Rabbi Sussya once said: “There are five verses in the bible that constitute the essence of the Torah. These verses begin in Hebrew with one of these letters: Tav (תּ), Shin (שׁ), Vav (ו), Bet (בּ), and Hey (ה), which form the word for repentance, “teshuvah” (תְּשׁובָה). The five verses are 1) Tamim tiheyeh (תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה): “Be wholehearted with God” (Deut. 18:13); 2) Shiviti Adonai (שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה): “I have set the LORD always before me” (Psalm 16:8); 3) Va’ahavta lere’akha (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ): “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18); 4) Bekhol derakekha (בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶיךָ): “In all your ways know Him” (Prov. 3:6); and 5) Higgid lekha (הִגִּיד לְךָ): “Walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). In other words, the way of teshuvah, of answering God’s call for you to return to Him, is to sincerely set the LORD before you, to love others, and to walk out your days in heartfelt gratitude.

הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם מַה־טּוֹב
וּמָה־יְהוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ
כִּי אִם־עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד
וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת עִם־אֱלהֶיךָ

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The Hebrew word for “world” or “age” is olam (עוֹלָם), which is derived from a root verb (עָלַם) that means “to conceal” or “to hide.” God “hides” His face from us so that we will seek Him, and that means pressing through ambiguity of this world to discern and take hold of the truth. Therefore King David said, בַּקְּשׁוּ פָנָיו תָּמִיד/ bakeshu fanav tamid: “Seek His face continually” (Psalm 105:4). Note that the Hebrew gematria (numerical value) for the word “fanav” (i.e., “His face”) is the same as that for the word “olam.” When we truly seek God’s face (i.e., His Presence), that is, “do teshuvah,” we are able to discern the underlying purpose for our lives in this age… As it is written in our Scriptures: “Blessed is the one who endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life (עֲטֶרֶת הַחַיִּים) that the LORD has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). The present age, then, constitutes a test that God providentially designs to lead us to the “crown of life,” and we are made happy when we go through its fires and are not consumed. Indeed, only those who love the Lord will be able to withstand the fires… The “crown of life” symbolizes that we have truly received the purpose for which we were created and that we are identified with God’s own passion and love. The light of the crown represents the Divine Presence within us, the Life that overcomes despair on our behalf.

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“It is not the path which is the difficulty; rather, it is the difficulty which is the path.” The ancient Greek version of the Torah (i.e., the Septuagint) translates this verse, “Seek the LORD and be strengthened; seek His face through everything (διὰ παντός).” The LORD God gives us “inner strength” (i.e., ἐγκράτεια, from εν-, “in” + κράτος, “strength” or “power”) when we yield to “the power of His might” (ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ) (Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 6:10). Therefore we must remember God’s power and glory, for “He is the LORD our God (הוּא יְהוָה אֱלהֵינוּ); His judgments are in all the earth” (Psalm 105:7).

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• Hebrew Study Card

Sin is not the result of not knowing what is right, but rather of being unwilling to understand such, and therefore is the refusal to do what is right. It is not the result of ignorance but rebellion. Sin doesn’t say “I can’t” but rather “I won’t,” and therefore it is a matter of the will, the heart, the secret desires of the soul… Just as grace is inaccessible for someone who refuses to be honest with himself, so is forgiveness. If a person refuses to confess the truth about his condition, salvation itself is impossible, since God literally cannot save the soul that denies its need for Him. Therefore the Scripture does not vainly declare: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but the one who confesses and forsakes them will find mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

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A person who “conceals” or “covers” his sin denies it, either by outright disavowal or by explaining it away by offering self-deceptive excuses. This person simply cannot prosper – in the spiritual sense of the word – because he is not living in reality… Indeed, his conscience is burdened with a “secret ban,” an inner voice of condemnation that must be suppressed and squelched. It is only the person who comes to the light, who acknowledges the truth of his sin and who is anxious to be free of its effects, who will be shown mercy (i.e., rachamim (רַחֲמִים), which comes from the word rechem (רֶחֶם), “womb”).

