Shabbat Aleinu: Reconnecting to The Heavenly Throne
“You are to know this day and take to your heart the God is the only Lord, in heaven above and on the earth below, there is none other (Deuteronomy 4:39).” In order to understand this verse, we must look to another, “You are standing today, all of you, before God, your Lord (Deuteronomy 29:9).” This second verse teaches us that the Congregation of Israel always stands before the Holy one, Blessed is He, and the service is only for the individual to connect himself to the congregation.
Therefore, when the verse says, “Today,” it means every single day. If the Torah says “You are standing today,” and we know, as the verse teaches, “True speech is established forever (Proverbs 12:19),” this means that this is true every single day.
It is from this strength that even the wicked are able to return to God in repentance, for the sin is an accident, it separated the individual from the congregation of Israel. It is this, “Standing before God,” that allows one to return to his route, as is taught in the Midrash (Exodus Rabbah 33:7), “I am returning to my father’s inheritance.”
The verse also teaches in another place (Deuteronomy 30:1), “Then you will take it to your heart, and return to God,” the explanation is that each Jewl has a small point deep inside that is sanctified to God, Blessed is He, and this is the living soul. It is only through our many sins that our physicality weighs heavily on the light of our soul so much so that it cannot shine.
Therefore, on the Sabbath, the time of Teshuva, when each of us has that extra element of soul, which is an increase in the soul’s strength to shine in the body, and it is this that we referred to when we say, “and return to your heart,” the spreading of true light throughout the body.
The more one works to restore the light of his soul within his body, so too will his soul shine in its root above. When the verse teaches, “and you will return,” this means he will use the power of repentance, “that reaches all the way to the heavenly throne (Yoma 86a),” and how distant was he, the sinner, from the heavenly throne, but he can return to his place, completely connected to this throne.
He can now, having “returned to his root,” restore even the Upper Worlds that await human work to be repaired.
He does not only return to his heart; he restores his soul reconnects to the Heavenly Throne, and begins to repair the highest worlds. (Sefat Emet; Nitzavim 5635)