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InJudaism, aba'al teshuvah (Hebrew:בעל תשובה; for a woman,בעלת תשובה,ba'alat teshuva orba'alas teshuva; plural,בעלי תשובה,ba'aleiteshuva, 'owner of return [toGod or his way]') is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed asecular lifestyle or a lessfrum form of Judaism.
Thebaal teshuva movement is a description of the return ofsecular Jews to religious Judaism. The term is used to refer to a worldwidephenomenon among theJewish people.[1][2][3]
The phrasebaal teshuva generally refers to a Jew from a non-Orthodox background who becomes religiously observant in an Orthodox fashion; however, the concept can also encompass Orthodox-leaning Jews who become stricter in their observance.[4][5]
The termbaal teshuva is from theTalmud and means "master ofrepentance".[6] In Israel,chozer b'teshuvah (חוזר בתשובה; plural:chozrim b’teshuvah), meaning "returning to return" or "returning to repentance" is more commonly used.[4][7] Hence, abaal teshuva is a Jew who transgressed thehalakhah (Jewish law) knowingly or unknowingly, but has completed a process of introspection to "return" to the full observance of God'smitzvot.[5]
According toMaimonides'sMishneh Torah aba'al teshuvah stands higher inshamayim (lit. 'heaven') than a "frum from birth", even higher than atzadik.[8][9]
According to the teachings of theTorah, "whoever judges himself will not be judged"; however, in the described history ofTalmudic times and earlyHasidism, many tzadikim were able to "see" the transgressions of others.[citation needed]
Mar b. R. Ashi said: I am disqualified to judge in a scholar’s lawsuit. What is the reason? Because I love him as much as I love myself, and a person is unable to find fault with himself.[10]
| Repentance in JudaismTeshuva "Return" |
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| Repentance, atonement and higher ascent inJudaism |
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Thebaal teshuva movement began to appear as an identifiable movement in the United States in the 1960s, as a growing number of young Jews raised in non-religious homes in the United States started to develop a strong interest in becoming a part of observant Judaism; many of these people, in contrast to sociological expectations, became attracted to observant Judaism within Orthodoxy.[citation needed]
The Baal teshuva movement was also inspired by thesixties and seventies counterculture, especially thecounterculture of the 1960s and theHippie movement (RabbiShlomo Carlebach tried to channel the counterculture and its music into a Jewish direction through his music and teachings[11]), theWoodstock Festival, thedrug subculture, the new interest inEastern religions (RabbiAryeh Kaplan tried to channel that interest into a Jewish direction through his writings) and the spirit of youth rebellion that pervaded[citation needed] US high schools and college campuses. It was in recognition of this phenomenon and in response to it that the earliestemissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, RabbiMenachem Mendel Schneerson, went out to connect with these people and "recruit" them to Judaism.
According to RabbiYosef Blau themashgiach ruchani ofYeshiva University:
A baal teshuva movement has emerged with a significant number of Jews from non-traditional homes returning to the observance of grandparents and great grandparents. In fact one of the challenges facing modern Orthodoxy is that many of these returnees are attracted to a European Orthodoxy.[12]
Whereas early Baal teshuva trends were partly related to the prevailing anti-establishment atmosphere of the 1960s, an increase in Jewish pride in the wake of Israel's victory in 1967'sSix-Day War fueled and gave momentum to the beginnings of thebaal teshuva movement."[13][14]
Although the effects ofthe Holocaust and the sway of the counterculture movement led many to abandon their religious upbringing, others were willing to experiment with alternate liberated lifestyles, and as part of this experimentation it was intriguing to them to explore JewishSabbath observance, intensiveprayer, and deeperTorah andTalmud study. Many of these people adopted a fully Orthodox Jewish way of life, and although some eventually dropped out entirely or found their path withinConservative Judaism or other streams of Judaism, or even joined other faiths, others chose to remain with Orthodoxy:
... in the 1970s. Orthodoxy began a remarkable revival, spurred on by the missionizing done by the Baal Teshuva movement among other Jews. Lubavitch (also calledChabad) sentemissaries to hundreds of Jewish communities around the country and the world. Among the non-Orthodox, theReform movement grew, which was due in large measure to the joining of many intermarried couples.[15]
In 1986,New York magazine reported:
The people making this sweeping change in their life grew up in a secular world. They went to good colleges and got excellent jobs. They didn't become Orthodox because they were afraid, or because they needed a militaristic set of commands for living their lives. They chose Orthodoxy because it satisfied their need for intellectual stimulation and emotional security.[16]
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The baal teshuva movement also appeared in the formerSoviet Union, which at that time had almost completely secularized its Jewish population. The rise of Jewish pride came in response to the growth of the State ofIsrael, in reaction to the USSR's pro-Arab andanti-Zionist policies, and in reaction to USSR'santisemitism.
The Israeli victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 ignited the pride of Jews in the Soviet Union, particularly in Russia. Suddenly there were hundreds of thousands of Jews wanting to go to Israel, although they dared not express their desire too openly. Several thousand applied for exit visas to Israel and were instantly ostracized by government organizations including theKGB. Many hundreds becamerefuseniks (otkazniks in Russian), willing to suffer jail time to demonstrate their new-found longing forZion. In the middle of this, there arose a new interest in learning about and practicing Judaism, an urge that the Communist government had long attempted to stamp out.
