by Rav Haggai Londin, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.
When the Children of Israel received the Torah from G-d, they agreed to fulfill it even before hearing what was in it. That is, they famously said naaseh, "we will do," before saying nishma, "we will hear." This is an expression of Israel's natural belonging to the kodesh, that which is holy. The teshuvah process, too, wherein a Jew repents of his sins and embarks on the "road back," begins with the recognition of the presence of his intrinsically pure soul.
We know that on Rosh HaShanah night, we eat special foods as positive "signs" for the upcoming year. The Talmud states: "[Given] that a 'sign' is significant, a person should habituate himself to eat the following on Rosh HaShanah: pumpkin, black-eyed peas, leeks, beets, and dates [as these grow and multiply quickly, and some of them are sweet - good omens for the coming year]." (Tr. Keritut 6a)
On the holy holiday night, before dawn of the day on which the entire year's direction is to be marked, we prepare ourselves for repentance by eating these simanim, the "signs." As the renowned Sh'lah writes: "The fruit is the sign that will remind the person and awaken him to do teshuvah¸ and to pray for it… Thus, the main thing is the arousal and the prayer."
Accordingly, there is a logical order to the simanim that we eat [as per Rav Kook's siddur, Olat R'iyah II, p. 319], an order that will raise us up gradually to full teshuvah.
1. We begin with an apple, which we dip in honey and say: "May You renew upon us a good and sweet year." The Talmud elaborates (Shabbat 88b): "Why was Israel likened to an apple [in Song of Songs 2,3]? To tell you that just like an apple's fruit precedes its leaves, so too Israel preceded its 'we will hear' with 'we will do' [as explained above]."
We thus recognize that teshuvah begins with the recognition of our intrinsically pure soul, sweeter than honey. This is its nature before all the stains caused afterwards by our sins. This enables us to be certain of the "good and sweet" success of our teshuvah process. As Rav Kook writes (Igrot, Letter 378): "The foundation of all is that we must be certain of our teshuvah and of the great serenity and the joyous strength that will certainly envelope the soul of every person in whose soul the light of teshuvah shines."
2. We next eat rubiya, black-eyed peas, and ask, "May our merits be increased" – yirbu zchuyoteinu in Hebrew. The divine facet within us does not remain on the abstract soul level alone, but is also revealed in the soul's traits. The people of Israel are characterized by merits, that is, character traits imbued in our souls ever since the days of our Patriarchs. As we learn in Pirkei Avot (5,19): "Whoever has a good [generous, positive] eye, a humble spirit, and an undemanding soul – is of the students of Avraham Avinu." As the new year begins, we ask that these holy traits that are naturally imbued within us be increased, and that those seeds that are buried in the fruits of the ground (vegetables) be brought to full potential in our humanity [of the same root as 'earth'].
3. Next comes karti, leeks: She'yikartu oyveinu, "May our enemies be cut off." After we began by internalizing that our souls are imbued with a Divine facet that cannot be corrupted – we can now relate to the body and to its failings in a new light, amid trust and recognition of our worth. We must first recognize the sin, i.e., see precisely what parts of our soul are of sin and what are actually meritorious. The Mishna (B'rachot 1,2) says that the earliest time to recite the morning Shma prayer is when one can distinguish between blue and karti, a form of green not that different from blue. We must attain the stage where we can make that delicate distinction between the negative aspects of the soul, the inner 'enemies' that must be cut off, and the valuable, positive aspects of the soul that should be nourished. Making this identification brings naturally to the sin's cutting off from the soul – an important process that does, however, cause pain and (temporarily) diminishing strengths. Rav Kook writes (Orot HaTeshuvah 8,1): "The pain that is felt during teshuvah… is the result of the detaching of the bad parts of the soul…and via teshuvah they are cut off and uprooted, and every such uprooting causes pain, just as during a medical amputation."
