Rabbi's Blog

Dear Friends, 

“Teshuvah” can feel like an intimidating word.

Where do you begin? Review an entire year? Identify everything you did wrong? Fix your personality? Become a different person by Yom Kippur?

Reb Zusya of Anipoli offered a remarkably practical alternative.

After hearing a profound teaching from his Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, about the heights a person can reach through teshuvah—return—Reb Zusya declared that such a level seemed beyond him. So he broke the word TESHUVAH into its five Hebrew letters, each representing a verse and a pathway home. The Rebbe included these five steps in Hayom Yom for the days leading toward Yom Kippur.

Think of it as a five-part spiritual reset.

1. ת — Tamim: Be authentic.
“Tamim tihyeh im Hashem Elokecha” — Be wholehearted with G-d.

The first step is authenticity. Stop performing—for others, and perhaps even for yourself. Who am I really? What is working in my life? What isn’t? What do I know needs to change?

We live in a world that makes it remarkably easy to curate an image of ourselves. Temimus asks us to remove the filters. Teshuvah begins not with guilt, but with the courage to be real—with ourselves and with G-d.

2. ש — Shivisi: Find your center.
“Shivisi Hashem l’negdi tamid” — I place G-d before me always.

The Hebrew word shivisi also evokes hishtavus—equanimity, an inner calm that comes from knowing that Hashem is present in every circumstance.

Life pulls us up and down: compliments and criticism, success and disappointment, the email we wanted and the phone call we dreaded. When Hashem is truly “before me always,” I don't have to be emotionally tossed around by every development. There is a center that doesn't move.

Imagine having a spiritual notification running continuously in the background: Hashem is here. In shul, at the office, in traffic, in the difficult conversation. That awareness creates not passivity, but serenity—the ability to respond rather than react.

3. ו — V’ahavta: Repair your relationships.
“V’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha” — Love your fellow as yourself.

Perhaps the most practical Yom Kippur inventory is not between us and Heaven, but between us and other people.

Who have I hurt? Whom have I ignored? Who needs an apology, a phone call, a little more patience? Is there someone I have reduced to a grievance rather than seeing as a fellow soul?

Loving another Jew, the Alter Rebbe teaches, is itself a pathway toward loving G-d. Sometimes the most meaningful teshuvah happens not in the synagogue, but in picking up the phone.

4. ב — B’chol: Look for G-d in your story.
“B’chol derachecha da’eihu” — In all your ways, know Him.

Review the year again—but differently.

Look for the unexpected meeting, the closed door that opened another one, the person who appeared precisely when needed. Train yourself to notice Hashgachah Pratis—Divine Providence.

The Hayom Yom remarkably notes that the person engaged in business may have an advantage here: real life gives us endless opportunities to watch G-d at work. Teshuvah means learning to read our lives not simply as a sequence of events, but as a story in which Hashem is present.

5. ה — Hatzne’a: Do something nobody knows about.
“Hatzne’a leches im Hashem Elokecha” — Walk discreetly with your G-d.

Perhaps no step is more countercultural today.

We live in the hyper-public world of TikTok, Instagram and social media, where almost every experience can become content and every accomplishment can be broadcast. If nobody saw it, photographed it, liked it or shared it—did it even happen?

Hatzne’a leches says: Yes. And perhaps that is precisely what makes it precious.

Choose one mitzvah, one act of kindness, one moment of self-restraint that nobody knows about. Don't post it. Don't mention it. Don't look for recognition. Let it belong exclusively to you and Hashem.

In an age of relentless visibility, there is something profoundly liberating about having a corner of our lives that requires no audience.

Five letters. Five tools:

Be authentic. Find your center. Repair a relationship. Notice Providence. Do something quietly.

And perhaps that is why we call it teshuvah—not becoming somebody else, but returning to the person we were always capable of being.

As we enter Shabbos Shuvah and prepare for Yom Kippur, we don't have to fix everything at once.

We just have to begin the journey home.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom, Gmar Tov and and an east fast,

Rabbi Ruvi New

Dear Friends, 

This time of year, everyone is looking for inspiration.

We come to Rosh Hashanah hoping that the prayers, the shofar, a stirring sermon, a song—or perhaps just one quiet moment in shul—will awaken something within us and propel us into the new year.

But here is a remarkable thought: G-d, so to speak, is looking for inspiration too.

Our Sages teach that on Rosh Hashanah G-d says, “Tamlichuni aleichem” — “Crown Me as King over you.”

It is an extraordinarily vulnerable expression. G-d is G-d regardless of what we do. Yet He asks us to crown Him. The awakening must come from below. Our sounding of the shofar, our prayers, and above all, our decision to recommit ourselves to Him are what, so to speak, inspire the Divine response and draw forth His kingship for the year ahead.

Apparently, everyone needs inspiration.

And so, as one year makes way for another, I thought I would share some of what inspires me.

First, feedback.

This article goes out each week to thousands of readers. I  write, send, and then…  But every so often someone stops me and says, “That article really spoke to me.” Someone emails to say they forwarded it to a friend. Someone tells me that a thought they read here changed the way they looked at something.

One response can provide enough fuel to keep writing for weeks. Never underestimate the power of telling someone that something they did made a difference.

I am inspired by the growth of our community — not simply in numbers, but in participation, engagement and support. More people showing up, learning, praying, celebrating, contributing and taking ownership of our shared Jewish future.

I am inspired by the dedication of our staff, who invest enormous energy, creativity and heart—often far beyond what anyone sees—to make everything happen.

And I am inspired by our volunteers. The person greeting someone at the door with a smile. The person helping in the kitchen. Setting up décor. Making calls.. Sometimes the smallest act communicates the biggest message: This matters to me. This is my community.

Perhaps that is the deeper message of Tamlichuni aleichem.

Inspiration is not a one-way street. We look upward to Hashem for inspiration, while Hashem, so to speak, looks to us and says: Show Me what matters to you. Show Me what you are prepared to do. Inspire Me.

As this year draws to a close, I simply want to say thank you.

Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for inspiring one another. And thank you for inspiring our community to keep reaching higher.

May Hashem, in turn, be “inspired” by all of us and inscribe each and every one of us for a year of abundant blessing — a year of health, happiness and nachas; of prosperity, peace and purpose; and above all, a year in which our people and our world finally experience the ultimate blessing of peace and redemption.

Kesiva Vachasima Tova — may we all be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet New Year.

Rabbi Ruvi New