Tikun – Perfection – is both an accomplished state and an ongoing process. What is complete within the six days of creation still needs correction from the perspective of Shabbos. Teshuvah is the process of correction. When teshuvah is complete, we reach the time that is all Shabbos, the times of Moshiach.
Creation, Teshuvah, Tikun and Moshiach – what connects these is a dynamic of completion and elevation. In regard to Creation, the Torah states: “And G-d blessed the Seventh Day and made it holy, for on it He rested from all His work which G-d created to function.” What does this mean, “G-d created to function,” or, more literally, “which G-d created to make”? Why doesn’t it simply say “which G-d created”? The phrase “to function” or “to make” seems superfluous. Noticing this grammatical anomaly, the rabbis commented that the Torah is telling us that Creation itself needs to be developed and corrected. G-d created the world in such a way that, when He was finished, it still needed to be made, as it were. On the seventh day, Shabbos, the world was incomplete and imperfect; it required Tikun, meaning improvement, regulation, reformation. (Indeed, the concept of Tikun Olam – perfecting the world – underlies a range of Jewish activity, in areas as diverse as mysticism and social action.) With the addition of one word in Hebrew, seemingly irrelevant, the Torah reveals a basic fact about Creation – its imperfection – and the imperative that imposes on mankind in general, and the Jewish people in particular, to improve the world, bring it to completion.
On the other hand, in another passage the rabbis also declared that the world was created in its fullness, meaning that nothing was missing. The world was created with everything it needs, lacking nothing, requiring no correction. Everything is in place; no improvement is necessary.
So which is it? Was the world created “to be made” – in need of Tikun, requiring improvement – or was it created complete, in all its fullness? The answer is both. Creation requires both Tikun – improvement – and is also perfect. Both observations of the rabbis are correct. There is neither contradiction nor paradox. Rather, each observation refers to a different part – or stage – of creation. For, as is well known, the world was created in six days. On the seventh day of Creation, Shabbos, G-d rested. So, there is a making of the world in six days, and a resting from – a finishing and completion of Creation on the seventh day.
Thus, during the six days of Creation, the world was formed in all its fullness, complete. It is to this stage of Creation that the rabbis refer when they say the world was made perfect, requiring no improvement, missing nothing. However, the very nature of Shabbos, the very holiness of the day, the fact that G-d blessed it, must lead to a “making,” a development, correction, elevation and improvement of the world.
That is, from the perspective of the six days of creation, everything is complete. From the perspective of Shabbos, the world needs improvement, because Shabbos is a higher level than the six days. At the level of Shabbos, a day sanctified with holiness, the six days of the mundane are indeed missing something. The world of the normal and everyday requires Tikun.
This parallels what the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya in regard to teshuvah, repentance: “The essence of repentance is in the heart, and in the heart are found many distinctions and gradations.” Therefore, even if one has done teshuvah correctly, even if the repentance is complete, once one reaches a higher level, ascends in spirituality, the teshuvah must also be elevated. In simple terms, the more refined, the more spiritually purified we become, the more sensitive we are to the smallest defect in our thoughts, speech or action. This requires a greater degree of teshuvah. For example, a stain on a common garment is not cause for great concern; the garment is still completely functional. But the same stain on a silken garment would ruin it.
So, when the Sages say that one should spend all his days in teshuvah, they obviously don’t mean that the sins and transgressions have not been washed away and removed by the “first level” of teshuvah. Assuming the teshuvah is done properly and sincerely, of course the teshuvah was perfect and complete (just as the works of creation were perfect and complete on the sixth day). Nevertheless, there are many levels of teshuvah, and having refined and elevated one’s self, one must also rise to the next level of teshuvah. (The sanctity and holiness reached on one Shabbos carries us through the coming week, but on the next Shabbos – we must reach even higher.)
We can understand this from the simple example of tzedakah. As one’s wealth grows, so too does the amount one is obligated to give to tzedakah. For an individual less well off, if he gives an amount appropriate to his status and situation, he has given tzedakah in the most perfect way possible. But once his situation and status improve, once he is on a higher material level, then what sufficed yesterday does not suffice today. He must give tzedakah not according to what he had available yesterday, but according to his means today. The same is true of teshuvah – one can repent – or more accurately, return – on a continuous spectrum of scrupulousness and self-examination, of sensitivity and spiritual refinement. In this sense, even tzaddikim can do teshuvah. It is no coincidence that in Hebrew the words “teshuvah” and “the Sabbath” have the same letters.
This brings us to Moshiach. The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe declared, “Immediate Teshuvah, immediate Redemption.” This concept, that Moshiach and teshuvah, are connected is rooted in the Rambam, who explains that “As soon as Israel does teshuvah, they will be immediately redeemed.” Further, the era of Redemption, the days of Moshiach, are referred to as a day that will be all Shabbos. Thus we find several connections: teshuvah and Moshiach, teshuvah and Shabbos, and of course, Moshiach and Shabbos. These are all conceptually parallel. Shabbos is the seventh day, following six days of creation; the days of Moshiach will be the seventh millennium, following six millennia of teshuvah, mitzvos and acts of goodness and kindness.
Just as Shabbos represents a state of being categorically different than the preceding six days of creation, so too our spirituality, the nature of our existence, will be radically different during the days of Moshiach.
There is a practical lesson. From the perspective of the six days of creation or the first level of teshuvah, we have accomplished a lot – indeed, everything that can be asked of us. We have reached a level of perfection – a spiritual comfort zone reflected in our abundance of possessions and physical comforts. As the Rebbe has said, we have already done teshuvah.
Still, material wealth is not Shabbos. In fact, it is irrelevant on Shabbos. From the perspective of Shabbos – which is a microcosm of the days of Moshiach – creation is insufficient. True, the six days of the week, our Tikun Olam and the six millennium are all, each in its “sphere of influence,” a necessary beginning and critical part of the process. But it’s not enough. There’s perfection, and then there’s a true, complete, final and everlasting perfection.
We must go beyond the constraints and limits of perfection that we have already achieved. It is erev Shabbos, the eve of the era of Redemption. We are in transition to the time when, as the prophet says, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the ocean.” Just as Shabbos infuses the six days of the week even before it comes, so that even before Shabbos arrives openly, there’s a foretaste – which grows stronger the closer we come to Shabbos – so, too, we must be infused with the spirit of Redemption, the proximity of Tikun. In the Rebbe’s words: “We must live with Moshiach.”
(Based on Likkutei Sichos 25, pp. 14-18)
