G-d is our Father and King. We express this every day in Selichot with the words Avinu Malkeinu. On Rosh Hashanah, we crowned our King, and on Yom Kippur, we look forward to being embraced by our Father.
How did this fatherly mechanism of teshuvah come about, and how does it work? Since the lower world mimics the upper one, we can use visualization to look at how our Father treats us to understand G-d’s fatherly love.
Built-in Teshuvah
The Gemara (Nedarim 39b) tells us that teshuvah was created before the world existed. What does that mean? Rav Chaim Finkel, a talmid of Rav Chaim Shmulevitz zt”l, explains that teshuvah is interwoven into the nature of the world. For instance, if a human gets a cut, eventually the wound heals. This process of healing is a manifestation of teshuvah, a return to the original state. Therefore, in the spiritual realm as well, when a sin occurs, returning to the original state is possible.
For Any Sin?
An egregious sin that we pay for in all generations is the sin of the Golden Calf (see Gemara Sanhedrin 102a). It was particularly detrimental as it came shortly after seeing the miracles at Har Sinai. This was a sin of the nation, not of an individual, making it that much more devastating.
On the one hand, we are told of G-d’s wrath and His desire to wipe out the nation, but the Gemara (Avodah Zarah 4b) also explains that this sin was “allowed” by G-d to exhibit to the nation of Israel that teshuvah is always possible, even for the most severe of sins. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 17b) enunciates the method of how to attain forgiveness: Moshe is instructed to say the Thirteen Attributes. We follow the same practice during these days and on Yom Kippur. The teshuvah reached its final highlight by the handing over of the second set of luchot to Bnei Yisrael.
Visualization
If you ever upset your father, how did he react? Sure, he was likely disappointed, but did he shut the door on you? Would he continually ignore you, unwilling to hear any kind of explanation? Of course not. Our fathers love and protect us, and they find ways to console us. They empathize, understand our failings, and encourages us to move on. We are a part of them, so our disappointment is theirs.
Apply this image to our Father in Heaven. It’s perfectly legitimate, as the Zohar (I, 205b–206a) notes, when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He created the lower world corresponding to the upper world, so that everything above has its counterpart below. Our world below mimics the one above, and therefore the same mechanics exist in both worlds.
My Boot Story
I recall an episode from my teenage years that encapsulates a father-son dynamic. It was freezing outside, and the ground and streets were covered in snow.
My father recommended that I wear my Timberlands to keep my feet warm. As a teen, listening was not part of my vocabulary. I wore my Shabbos shoes and returned home with frozen feet.
Was my father upset when I refused to listen to him and put on my Timberlands? Sure. Was he displeased with the result of frozen feet? Absolutely. But did we just carry on with the day and interact agreeably? Yes. Our fathers want what’s best for us. They don’t want us to suffer, and even in disappointment, their love is never uprooted.
So is it with our Father in Heaven. Sure, we disappoint Him often, but since He exists in us, He is eternally connected to us with boundless love.
Conclusion
We wear white on Yom Kippur, symbolic of angelic status. We are healed by our Father, who not only created teshuvah as part of nature but also allowed a calamity to occur to exhibit its remedial power. Just as a human father longs to see his child forgiven on Yom Kippur, so too is our Father in Heaven eager to wipe away our sins.