Teshuvah Is a Journey: Why the Right Direction Matters More Than Immediate Change

A man is leaving Jerusalem and asks someone, “How long does it take to drive to Bnei Brak?”

“Sixty minutes,” the person replies.

The man begins driving. Sixty minutes pass, then seventy, but there is still no sign of Bnei Brak. After 100 minutes, he still has not arrived. Finally, after driving for two hours, he stops and asks someone, “Where is Bnei Brak?”

The man looks at him in astonishment. “Bnei Brak? You’re in Mitzpe Ramon, in southern Israel! Bnei Brak is in the center of the country!”

The bewildered driver responds, “I don’t understand. I was leaving Jerusalem, and someone told me that Bnei Brak was a 60 minute drive away. I’ve already been driving for 120 minutes and I still haven’t arrived. What happened?”

The man explains, “When you left Jerusalem, you were supposed to turn left toward Bnei Brak. Instead, you turned right toward the Dead Sea. That was where you went wrong.”

Turning Around Changes Everything

The moment the driver, now in Mitzpe Ramon, turns around and begins heading toward Bnei Brak is the moment Rabbeinu Yonah describes in Shaarei Teshuvah as “placing oneself on the path of goodness.”

There is a profound insight here. At this point, the driver is actually much farther from Bnei Brak than he was when he first left Jerusalem. He now must drive approximately two hours back to Jerusalem and then another hour to Bnei Brak. He is three hours away from his destination.

And yet, he is in a far better position than he was when he stood just outside Jerusalem.

Why? Because when he left Jerusalem, he was traveling in the wrong direction. He could have continued driving for hundreds of kilometers and never reached his destination. Now, although he is much farther away, he is finally traveling in the right direction.

Once a person is headed in the right direction, how long the journey will take is no longer the most important question. What matters most is that he is on the right road.

Teshuvah Is a Direction, Not an Instant Transformation

Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, the renowned rosh yeshiva of Slabodka, shared this parable with his student Rabbi Shlomo Hoffman in the name of the Alter of Slabodka.

He asked: Do you really think that in the short week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a person can achieve complete teshuvah? Can someone transform himself in a single week and suddenly observe thousands of details of the Shulchan Aruch perfectly?

That is a mistaken understanding of teshuvah.

Teshuvah is not necessarily something that happens in a single moment. During the Ten Days of Repentance, a person must identify the right direction and place himself on the proper path. How long will it take to travel that road? It may take a lifetime.

Rabbeinu Yonah teaches that what is required is to “place oneself on the path of goodness.”

This offers an entirely different way of looking at spiritual growth. Teshuvah does not mean that today you are one person and tomorrow you must suddenly become someone completely different. It means recognizing where you need to go, turning yourself in that direction, and beginning to move.

Real Change Takes Time

People naturally want immediate solutions. We want to change quickly, overcome our weaknesses quickly, and see results quickly. But human beings are not built that way; genuine growth takes time.

There is no need to become discouraged simply because change is gradual. The essential question is not, “Have I already reached my destination?” but rather, “Am I traveling in the right direction?”

Suppose, for example, that a person wants to become more careful about shemirat halashon, guarding his speech. He may decide to study the teachings of the Chafetz Chaim on the subject regularly. That commitment itself can be considered “placing oneself on the path of goodness.” He has entered a process through which he can gradually develop greater awareness and self control, until eventually he may reach a level that seemed far beyond him when he began.

“Who Asked You to Change in a Single Moment?”

Rabbi Shlomo Hoffman, who later became a distinguished educator, counselor, and director of Israel’s Probation Service, would repeat this idea again and again.

Whenever people struggled with challenges in their service of Hashem, he would reassure them: Who said you were expected to change in a single moment? Who demanded that you immediately achieve complete mastery over yourself?

What matters is the road you have chosen. Even if the journey takes eighty years, you have already “placed yourself on the path of goodness.”

Rabbi Hoffman would often tell young people that they wanted everything to happen quickly, but genuine self knowledge takes years. It takes time to understand the yetzer hara, recognize our inner motivations, and learn how to respond to the forces pulling us in different directions.

Character traits do not change in a day. A person does not gain mastery over his inner world overnight. What matters is that he belongs among those who are returning, those who have turned toward Hashem and are moving forward.

The Hope at the Heart of Teshuvah

The extraordinary optimism contained within the gift of teshuvah, is that a person can repent and receive atonement. Everything can be repaired. Everything can change.

Sometimes we look at how far we still have to go and become discouraged. But distance alone does not determine where we stand. A person can be close to the destination while traveling in the wrong direction, or very far away while finally heading toward it.

The moment we recognize that we have taken a wrong turn, turn ourselves around, and begin moving toward where we truly want to be, something fundamental has already changed.

The journey may take twenty years. It may take eighty. It may take a lifetime. But if you are on the right road, you are already living the process of teshuvah.