Note that God alone has the prerogative to cover or atone for sin, as an expression of His grace, but it is never fitting for someone to atone for his own sin in order to exonerate himself. God’s anger over sin is not appeased when sin is minimized, dismissed, excused, or rationalized away (though the LORD delights when we overlook the offenses of others). This is because all sin is an offense against God and represents a breach of the relationship between the sinner and God. Your sin, in other words, hurts not only yourself and other people, but most significantly, it wounds the very heart of God Himself by causing a breach or separation in your relationship with Him. Therefore we see Yeshua forgiving others for sins they have committed against other people as if He were the offended party in the sin. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offenses. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin” (Mere Christianity, 1952).

In this evil world, it may sometimes seem that crime “pays,” but certainly not before the Divine Presence, and in the world to come, every word and deed will be fully accounted before the bar of God’s justice and truth. But even in this world, the sinner is secretly haunted by his conscience; he is driven to madness, hidden despair, and lives in dread and anxiety over the truth he conceals… It has been said that the problem with “getting away with it” is that you indeed “get away with it,” meaning that your sin will follow you as doggedly as your own shadow in this world… Ultimately sin is a form of cowardice, since it hides in fear from the light of truth. Unconfessed sin leads to anxiety, paranoia, and weakness of the soul…

I mentioned recently that one of the reasons God revealed the Ten Commandments was because it was His way of saying, “I know who you really are, I see you…” This is why the people drew back in terror, because they realized that God saw the inner condition of their heart, exposed it, and shined the light of moral truth upon it. Nonetheless it is a great and ongoing credit to the Jewish people that they were willing to receive the revelation at Sinai, since it demonstrates that they were genuinely willing to be honest with themselves. Despite their many subsequent failures, they still revered the truth of God’s Torah and meticulously preserved the revelation for future generations (Rom. 3:1-2).

A person who denies or excuses his sin simply cannot prosper – in the spiritual sense of the word – because he refuses to live in reality… Confessing the truth about yourself – owning your behavior, taking personal responsibility, refusing to blame others, and so on, leads to real prosperity, spiritual blessing and true inner peace.

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• Hebrew Study Card

“If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I descend to the depths, behold, you are there too” (Psalm 139:8). The sages note the use of the adverbs “there” and “here” in this verse, saying that when a person feels like he has ascended to great heights, the LORD will be “there” (שָׁם), that is, distant from him, but when he is humble and low, the LORD will be “here” (הִנֵּה), that is, right at his side (Isa. 57:15). This is the “upside-down” way of beholding the Kingdom of Heaven. Can a camel go through the eye of a needle? No more than a ‘rich man’ can find life through his own ventures (Matt. 19:23-24). The only way to enter life is to disown your riches (i.e., your self-sufficiency) by becoming “impoverished in spirit.” This is the narrow way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). You have to let go of the “baggage” of your worldly ego… Yeshua teaches that only by emptying ourselves can we be made full; only by mourning ourselves can we find comfort, and only by hungering and thirsting for God’s righteousness can we find inner satisfaction…

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People tend to believe what they want to believe until they are faced with reality, and therefore God orchestrates tests and challenges to awaken people from their illusions to make them confront their need for deliverance. Such afflictions are called yissurim shel ahavah, “troubles of love.” For example, regarding their affliction in Egypt, the Torah states that the people groaned because of their slavery and then cried out to heaven for help: “And God heard their groaning; he remembered his covenant … and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew” (Exod. 2:24-25). Note the pattern: The people cried out for help; God heard (וַיִּשְׁמַע); he remembered (וַיִּזְכּר), he saw (וַיַּרְא); and he knew (וַיֵּדַע)… God knows our profound need for Him. Affliction teaches us that wishful thinking is unable to sustain the weight of reality, and only God Himself can truly save us…

Intellectually you “know” God is present, but there are moments of unknowing that obscures your hope. You “know” God is as close as your breath but there are breathless moments where you feel abandoned to your suffering…. Then you have to walk the darkness of trust.

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Where it says, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily” (Psalm 13:2), the sages remark that just as long as we take counsel in our own soul there will be despair, since only after we realize that no further counsel can help do we give up and confess our need for God’s salvation. Therefore just as Abraham saw the divine light by closing his eyes to this world, so we must trust in the LORD with all our heart by refusing to lean on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5).

