What comes first in teshuva: fixing the past, or moving toward the future?

Many people never begin because they feel they first need to repair everything broken inside them. But Rav Tzadok opens a different path. In this shiur on Tzidkas HaTzaddik, os beis, we explore the two stages of teshuva: teshuva lehaba, turning toward Hashem through Torah, clarity, and new direction, and tikkun leshe’avar, returning afterward to repair the past through kaparah.

Using the Torah’s model of mikvah, herev shemesh, truma, and kodshim, this piece shows that a person can begin again even before everything is fixed. The first step is not pretending the past does not matter. It is entering the reality of Torah so deeply that a new identity begins to emerge.

From there, the past can be repaired, not from paralysis or shame, but from the strength of a person already moving forward.

What if your darkness wasn’t a detour — but the design?

In this shiur on Tzidkas HaTzaddik 11, we uncover Rav Tzadok’s foundational principle: choshech (darkness) doesn’t just come before or (light) — it makes the light possible. From the opening lines of creation to the inner cycles of your own avodah, the Torah reveals a pattern: absence before presence, void before revelation, klipah before pri.

Rav Tzadok reframes how we encounter difficulty, delay, or silence — not as breakdowns, but as the exact conditions that allow something higher to emerge. We explore:

• Why the Torah begins with night
• How your own setbacks might be the first step of giluy
• And why Torah and Kodshim are the rare places where light comes first

A shiur about beginnings, but even more — about how to begin again.

This powerful shiur clarifies the essence of Torah study—not as intellectual pursuit, but as divine connection. We explore how true limud haTorah must be in the context of tzivui (command) of Hashem. Torah isn’t just a body of knowledge, but the means through which Hashem’s ratzon (will) expresses itself the world.

We examine the dual role of Torah sheb’ksav as divine command and Torah sheba’al peh as the fleshing out of that will in the world of action and relationship. If one studies Torah without remaining conscious of its origin in Hashem’s instruction, Rav Tzadok warns that one risks turning it into mere academic exercise—leaving Hashem behind on the page.

This shiur challenges us to ensure that our learning is always animated by the awareness that we are responding to Hashem’s voice—learning in order to live it. With insights from Likutei Torah we reframe Torah study as avodah and covenant.