The Haftorah begins ‘Return O Israel, to Hashem your G-d, for you have stumbled in your sin’.
The previous Rebbeim ask, why does it say ‘Israel’, a name expressing the greatness of the Jewish people, and not Jacob, a name which can denote someone on a lower level.
Jacob was given this name, Jacob, when he was born. He was only given the name Israel later, after his successful struggle with the Angel of Esau. The word Jacob יעקב can be seen as Yud-Akev, and akev means the heel, the lowest part of the body. By contrast Israel, ישראל, can for the words לי ראש, ‘I have a head’.
We can consider these terms not only as names for parts of a person’s body, but also as names for aspects of the Soul, the Neshama. We see they are very distant from each other: Israel, Yisrael, is exaltedly high, while Jacob, Yakov is very low. When the verse asks the Jewish people to repent, one would expect that to be addressed to their lower level: Jacob, not Israel.
Further, the verse continues that Israel to return to ‘Hashem your G-d’. The Name Hashem here is the Tetrgrammaton, the sacred transcendent Name of the Divine. ‘Your G-d’ uses the name Elokim, a Name which denotes a lower, immanent aspect, which relates directly to us as human beings in the world.
There is a Chassidic explanation that this verse means one’s Repentance should reach such an exalted level, beyond the Tetragrammaton, so that the Tetrgrammaton which is usually far above us, becomes in comparison like the Name Elokim, our personal life force. But how is this possible if, as the verse says, we have stumbled in our sin? How can we reach such an elevated dimension of Repentance?
The explanation is that in fact when this verse is read in the Haftorah of Shabbat Shuvah, we have already been through all the service of G-d in the month of Elul, and then the days of Selichot. Hashem has accepted our prayers and our Repentance, we are like complete Tzaddikim. Hence Hashem says us ‘say verses of Kingship before Me, so that you can make Me reign over you’. [This refers to the ten verses expressing G-d’s Kingship which we said in the Musaf prayer on Rosh Hashanah].
It is because we are on such an exalted level that we are able to appoint G-d as our King. This explains why the higher term Israel is used in the verse, rather than Jacob. And also why we are able to to reach such an exalted level of Teshuvah, that it is as if the Tetragrammaton becomes like the Name Elokim.
But if this is what we are able to achieve, through our service of G-d on Rosh Hashana and the Ten Days of Penitence, we also have to make a corresponding movement ourselves.
This comes about through our Kabbalat Ol, accepting the Yoke of G-d’s Kingship. We do this from our deepest level, the deepest level of our Soul. In this we express the most inward quality of Delight, Taanug, in our relation with Hashem.
Through this we draw blessing from the highest levels, which ultimately should be revealed in the actual Beth Hamikdash, the Temple, with the coming of our righteous Moshiach.