4. Number four on the menu is silka, beets: She'yistalku oyveinu, "May our enemies leave us." The stage after we recognize the sin and it begins to be cut off is its final riddance. The sin must leave us absolutely, as it is the inner "enemy" of our soul: "What is teshuvah?" asks the Rambam. "It is when the sinner abandons his sin and removes it from his thoughts and makes up his mind not to do it again… and the Master and Knower of Unknowns [G-d] would be able to testify that he would never return to this sin again" (Laws of Teshuvah 2,2)." Not only that, but our absolute leave-taking of the sin begins the process of rehabilitating the soul: Salik in Aramaic means to ascend; we are now climbing up from that which is ugly and bad, and beginning a process of upward rising – just like the leaves of the beets rise straight upward.
5. Next are dates, tamar: Sheyitamu son'einu, May our enemies come to an end. At this point, after the recognition, cutting off, and absolute dismissal of the sin from the soul, the way is clear for complete teshuvah. The soul-hating sins are over, and the person's soul is informed that it is clean: "One who sees dates in his dream, his sins have tamu, ended, as is written, 'tam avonekh Bat Tzion, your sin is over, o daughter of Zion.'" (B'rachot 57a)
Tom also means "completeness" and "innocence." The tom of sin is also the gateway to the innocence and perfection of the soul. In Rav Kook's words: "Corresponding to every part of ugly sin that departs from a man's soul following his inner consent to the light of teshuvah, are worlds complete in their supreme clarity within his soul. Every time a sin is passed away and out, it is like the removal of something on one's eye bothering him from seeing, revealing a complete horizon of vision, the light of expanses of heaven and earth and everything in them." (Orot HaTeshuvah 5,2)
6. Next is kara, pumpkin or gourd, sheyikara gzar dineinu and yikar'u l'fanekha z'chuyoteinu: May our decrees be torn up and may our merits be read before You. Complete teshuvah and soulful innocence have the power to change our reality. Within them is a call to new creation that rips apart and changes the decree. As the Rambam writes: "One of the paths of repentance is for the [penitent] to always cry out before G-d... and to change his name, as if to say, 'I am not the same person who committed those sins" (Laws of Teshuvah 2, 4). Changing one's personality requires a tremendous effort; the Talmud tells us that one is not shown pumpkins in his dream unless he is a "G-d-fearer with all his might." Furthermore, pumpkins (when emptied and dried out) actually serve as a utensil for holding liquids (see Bartenura to Shabbat 17,6) – and we are asked to "draw out" [from the same root as d'laat, pumpkin) from within ourselves inner forces so that we can renew ourselves, tear up the evil decrees, and to grant a new essence to our lives.
7. Nearing the end, we eat pomegranate, rimon, "so that our merits will increase like [the seeds of] a pomegranate." Above we asked that our merits that we received automatically and naturally from our Patriarchs be increased, and now we ask, following a long process of teshuvah, for an abundance of the merits and good qualities on which we work hard to build up. As children of our forefathers, we cannot rely only on their merits; we must seek and work to reveal the patriarchal merits that are within us, by doing acts of Torah and mitzvot of our own. The Talmud states: "One who sees pomegranates in his dream… – if he is a Torah scholar, he should anticipate Torah, as is written… And if he is an ignoramus, he should anticipate mitzvot, as is written… [indicating that] even those who are empty of Torah are replete with good deeds, like [the seeds of] a pomegranate." (B'rachot 57a)
8. And finally, the last siman that we eat (although one may add some of his own) is the head of a fish, as we say: "Like fish, may we be fruitful and multiply and may the evil eye not have influence over us." We have reached the end of the teshuvah process: Our mortal powers, which have been refined by teshuvah, can now grow and multiply without fear or apprehension that the "evil eye" will detract from them. In Rav Kook's words: "[… the righteous] who are not limited by external [factors] and whom the evil eye does not control because they stand above from the external, as whales swimming in the great sea." The intensification of our pure forces brings us to the "head," to the peak of thought, to the summit of aspirations – and to the primary point of the year coming upon us for blessing.
May this be G-d's will, Amen!
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