 | about how we think, and especially about how we esteemothers. The Chofetz Chaim wrote that the foundational principle of shemirat ha-lashon (guarding our speech) is to always judge others in the best possible light. This involves hakarat tovah, that is, recognizing the good in others, and choosing to see with ayin tovah, a "good eye." It is better to judge favorably - even if we are in error - than it is to judge critically -- even if we are telling the truth.
The sages say that our judgments carry great weight in heaven. The words we say, whether good or bad, call for a response in the realm of spirit. This is hinted at by the Hebrew word for "thing," i.e., devar, which also means "word." When we defend someone and speak favorably of him or her, our words mean something and favorably dispose heaven itself; on the other hand, if we accuse them or are critical of them, we align our thoughts with Satan, and the opposite effect is produced. Moreover, there is great danger when we accuse others of wrongdoing, since we thereby open ourselves up to reciprocal judgment (Matt. 7:3-5). It takes great chokhmah (wisdom) and humility to offer godly correction to others, and it is vital that we approach this matter with fear and trepidation. Our motive always must be love for the other person, never vindictiveness or pride.
Listen to the words of your heart and understand that they are devarim, "things" that are defining the course of your life right now. Proverbs 4:24 says, "more than all else, guard your heart, because from it are the bounds of your life." Our thoughts and words are ultimately "prayers" we are constantly offering... How you think/pray determines the "bounds" or course of your life. As Yeshua said, "According to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 9:29).
Yeshua spoke of "good and evil treasures of the heart" that produce actions that are expressed in our words (Luke 6:45). The focus here is not so much on the externals (for example, the use of profanity), but rather on the underlying condition of the human heart. Our inward motive determines our thinking, which in turn affects the way we act and use words. We must be on guard to keep away from lashon hara (evil speech) by focusing on what is worthy, lovely, and of good report (Phil. 4:8).
May the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to the Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Some Christians tend to think of repentance in terms of occasionally confessing their sins in private prayer, but the Hebrew word teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה) implies turning to others and to God -- thereby radically changing the "direction" and focus of our lives. According to Jewish tradition this is accomplished through the practice of the following steps.
Steps of Teshuvah: - We must recognize our sin as a sin (i.e., hakarat chata'ah [הַכָּרַת חַטָּאָה]). This comes from honest efforts at self-examination (i.e., cheshbon ha-nefesh[חֶשְׁבּוֹן הַנֶּפֶשׁ]) in light of God's revealed truth and by the voice of our own conscience (Acts 24:16, Rom. 2:5). Acknowledging the truth about our sin leads to confession (i.e., viduy [וִדּוּי]) - first inwardly to ourselves and then directly to God.
- If we committed a sin against another person, we must confess our sin to that person and ask them for forgiveness. In Jewish thought, only the offending party can set the wrong aright and only the offended party can forgo the debt of the sin (this is called mechilah [מְחִילָה]). This means, among other things, that our sin against another must be dealt with "independently" from our sins against God (see Matt. 5:23-24). The sages make this point when they say that "even Yom Kippur cannot atone for offenses against other people." If I offend someone, it is my responsibility to set the matters right (conversely, if someone has offended me, it is my responsibility to allow the offender to do teshuvah and correct the wrong done to me. The refusal to pardon another who sincerely asks is considered cruel). Jewish tradition states that the offended person is not obligated to extend mechilah to the offender if he is insincere or if he has not taken concrete steps to demonstrate remorse for the offense.
- We must cease from the sin (azivat ha-chet). It is generally regarded that those who refuse to stop sinning are not being sincere in their expression of teshuvah. Of course, we might struggle with addictions and compulsive behaviors, and it is our responsibility to get help with these issues for healing to take place. If another person, however, sincerely asks us for mechilah -- even if they've harmed us "seventy times seven times" -- we are nonetheless obligated to forgive them (see Matt. 18:21-22). In other words, we are responsible to stop our own sinning -- yet we are responsible to extend forgiveness to those who repeatedly sin against us.
- We must show remorse and regret for the sin (i.e., charatah [חֲרָטָה]). This is an emotional response in light of the harm our actions have caused others and ourselves. This is an entirely subjective matter between your heart and God, though genuinely expressing remorse may help in the reconciliation process with others.
- We must resolve to live in a new way (kabbalah al ha-atid) by choosing to refrain from the sinful action in the future. Again, this involves the intent of the heart and inner resolution -- and therefore is a matter between you and God alone. Promising to others that you will change is a dubious practice.
All of these steps are necessary and interrelated. We cannot rightly "confess" our sins to God and expect to be forgiven when we are conscious that we have grieved someone due to our sinful or thoughtless actions. No, we must seek forgiveness from the offended friend.... After all, we are part of a larger "body" (i.e., community) and when one member hurts, the entire community is affected (1 Cor. 12:26). We must be ready to acknowledge the wounds we have caused others and to seek their forgiveness; we must likewise be ready to forgive those who have offended us. Only in this way can our relationships be restored and love prevail in our midst.... "Love is the perfect bond of unity" (Col. 3:14).