Many Russian Jews began to study any Jewish texts they could lay their hands on. Foreign rabbis, often young students in Chabad Yeshivot, came on visits in order to teach how to learn Torah and how to observeJewish law. Jewish ritual objects, such astefillin,mezuzot,siddurim, and evenmatzah, were also smuggled into Russia. With the fall of the Communist regime, there is now a rich resource of Russian religious texts that flourishes and caters to Russian Jews living in Russia, America, and Israel.
The return-to-Judaism movement was a spontaneousgrassroots movement from the ground up and was part of the refusenik movement; it came as a great surprise to the Soviet authorities, and even to the Jewish community outside the USSR and it eventually contributed toAliyah from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states and thecollapse of the Soviet Union and emigration to Israel. Young leaders includedYosef Mendelevich,Eliyahu Essas (who eventually became arabbi),Herman Branover, and Yitzchok Kogan, who all latermoved to Israel and are now actively teaching other Russian emigres in Israel, aside from Kogan, who leads a community in Moscow.
During the 1960s there was a movement among secular Israeli Jews that was essentially a search for spirituality. At the time, most Israeli parents were secular Zionists. While some Jews were hostile to traditional Judaism, a spiritual quest in the 1960s and 1970s caused some Israelis to seek answers in Jewish tradition.
RabbiAharon Feldman observes that:
Decades of indoctrination by the secular school systems and the media in Israel have failed to have any effect on the sense of identity which most Jews feel with Judaism—as recent surveys have shown. The masses have become aware of the emptiness—and the terror—of a purposeless, consumerist culture. As a result, among the grassroots levels there is a deep yearning for spiritual values.This yearning has taken on massive proportions as expressed in the baal teshuva movement. The secret is out that Jews believe in God and that they have a Torah.[17]
In Israel, special schools developed for the newly-religious, who came to be called "Baalei teshuva" (m. plural), "Baal teshuva" (m. singular), a "Baalat teshuva" refers to a female, and "chozeret biteshuva" inHebrew. Schools were established dedicated to the intensivestudy of Torah specially designed for the newly religious students who wanted to devote time to intensive study of classical texts with the ancient rabbinic commentaries. These schools opened in the early 1970s, mainly based inJerusalem. Two significant institutions have been theAish HaTorah ("fire of Torah")Yeshiva headed by RabbiNoach Weinberg, and theOhr Somayach Yeshiva headed by RabbisNota Schiller and Mendel Weinbach.[18] Both of these rabbis had degrees from American universities and were able to speak to the modern mind-set. See alsoDiaspora Yeshiva,Machon Meir.
ChabadHasidism, with manyChabad houses throughout Israel, and yeshiva programs for Israelis, Russians, French, and Americans, reach out to thousands. Followers of Chabad can be seen attending tefillin booths at theWestern Wall andBen Gurion International Airport as well as other public places, and distributingShabbat candles on Fridays. There are also Chabad houses in almost every location that Jews might be located, whether as permanent residents, on business, or tourists.
AmongSephardi andMizrahi Jews, RabbiAmnon Yitzhak and RabbiReuven Elbaz are considered the leaders of the baal teshuva movement in Israel.[19]
As with all social movements, there is controversy and criticism. Early twenty-first century researchers have debated the "drop-out" rate from this movement and the reasons for it[20] and new challenges that are now presented. From a 2005 paper:
Now, many of the youngerBaby Boomers andGeneration Xers are finding their way back to thesynagogue. Some are spiritually hungry; others are just looking for a place to park the children. Either way, they join congregations in large numbers on the suburban frontier. However, it is not so easy to become religiously involved. Meaningful religious life requires knowledge and learning takes time, something that many young families lack. Most of the parents also lack basic religious skills. The vast majority ofAmerican Jews do not know how to read aHebrewprayer book, and this makes it difficult for them to participate in an active manner in synagogue ritual. This frustrates them and their egalitarian religious expectations.Rabbis reach out to as many different types of people as possible and encourage them to find ways of connecting to the congregation, and, through the synagogue, withGod. Given the barriers of language, though, it is a difficult challenge.[15]
Some found it in ahavurah and later inJewish Renewal; others found it in the baal teshuva movement where (hundreds of) thousands of Jews have returned to becoming Torah observant... of Jewish Renewal that is the Baal Teshuvah movement. It is unprecedented in Jewish history.
It is important to note that although Renewal was fed by the Baal Teshuva movement (new returnees to Judaism) in the late 1960s ... The Baal Teshuva movement was a movement of disenchanted Diaspora and Israeli youth who turned back to ...
The Baal Teshuva movement addressed these same issues. Men and women attracted to Orthodox Judaism articulated a vision of renewed selfhood. M. Herbert Danzger, studying this phenomenon, commented on the affinity between the ideals of ...
The phenomenon has inspired a number of scholarly works. Among them,BecomingFrum, an ethnographic look at how the newly religious learn the language and customs of their newOrthodox communities [...]