Believing you are forgiven — as Rabbi Landau teaches it

By Rabbi Shalom Landau.

Rabbi Landau teaches that teshuvah, as Rabbi Landau teaches it, means believing Hashem when He says you are forgiven. If you confessed, regretted and chose differently, stop worshipping the guilt. Yom Kippur is not a life sentence of carrying the past. The harder part, after the sin is erased, is believing you are allowed to leave it behind. If the slate was wiped clean, stop writing the old story back onto it. He also teaches that the crowd has its place, and that return eventually has to become personal: you and Hashem, with no performance.