Shuva Israel! Return, Israel!

This Shabbat, nailed between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is called Shabbat Shuva—the Sabbath of return. Now, it's not called Shuva simply because these are the days when Jews who don't usually attend synagogue return to community and join us for services, but rather because of the profound theme running through this Shabbat's haftarah: teshuvah—repentance, or more literally, return.

The text, from prophet Hosea, begins with an emphasis on words: "Return, O Israel, to the Eternal your God, For you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you

And return to God.

Say:

"Forgive all guilt

And accept what is good;

Instead of bulls we will pay

[The offering of] our lips."

(Hosea 14:2-3)

There is so much power in words, especially when they are spoken. According to our sages, we learn from Bereshit that God creates the world with words, and then we understand the creative and destructive power of words. A lesson repeated in the famous story of the Tower of Babel.

Words have the power to make things real—not because we possess divine power, but because speaking aloud gives our thoughts a substance and weight they lack when they remain unvoiced. As Rabbi Sheila Shulman taught in a sermon: "We need to speak. Why? Because the spoken word has a kind of reality that the thought word, or the passively read word, doesn't have." The same holds true for repentance itself. When we add a voice to the words of our confessions, they seem heavier, and repentance becomes even more meaningful.

And so, bringing words as offerings to God, as the prophet suggests, is a greater gift than bulls because, taking words with you, requires previous thinking and self-judgement—what we call cheshbon hanefesh, which is suggested for the whole month of Elul. It also needs intention, dedication and memory. All those words are connected to deep soul searching work.

Words are also the means for seeking forgiveness from other people, which is part of the work for this season. As we learn from our sages that only human beings can forgive sins against human beings. God is only able to forgive sins committed against God. In Yom Kippur God forgives, but we must seek out the humans we sinned against, and ask for their forgiveness, otherwise, there is no teshuva.

Now, a good apology begins with three steps, all based in words:

• First: specifically using the words "I'm sorry" or "I apologise." (Beware! "Regret" is not apology!)

• Second: saying specifically what you're sorry for.

• Third: explaining you understand why the thing you said or did was wrong.

This is because, as German philosopher Martin Buber teaches in his book The Knowledge of Man: "The word that is spoken is found... in the oscillating sphere between persons... We tend to forget... that something can happen not merely 'to' us and 'in' us but also, in all reality, between us... The word that is spoken is uttered here and heard there, but its spokenness has its place in 'the between'!"

When teshuvah begins within you, it needs to become spoken words—words so deeply meaningful that they are almost palpable in the space between two people—in order to be complete. These are more than words; they are the manifestation of a whole process of thought, construction and intention.

Words also connect this week's haftarah to the Torah portion we'll read tomorrow, where we find God's instructions for Moses to "write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel." Which leads to the end of the sidra: "Then Moses recited the words of the following poem to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Israel."

Words were Moses' final gift to his people—the people to whom he had devoted his entire life. These are words we still read, still learn, still recite every single week of the year. Words that remain meaningful to us both as a community and as individuals. Words that bind us together as one people.

Just as words were the greatest gift Moses could leave his people, so too are they the most precious offering we can bring before God during these Days of Awe. We must speak our words with complete intention—to draw closer to one another, and through that closeness, to the Divine. Only through such carefully chosen, deliberately spoken words can we truly repent, truly return to our community, and truly return to the very best of ourselves.

May we be inspired by the prophet’s words and return. Shuva Israel!

Shabbat Shalom.