Hashiveinu: return

The prince who came back

Abudarham (a Spanish commentator on the prayers, around 1340) gives two reasons for "Our Father." One: so that we are dear to God like a son. The other comes from an old Midrash (the Sifrei, early teachings on Devarim). A king's son was taken captive overseas as a small child. Even years later he is not embarrassed to return, because he says: I am returning to my inheritance. The Midrash applies this to a Torah scholar who drifted away from learning. That, Abudarham says, is why we say "Our Father": a son returns to what his father left him.

Rabbi Akiva's two short lines

The Gemara tells of a fast day with no rain. Rabbi Eliezer led the prayers and said 24 blessings, and nothing happened. Then Rabbi Akiva said only: "Our Father, our King, we have no king but You. Our Father, our King, for Your sake have mercy on us." Rain fell. When the sages whispered about it, a heavenly voice said it was not that Akiva was greater, but that he was the one who overlooks wrongs, and Eliezer was not. Hashiveinu uses the same two names, one in each half.

Why "Our Father" comes here and next

The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) notices that among the requests in the middle of the Amidah, the words "Our Father" (avinu) appear only in this blessing and the next one, which asks for forgiveness. His reason: a father is obligated to teach his son, so we say "bring us back, our Father, to Your Torah." In the forgiveness blessing we remind God of a father's mercy on his children. (Siddur Sefard's Shema Koleinu does open with "merciful Father," av ha-rachaman.)

And why "Our King" for the service?

Abudarham says "service" here means doing the mitzvot, which a person does as a servant of a king. That is why the second name is "Our King." He also gives another reading: "service" means prayer itself, since the Sages call prayer "service of the heart." So the line may ask to be brought close to the commandments, or close in prayer.

Fifteen words, hei to hei

The Tur counts fifteen words in this blessing, the same as the verse "Let the wicked abandon his way" in Yeshayahu (the book of the prophet Isaiah). Our text has fifteen too. The blessing also starts and ends with the letter hei. Hei stands for five, so the Tur adds the two heis up as ten, and ties that to the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, set aside for people who are returning.

The Rambam had an extra phrase

When the Rambam (Maimonides) wrote out the whole Amidah in his law code, this line was slightly longer: "Bring us back, our Father, to Your Torah, and attach us to Your commandments, and bring us near, our King, to Your service." The words "and attach us to Your commandments" are not in our siddur.

A king who put an idol in the Temple got a way back

Menasheh, a king of Judah, set up an idol inside the Temple (Melachim II, the second Book of Kings, chapter 21). The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) describes a hall where all who did complete teshuvah stand, and places Menasheh at its door. God took him back and, in the Zohar's words, "dug a tunnel" to receive him. The Gemara (the Talmud, Sanhedrin 103a) says God made a kind of tunnel in the sky to accept his teshuvah, because strict justice was blocking the way. Rashi (the classic Talmud commentator) says God took him in without strict justice knowing.

קאים מנשה מלך יהודה, דקביל ליה קב"ה בתיובתא שלימתא, וחתר ליה חתירא לקבלא ליה

Logic says there is no way back

The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) explains an old teaching. Wisdom was asked what happens to a sinner: trouble chases him. Prophecy: the soul that sins will die. God: let him do teshuvah and be forgiven. By logic, the Maharal says, a sinner should have no way back, yet he has one, wondrous as that is. It ends with Tehillim: "Good and straight is Hashem, therefore He teaches sinners the way." God is straight, so He shows the straight road. God is good, so He wants good for them. Now read hashiveinu again.

מצד השכל אין ראוי שיהיה לחוטא תשובה... מכל מקום יש לאדם תשובה, ואף כי נפלאת היא בעינינו

Change does not have to be a lightning bolt

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) names two kinds of teshuvah by how long they take. One comes in a flash: in a single moment you see how ugly the wrong was, and you feel like a different person. The other is gradual. There is no lightning bolt. You feel you must keep improving your ways, and little by little you win the straight path, repairing your character and your actions, until you reach a high place. He counts both as teshuvah.

מרגיש הוא שצריך להיות הולך ומטיב דרכיו... הולך הוא וכובש לאט לאט את דרכי היושר, מתקן את המדות, מטיב את המעשים

Who goes first, God or us?

Shem MiShmuel (Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain of Sochatchov, who died in 1926) describes an old argument between God and Israel, found in Eichah Rabbah (ancient teachings on the Book of Lamentations). God says, "Return to Me and I will return to you," meaning you go first. Israel answers, "Bring us back to You and we will return," meaning give us love first. He says heaven is not stingy, but we might spend that love on cheap things. So we first turn from those, and then we can hold what we are given. Now notice which side the first word takes.

שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם, היינו שישראל יתחילו מקודם לעשות תשובה... השיבנו ה' אליך ונשובה, שהשי"ת ישפיע בהם אהבה ודביקות אליו יתברך מקודם

Forgiven is not the same as repaired

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Chabad Rebbe, died 1812) notes that the Sages teach a person who repents is forgiven before he even moves from the spot. Even so, he writes, what the sin left unfinished is still unfinished. That is what this line asks for: complete teshuvah, which brings new light to fill what was lacking. And since no one can reach that alone, the first words ask God to rouse us and send mercy, so that we are able to do teshuvah. Now read the word "complete" again.

אף שמוחלין לו החסרון במקומו עומד... ימלא כל הפגמים והחסרונות

Can I ask for help with my own teshuvah here?

Yes. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) lets you add a request that fits a middle blessing, and the Atah Chonen prayer explains how. For this blessing the Arukh HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) gives the exact case: for help in your teshuvah, ask in Hashiveinu, after you start with the blessing's own words. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law) says it is good to confess in Shema Koleinu (the blessing asking God to hear our prayer): "I sinned, I did wrong, I rebelled."

I skipped this blessing and I am already in the next one. Do I go back?

If it was a mistake, yes, but only back to here. The Atah Chonen prayer gives the basic rule: go back to the start of the blessing you skipped, then say everything after it in order. The Mishnah Berurah adds that this holds even if you notice several blessings later, since the order comes from the Men of the Great Assembly (the early sages who, by tradition, shaped the Amidah). The Arukh HaShulchan says you do not go back to the first middle blessing.

Why is this blessing missing on Shabbat? And what if I start it by habit?

On Shabbat the Amidah has one middle blessing about the day instead of the weekday requests. The Mishnah Berurah explains that by strict law Shabbat could have had all of them, but out of respect for Shabbat the sages did not burden people and set one. If you start the weekday Amidah by mistake, the Shulchan Aruch rules that you finish the blessing you are in, then begin the Shabbat blessing. If you finish the weekday Amidah without mentioning Shabbat at all, you did not fulfill your obligation.

Is asking to come back enough, or do I need to say what I did?

The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, who died in 1204 and wrote the Mishneh Torah, a code of all Jewish law) says that when you do teshuvah, confessing in words is its own commandment. His core version: "Please, Hashem, I sinned, I did wrong, I rebelled before You, and I did such and such. Now I regret it, I am ashamed of what I did, and I will never go back to this." Where it says "such and such," you name what you did. Saying more is praised.

If I hurt someone, does this blessing fix it?

Not by itself. The Rambam writes that neither teshuvah nor Yom Kippur wipes away a wrong against another person until you pay back what you owe and win them over. The Mishnah (the earliest written record of the Oral Law) says the same of Yom Kippur. Even if you only upset someone with words, you must make peace. If they refuse, go a second and third time, each time with three people. After that you need not keep going. The Mishnah Berurah adds: name what you did, unless that would embarrass them.