Summary of the day
Shabbat Shuva is the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in the middle of the Ten Days of Repentance. On this Shabbat the rabbi traditionally gives a long sermon on the laws of teshuvah and on strengthening the heart before the Day of Judgment, and many Sephardic communities open the service with piyyutim and bakashot.
The mitzvot of the day
- The ordinary Shabbat observance, with additions to the prayers: we add “Zokhrenu lechayim”, “Mi khamokha av harachamim”, “Besefer chayim” and “Oseh hashalom” in the Amidah, and we say “Avinu Malkenu” on the weekdays of the Ten Days (not on Shabbat).
- The mitzvah of teshuvah (Leviticus 5:5; Numbers 5:7): Maimonides (Laws of Repentance 1-2) defines four steps: abandon the sin, feel regret, confess aloud, and resolve not to return to it.
- “Between man and his fellow”: Yom Kippur does not atone for a wrong done to another person until that person is appeased (Yoma 85b), so this is the time to ask for forgiveness and make peace.
- It is customary to give more charity and to study more Torah; many communities study a tractate or the laws of Yom Kippur on this Shabbat.
Origin in history
The Shabbat is not named in Scripture; its name comes from the haftara. “Shuva Yisrael” was chosen for the Ten Days of Repentance according to a tradition already recorded by the halakhic codes (Tur and Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 428). The prophet Hosea acted in the northern kingdom in the eighth century BCE, in a time of outward prosperity and moral decline, and his prophecy ends with a promise: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:5), “I will be like the dew to Israel”.
The message for today
Shabbat Shuva is a way station: after the judgment of Rosh Hashanah, before Yom Kippur. Maimonides writes that the Ten Days of Repentance are a “time of favour” in which repentance is especially welcome (Laws of Repentance 2:6). The prophet does not ask us for “bulls” but for “words”: “Take words with you and return to the Lord” (Hosea 14:3). Honest words are all it takes to begin. And the Sages (Yoma 86a) learn from “Return, O Israel, up to the Lord” that repentance reaches all the way to the Throne of Glory: even someone who felt far away can come back.
Torah and haftara readings
The passages read in synagogue, with their start and end.
Shabbat Shuva
- Torah · Morning
Weekly parasha
The weekly parasha (Vayelekh, or Haazinu in other years)
- Haftara · Morning
Hosea 14:2–10
"Shuva Yisrael" (Return, Israel)
- Haftara · Morning
Micah 7:18–20
"Mi El Kamokha", added in many rites
- Haftara · Morning
Joel 2:15–27
Added in some communities, mainly when Vayelekh is read
Why this reading? Shabbat Shuva takes its name from the first words of the haftara: "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity" (Hosea 14:2). It falls in the Ten Days of Repentance, so the Sages chose a haftara that is entirely a call to return, ending with Micah's "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity" (Micah 7:18), which recalls the thirteen attributes of mercy. The Torah reading is the weekly parasha; in some years it is Haazinu, Moses' song about repentance and redemption.