When we sin against another person, we hurt them. The natural response to being hurt is to withdraw or pull away from the source of pain. This causes an emotional breach in a relationship. Left uncorrected, the original desire for friendship is replaced with a sense of ambivalence or even aversion. Confessing our sin means admitting to the other person that we know that we've hurt them. This humbles us and shows that we are experiencing pain because of the broken relationship. By humbling ourselves in this way we may revive the latent feelings of love in the offended friend and reconciliation can take place....
When we turn to God and begin to wake up to reality, we grieve over the fact that we've harmed ourselves and others. As we walk in love, God will prompt us to restore the broken relationships in our lives. The way of teshuvah is the path of love and reconciliation. This is essentially the goal of Torah, too: "The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5). "For the whole Torah is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Gal. 5:14) and "love is the fulfilling of the Torah" (Rom. 13:8). As the Apostle Paul wrote:
Be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.... And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in the Messiah has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as the Messiah loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 4:23-5:2)
It's traditional to ask God to give us a sweet year after we dip our apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah. Yehi ratzon milfanekha, Adonai Elohenu, velohei avotenu, she-te-chadesh alenu shanah tovah um'tukah: "May it be your will, LORD our God and God of our fathers, that you renew for us a good and sweet year." If we genuinely undergo teshuvah, we can indeed trust that our coming new year will be one of sweetness and good fellowship. It's my hope and prayer that each of us will walk in love of our beloved Messiah, blessed be He. Amen.
yourself, and therefore it is intimately connected with how you understand God. As A.W. Tozer once said, "What I believe about God is the most important thing about me." Understanding the goodness and glory of God leads to self-respect, a sense of dignity, and so on. This works the other way around, too. If you regard yourself as small, insignificant, and unworthy, you will tend to consider God that way, too. "According to your faith be it done unto you." As you see God, so you will see yourself; as you see yourself, so you will see God. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Mark 4:24).
Personal repentance implies encountering the revelation of God at "first hand." God does not love you at a distance, nor does he call you to embrace him at "second hand." Repentance, or teshuvah, is the "like for like" measure of God's love; it is your answer to God's question and call....
The message of the gospel requires that you regard yourself as worth dying for, that you are God's friend... "There is no greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). God quite literally demands that you regard yourself as worth the sacrifice of his beloved son Yeshua in your place; he demands that you understand how dear you are to his heart. God sees something of such great value in you that he was willing to suffer and die to redeem it from loss... Just as the kingdom of God is a "pearl of great price," so you are a pearl of great price to God. What grieves and angers God is the refusal to believe that you are someone of infinite importance to him... Only God can rightfully make such a demand because He knows that loving other things more than Him leads to "disordered love," darkness, and eventual madness. We were made for God's love, but substituting finite things for this infinite need will never suffice to bring lasting healing to our souls...
Those who are "in the flesh" cannot please God (Rom. 8:8). We must turn away from regarding ourselves as mere "flesh" and understand that we are essentially spiritual beings created and redeemed by God (2 Cor. 5:16). We must give up the distinctions in the "world of basar" - the carnal world that is known through sensuous apprehension - and accept ourselves as "new creations" in the Messiah. It is "not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring" (Rom. 9:6-8).
The mere conviction of sin is not the same thing as repentance. We have to step beyond a troubled conscience and have our sin crucified by God's love and grace. Grace is therefore essential to genuine repentance, since moral reformation is never enough. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." We must be humbled so that we can receive. God gives us bitter experience of our inadequacy to call us to return to him. Only God can kill the power of sin within our hearts. Conviction of sin is not the end, but rather newness of life.
True repentance has a distinct and constant reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you repent of sin without looking to Christ, away with your repentance! If you are so lamenting your sin as to forget the Savior, you have need to begin all this work over again. Whenever we repent of sin we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the Cross. Or, better still, let us have both eyes upon Christ, seeing our sin punished in Him and by no means let us look at sin except as we look at Jesus.
If I hate sin because of the punishment, I have not repented of sin – I merely regret that God is just. But if I can see sin as an offense against Jesus Christ and loathe myself because I have wounded Him, then I have a true brokenness of heart... Only under the Cross can you repent. Repentance elsewhere is remorse which clings to the sin and only dreads the punishment. Let us then seek, under God, to have a hatred of sin caused by a sight of Christ's love. - C.H. Spurgeon
There is a place for godly sorrow, of course, and for genuine remorse over our sins. As we understand God's desire and love for us, we begin to realize that the essence of sin is the refusal of God's heart for us. The underlying issue with sin concerns the question of God's love. Simply abstaining from certain actions does not address the deepest need of the heart. It is not turning away from sin that matters as much as turning toward God. The death of sin is meant to lead us to the life of love.
