19. How can we explain the difference between “supernal repentance/return to G d”, and “lower repentance/return to G d”?
It is written in the Zohar that the word ‘repentance’ (return to G d) is comprised of two parts: ‘Teshuva’ ‘Tashuv – Hei’. Teshuva – return, – Hei – to G d. Return the letter ‘hei’ to its source. Which letter ‘hei’ are we referring to? In the holy name ‘Havaya’ (one of G d’s holy names) the Hebrew letter ‘hei’ appears twice—once in the beginning and once in the end. The Zohar learns from this that there are two kinds of repentance/return. One is ‘higher return’ and one is ‘lower return’, and this corresponds to two kinds of Teshuva: higher Teshuva and lower.
The Alter Rebbe (founder of Chassidut Chabad and author of Tanya and Shulchan Aruch HaRav) in his ‘Letter of Teshuva’ in book of Tanya, explains at length the difference between these two types of return to G d. In one of the Hebrew names of G d, the name of ‘Havaya’ (composed of the Hebrew words for past, present and future: ‘haya, hoveh, veyihye’, it is the name which represents the transcendental aspect of G dliness) has two of the Hebrew letters ‘hei”—one at the beginning of the word, and one at the end. The first ‘hei’ represents the Sefirah (divine energy) of Binah (one of the ‘intelligent’ soul powers, representing the stage of developing the initial flash of insight—Chochmah). The final ‘hei’ in the holy name of Havaya represents the Sefirah of ‘Malchut,’ (the divine energy of Kingship—the ability to receive the other divine energies and transmit them). The Sefirah of Malchut represents the actual (divine) rule over the worlds, and teaches us that lower Teshuvah means the actual rectification of a person’s deeds.
A person who sinned, G d forbid, and transgressed G d’s will in thought, speech or deed, must arouse G d’s supernal mercy on his G dly soul. (Everyone has a G dly soul and an animal soul) that has become distanced from the light of G d as a result of its deeds, so he must regret his deeds and rectify them.
Higher Teshuva, on the other hand, is not about regret, rather it is about coming closer to G d and cleaving to Him through comtemplation (Sefirah of Binah), and through learning Torah keeping Mitzvot, and performing deeds of loving-kindness with great effort. This way is considered a higher way of repentance/return to G d, as the Alter Rebbe explains. Higher Teshuva is relevant to everyone, regular people as well as righteous ones who never sinned! This is because even righteous people have become somewhat distant from G d through the descent of the soul to the physical world in which we find ourselves. It is always possible to connect and unify the soul more to its source and root.