I hurried with my 40 kilos of luggage from the baggage claim out to the arrivals hall and up to the departures hall. I have one hour until the gate closes. When I finally get to the right check in desk I immediately know that I am correct. In a fine snake line there are more than a dozen "penguins" (thats what we lovingly call ultra-orthodox Jewish men) standing in line to check their baggage. A man runs past me, covered in tattoos and cursing in Hebrew ya ben zona. I have to let out a laughter. The contrast is stark. It's a funny feeling, a feeling I missed. I don't know those people and the differences are great, but they are still my people. A whole departures hall full with Jews, what a holy moment. What are they doing here? I don't know, probably also a stupid two flight layover. We are all on the same journey. Looking for that something. Some claim they found it some are still looking. I believe you never stop looking. And when you think you did, the next thing coming shows you otherwise.
Dear friends and readers, I have decided to diverge for this post (and maybe further posts also) from relating to you my experiece of my first months on Jerusalem to sharing some of the Torah I am learning here in the Holy City, also to be fair to the title of this blog that I have chosen. The topic of the last days has been Tshuva. Many of you may have already learned what this concept of Tshuva is and means, and why we are focusing on this so much during this time of year. That all staying valid, I want to share some Torah around this topic with you. The literal translation of "Tshuva" in Hebrew is "return". Most of us have learned that Tshuva means repentence, but the literal meaning of the word, does not support this translation. Repentence means "feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin", but this is not what Tshuva is primarily about. Tshuva means return. Return to what? you may ask, and rightfully so. The most prev
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