Tsuvah | Imamother

shalhevet ↓

Mon, Jan 22 2007, 2:40 pm

vidui- confessing your sin aloud (while standing)

charata- regretting your sin

azivas hachet- not going back to doing that sin again

Complete teshuva is when Hashem can give witness that if you would be in the same situation again, you wouldn't sin.

TzenaRena ↓

Mon, Jan 22 2007, 3:15 pm

Nice topic!

Teshuvah is the only phenomenon that can actually CHANGE the past. When teshuvah is done properly, retroactively, its' as though the chet never was done! In that sense, Teshuvah is even more powerful than Torah. Because Torah tells us what the consequences of a chet are, but when teshuvah has occurred it cancels them!

↑ TzenaRena ↓

Mon, Jan 22 2007, 3:47 pm

There are many levels in teshuvah, so you can go higher and higher, in strengthening the (re-)connection with HKBH that occurs in Teshuvah.

The connection between Hashem and Bnei Yisrael is likened to a rope, which gets frayed, or cut by the aveiros a person does, depending on the severity of the chet. ( Ki chelek haashem amo,Yaakov chevel nachloso). "For part of G-d is his people; Yaakov is the cord of His possession." When a person does teshuva, it's like knotting the severed ends, which makes the rope thicker than originally at the knot, that is, the connection between a Jew and HKBH is stronger than before, after doing teshuva.

Tanya, IGeres HaTeshuvah, Chapter 9 wrote:

in Tanna Dvai Eliahu we find, " A man commits a sin and is liable to death before the Almighty, what shall he do and live? If he was accustomed to studying one page, he shall study two, to studying one chapter, he shall study two chapters..." This parallels the illustratio of the cord severed and then reknotted--the place of the knot is so much thicker than the unaffected portion. so it is with the "Cord of His possession."

Last edited by TzenaRena on Mon, Jan 22 2007, 4:10 pm; edited 4 times in total

BrachaVHatzlocha

Mon, Jan 22 2007, 3:50 pm

amother wrote:

But here is where I feel dumb.

Just by doing these three things I did full tsuvah?

So I am done?

It's not so simple. you need to truly regret what you did and truly try not to do it in the future.
if you can do that, good for you! your past can be erased!

btMOMtoFFBs

Mon, Jan 22 2007, 4:22 pm

Dear OP, your questions are so good and definitelt NOT dumb. I would say they are quite sincere!

For sure you need to state your sin and desire to change. You must also daven to change. Just reach out to Hashem and He will support you in this endeavor if your desire for change is true.

Some people take something extra on as a sign of their teshuva like learning a halacha each morning or saying a perek of tehilim or giving a little extra tzedakah before bentching licht.