How Tefillin Work and Heisech HaDaas

Chassidus on Tefillin paraphrased from the Rebbe Maharid (a branch of Chabad that merged into Lubavitch):

The tefillin for the hand and the head are two separate mitzvos. Each has a distinct effect on the revelation of G-dliness in the world.

The tefilah shel yad brings down light from the the G-dly Emotive sefiros in Atzilus to the lower worlds of BiY"A.

Oseh Ha-Shalom: Returning the Hei

Why do we say עושה השלום "oseh ha-shalom" instead of עושה שלום "oseh shalom" during the Yomim Nora'im?

In plain translation, the significance of the change is difficult to understand, since the only difference is the addition of the word "the":

	English	Hebrew
Regular	He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace...	עשה שלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום...
Yomim Nora'im	He Who makes the peace in His heights, may He make peace...	עשה השלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום...

What meaning does the insertion add? To understand this, we need to preface the idea of teshuvah.

Teshuvah: Returning

Teshuvah תשובה is often imprecisely translated as "repentance," but the richness contained in the Hebrew is lost in this rendition. In Hebrew, the word is derived from the word shuv שוב, which means "return." So, teshuvah is more precisely translated as "returning."

What returning? To what? Somewhat unusually, Judaism holds that in its essence, the soul is holy and pure. It is not predisposed to sin. Teshuvah is a return to the soul's essential, pristine state. Sin is an external shell that covers the soul's light and inherent connection to the Divine; the internal reality of a human being is that s/he is a creature of light, made in G‑d's image.