Harry Potter and the Power of Teshuva (Repentence) It seems very
appropriate during the month and a half right before Rosh
HaShana for everyone to be reading and talking about Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because the theme of Teshuva,
repentence, runs throughout the book and throughout all the
characters that we all love reading about. What is Teshuva?
Translated as repentence, teshuva in a nutshell is the mitzvah
(commandment) to examine and improve our lives, to identify
things that we have done wrong, or which we could do better, and
commit ourselves to improvement in the future. Note that Judaism
sees teshuvah as something incumbant on everyone, not just
"sinners." The ability to identify things that can be done
better is a sign of righteousness, not sinfulness, since
everyone has areas in which they can improve. We'l return to
this point at the end. Jewish philosophy teaches that teshuva,
when carried out completely, can achieve not only forgiveness
from G-d, but complete clensing of the person'