This week's parashah tells of a bull that gores. The law states that once it has gored three times, it becomes muad, meaning accustomed to goring, and the payment for the damages it caused will be determined according to its condition (tam - simple - or muad - accustomed).
While this is a law of the Torah, we cannot simply accept the idea and move on; we must extract some practical lesson for our current lives. While we don't (generally) live among bulls and cows, that doesn't mean the Torah is outdated.
Each of us has a bull inside, which is our animal soul, our natural instincts that lead us to fulfill our most basic physiological needs, and something more, to express the superfluous and negative (animal) desires of the heart.
At the beginning of a person's life, this "bull" is tam, without negative inclinations or the capacity to cause harm. After it has gored—that is, given free rein to its negative desires—it slowly becomes muad, becoming accustomed to life as it is, without Torah, without Mitzvot.
How does one become a tam bull again? The Torah defines that when the muad bull changes owners, it automatically becomes tam - simple.
From this we can learn an important lesson: the Torah establishes laws and statutes, punishments and rewards, a system that closes and protects itself from "invaders," from changes according to the times and conveniences. And what happens when one is left outside the system, when one is already "accustomed to something else"? Then the Torah says: Change masters! The concept of Teshuvah—return to God—is a key to bypassing the system, to correct even the darkest pasts. Teshuvah means changing masters, making God the master of our lives, to return to being ourselves, just as we were from the beginning of our lives—tmimim—simple and whole with God.