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• Hebrew Study Card…

The Scriptures declare that though the “outward self” (ὁ ἔξω ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος) inevitably wastes away (διαφθείρω), the “inner self” (ὁ ἔσω ἡμῶν) is being renewed (ἀνακαινόω, i.e., “raised up in newness of life”) day by day (2 Cor. 4:16), which implies that we have nothing to fear regarding our perpetuity and acceptance as God’s beloved children. Therefore we do not “lose heart” (lit., act badly, from ἐκ, “out” + κακός, “badly”). Despite the shadows of this world, we take hold of the words of our Savior, who said: “I give you eternal life, and you will never be destroyed (ἀπόλλυμι), and no one will snatch you out of my hand” (John 10:28). And in another place he likewise said, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνη)” (John 11:26).

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God has redeemed you, friend, and has called you by name; he knows you intimately, and you belong to Him. God does not call groups, but rather individuals. The Spirit calls out, “follow me…” The Lord never leaves nor forsakes those who trust in Him, even if they should face waters that seem to overwhelm or fires that seem to devour and consume.

How we deal with trouble and suffering (i.e., tzuris) makes all the difference. We may be tempted to bitterness over our lives, but then what? To paraphrase Soren Kierkegaard, the way of life is how more than it is what. You may be powerless to control reality, but you are nevertheless responsible for how you respond to it. Check your attitude. Do you chose to live in lament over a healing that has not yet happened, or perhaps regard yourself as a hapless victim? Or will you attempt to justify your suffering as a means of personal atonement, accepting it passively as a “good child” or martyr? Does your suffering stretch your heart, or does it cause you to shrink back in fear or self-pity?

In this connection, recall that when the Jews came to Marah, they “could not drink the water because it was bitter” (Exod. 15:23). The Hebrew, however, could be read, “they could not drink the water because they (i.e., the people) were bitter (כִּי מָרִים הֵם). The problem is often not “out there” but within the heart (Matt. 15:19-20). How we choose to see, in other words, says more about us than it does the external world. If you make the mistake of reading the daily news and taking it seriously, you will see only ugliness, and you run the risk of becoming hardhearted. Worldly despair eclipses apprehension of the Presence of God….

We have to use ayin tovah, “a good eye,” whenever we encounter the inevitable (and ubiquitous) adversities of life. Instead of seeing ourselves as victims of undeserved trouble, and instead of harboring resentment over the past and entertaining fear of the future, we must learn to see adversity in the light of faith that teaches lessons about finding resilience and hope. Faith affirms that adversity has an end that is ultimately good. Faith will not bow the knee to dark visions and live in dread of worldly fate.

It’s been said, “hurt people hurt people,” which means that if healing is not found for our woundedness, our pain will likely “leak out” as depression and hostility toward others… Finding inner peace is therefore crucial lest we become poisoned through a “root of bitterness” that defiles many (Heb. 12:15). The worst sort of prison is the one we make for ourselves, by choosing to be taken captive by fear and anger. May the Lord show us mercy and help us grow in grace and in the knowledge of his heart in all things. Amen.

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Truth matters. I don’t mean “opinion” here, but real, objective, hard-core truth. Truth reveals reality. Aristotle defined it this way: “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true” (Metaphysics). Genuine knowledge (γνῶσις), as opposed to illusion, depends on truth, since knowledge constitutes justified true belief, whereas illusion (and opinion) does not. The Greek word for truth is aletheia (ἀλήθεια, from α[not] + λήθω [to hide]) which implies the revelation of being. The Hebrew word for truth is emet (אֱמֶת), which is related to the idea of fidelity or correspondence with reality (אָמַן).

How you think about life has implications. You are responsible to think clearly. God’s hidden attributes are clearly apprehended by the mind so that people who deny spiritual reality are without excuse (Rom. 1:19-20). If you think a map will faithfully guide you to the right place, you will use it; if you think it leads to an opposite end, you will not. Thinking one way leads you to success, whereas the other way leads to failure. The Scriptures state: “there is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 14:12).

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Truth (אֱמֶת) apart from God who is Alef (א) leads to death (מֵת). Sincerity of conviction is no test of truth since you can be sincere and sincerely wrong. How many have perished in this world because they believed they were on the right course when in fact they were not? Yeshua made bold the claim that there was no way to know the heart of God apart from him… there is salvation is no other. Either he spoke the truth or he did not; either he can be trusted for the direction (תּוֹרָה) of your life or he cannot; either he expresses the Salvation of God or he does not. The issue of truth demands that we must choose whom we will serve…