Time Travel through Teshuva

The theme of the High Holidays is Teshuva (usually translated as “repentance”, but more accurately as “return”). According to tradition, before G-d created the world, he crated teshuva. The usual interpretation of this is that when G-d created the world, he knew that man was fallible, he would make mistakes, he would sin. So before G-d created the world, he put in place a process in which man can return to G-d after sinning.

This is a deep and meaningful interpretation, but there is another very interesting one, a metaphysical one, that I wanted to look at. If teshuva was created before the universe, then it is not bound by the limitations of the universe. Time, on the other hand, was created by G-d as part of this universe. So time is a restriction of the universe, and anything that is not bound by the universe is not bound by time.

This is why we say that G-d can see the future. G-d exists outside the limitations of the universe, so is not bound by time. It’s not that G-d can see the future; it’s that to G-d, there is no such thing as time. It’s a difficult metaphysical concept to understand, but fundamental to Jewish belief.

In the same way, teshuva exists outside of the bounds of the universe, so it is not restricted by the law that time only flows in one direction. While we’re not able to undo our past actions, through true teshuva, we are actually able to travel back in time and undo the negative effects of those actions. Through teshuva, we are not only forgiven for our sins; when we do teshuva honestly, God reverses time and opens doors that we may have locked years ago, erasing the negative impact of our choices.

In this way, we’re Rosh Ha’Shana is actually an opportunity to engage in time travel, but only if we do teshuva properly. Now if that doesn’t encourage people to come to Shul, I don’t know what will.