.” This is why the large Hei in this portion is at least double the size of the average Hei.

A KABBALISTIC APPROACH
Kabbalistic teachings note that in G-d’s name, the Tetragrammaton, the letter Hei appears twice. When we sin, we sever these two letters from G-d’s name. When we fulfill the commandment of teshuvah, we can return the letters to the proper places, making G-d’s name whole again. The fact that the letter Hei appears twice hints that there are two different levels of teshuvah. A lower level teshuvah involves returning the Hei which was severed from the end of the Divine name, and a higher level teshuvah involves returning the Hei in the first half of the Divine name.[4] What is the difference between ‘lower teshuvah‘ and ‘higher teshuvah‘?

As we have explained in previous portions,[5] the letter Hei is composed of three lines representing thought, speech and action—or alternatively, prayer, Torah study and good deeds. ‘Lower teshuvah‘ means to make a firm resolution never to neglect or violate any of these three lines of the Hei. ‘Higher teshuvah‘ requires not only refraining from sin, but making our thought, speech and action positively express G-dliness. This requires a doubling of spiritual efforts–thus we double in Torah-study, tefillah, and tzedakah.

A CHASSIDIC APPROACH
Generally, when a word ends with a Hei, the word is feminine. In some cases, however, Hei indicates the masculine.[6] For example, the Hebrew word at means ‘you’ (speaking to a female). If we add a Hei, it becomes atah, ‘you’ (speaking to a male). Similarly, the word naara, means ‘young woman’. Sometimes, however this word is spelled with a Hei–naarah–meaning a married young woman–one who has received a man.[7] According to this pattern, Chassidus teaches that the Hei in our verse of Haazinu is masculine.

The ‘lower teshuvah‘ corresponding to the last letter of G-d’s name, is repentance out of fear. This is like a prince running away from imprisonment in a foreign land. The ‘higher teshuvah‘, corresponding to the first Hei in G-d’s name, is positively motivated repentance. This is like a prince in his own land, running towards the palace of his father, the king. Throwing ourselves into the embrace of the King of Kings is a kind of teshuvah that is full of love and joy. This is the large Hei of Ha Lashem, “Is it to G-d…?”

SHABBOS SHUVAH
During the month of Elul until the Selichos prayers and Rosh Hashanah, we work on the ‘lower teshuvah‘. We are still like a naara, a young woman who has not received her beloved. Then we come to Ten Days of Teshuvah and the Shabbos before Yom Kippur, Shabbos Shuvah. At this point, we have already reconnected the severed second Hei from G-d’s name. Now we must begin to tap into the large Hei of ‘higher teshuvah‘. We must redouble our efforts to reach the Divine bridal chamber, and throw ourselves into the embrace of our Beloved, our Groom and King. In this embrace, may we sing the song of the final and total Redemption.

A STORY
Alfred B. Nobel (1833-1896) amassed his fortune by producing explosives–among other things, he invented dynamite. When his brother died, a newspaper ran a long obituary of Alfred Nobel, mistaking him for the deceased. The article described Nobel as a man who had made it possible to kill more people more quickly than anyone else who had ever lived. At that moment, Nobel realized two things: that this was how he was going to be remembered when he did die, and that this was not how he wanted to be remembered.

Shortly thereafter, he established the Nobel Prize, presented for outstanding achievement in literature, peace, economics, medicine and the sciences. Today, everyone is familiar with the Nobel Prize, while relatively few people know how Nobel made his fortune. Alfred Nobel’s life illustrates the meaning of ‘returning the Hei’.

ACTION: In honor of Shabbos Shuvah, do a ‘double act’: if you’re accustomed to giving a dollar to charity each day, give two. If you often invite two people to Shabbos dinner, invite four. Think of another mitzvahthat you could double, and do it.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Nine of these “songs” were formal declarations of praise to G-d, sung after a redemptive event. The tenth “song”, however, will be sung before a redemptive event–it will be the response to the news that Mashiach is about to reveal himself to the world. It is literally the ‘prelude to Mashiach’s arrival.
[2] Deuteronomy, 32:6
[3] Iggeret HaTeshuvah, Chap. 9
[4] Ibid., Chap. 4
[5] See our chapters on Ki Seitzei and Shoftim in this volume. See also Letters of Light on the Letter Hei.
[6] Likutei Torah, Matos, p. 85c
[7] See our explanation in Ki Seitzei.