God is both infinitely just and infinitely loving, and both of these "attributes" are inseparably a part of who he is. God is One. Nonetheless, the cross of Yeshua proves that "love is stronger than death, passion fiercer than the grave; its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame, the very flame of the Lord" (Song. 8:6). It is at the cross that "love and truth have met, righteousness and peace have kissed" (Psalm 85:10). This implies that we must drop our defenses – even those supposed objections and pretenses voiced by our shame – and "accept that we are accepted." It is God's great love for you that leads you to repent and to turn to him. Allow yourself to be embraced by his "everlasting arms."
מֵרָחוֹק יְהוָה נִרְאָה לִי
וְאַהֲבַת עוֹלָם אֲהַבְתִּיךְ
עַל־כֵּן מְשַׁכְתִּיךְ חָסֶד me·ra·chok Adonai nir·ah li
ve·a·ha·vaht o·lahm a·hav·teekh
al - kein me·shakh·teekh cha·sed
 "The LORD appeared to me from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you."
(Jer. 31:3)
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Genuine repentance will entirely change you. It is an act of profound respect over what God has done on your behalf. You say, but I am a miserable wretch! Indeed that is so, but the consciousness of your wretched state is the heart's cry for love... God goes "outside the camp" to meet with you. He enters the leper colony to join you there, in your wretchedness, and even takes upon your fatal disease. He sees you in your desperate estate and joins you there. God enters into the dust of your death and says, "Live!"
But what about hell? If God so loves the world, how is it possible for someone to be sent to hell? In answer we must remember that God doesn't send people to hell, they choose to go there on their own... One of the greatest of sins is to forget who you really are, since that leads back to the hellish waste places of Egypt... God's redemption leads us to deliverance, freedom, and peace, but "a twisted heart does not discover good" (Prov. 17:20). Indeed, the idea of hell and God's wrath turns on the rejection of love. Hell is the state of soul that denies and refuses the truth of God's love. It is a terrible state of being both unwilling or unable to love and be loved.
Repentance means changing your thinking, turning around to face the truth, and returning to embrace God's love. It does not identify the whole person with sin, but rather regards all people as redeemable, worthy, and valuable to God. Conviction of sin is not the end, but rather the means to newness of life. God saved us so that we could be in a love relationship with Him. We must "choose life," and that means choosing to welcome God's love into your heart. The only sin that can keep you from God's everlasting love is the denial that his love is personally for you. You must forsake seeing yourself "in the flesh" and take hold of God's spirit, his passion, and his grace for your soul. You are worthy to be loved because God is worthy to make you so.
Repent and believe the good news. God is love, and that love is for you.
As discussed on Friday, last Shabbat, which takes place right after ‘Rosh Ha-Shanah’ {ראש השנה} and just before ‘Yom Kippur’ {יום כיפור} (which is next Tuesday-Wednesday), is known in the Jewish tradition as ‘Shabbat Teshuvah {שבת תשובה}.’ This means ‘the Sabbath of Repentance’ and refers to the special time of the year – between ‘Rosh Ha-Shanah’ and ‘Yom Kippur’ – that should be dedicated to repentance for our sins. The original Hebrew root of the word ‘Teshuvah’ {תשובה} (‘Repentance’) is SH-U-V {ש-ו-ב} and its original meaning is ‘to return’ – as can be found in the Hebrew verb ‘La-Shuv’ {לשוב} (‘to go back’ or ‘to return’). ‘Teshuvah’ and ‘Shuvah’ {שובה} (‘return’) share the same Hebrew root (SH-U-V) because according to the Hebrew logic, when a person repents for his sins he is actually ‘returning’ to the right path and following God’s commandments. *The Hebrew learners among you probably recognize the word ‘Teshuvah’ because of its more common meaning which is ‘answer.’ The explanation for that will be in tomorrow’s post… In some Jewish communities, the name of this Shabbat is ‘Shabbat Shuvah’ – which means the ‘Sabbath of the Return’ and comes from the opening verse of the ‘Haftarah’ (weekly Prophet’s portion): “Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God ” (Hosea 14:1) Interestingly, in the original Hebrew, the Bible uses the preposition ‘Ad’ {עד} which was translated to English as ‘to’ but can also mean ‘as far as’, ‘until’ or ‘up to.’ According to a popular Jewish lesson, one should read this verse as: ‘Return, O Israel, up to/until the LORD your God’ – the reason for that is a nice ‘court room’ allegory. Even the highest supreme judge cannot give full amnesty ONLY the president can do that (back in the old days it was the job of the king) so in order to receive a ‘full amnesty’ for our sins one needs to go up the scale UNTIL the top – to the LORD Himself – because only He can grant a full amnesty for our sins.
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