Repentance means that we believe that the kindness of God can give life to our dead hearts. Repentance is therefore first of all a matter of faith, of believing in the miracle of God. And though it is a great gift from heaven, repentance requires honesty and acknowledgment of the truth. We must confess our inner poverty, our neediness, and mourn over the loss and hurt caused by our sin (Matt. 5:3-5). Repentance turns away from our attempts to defend or justify ourselves and instead turns to God to heal our separation from Him (Rom. 8:3-4). This turning of the heart to God for healing and life is the essence of teshuvah wherein our old nature is buried and all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17).

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It is no small thing to believe the message of Yeshua, and indeed, it involves a passionate inwardness that scandalizes the rational mind. Our father Abraham is extolled as the model of righteous faith, but he was tested to sacrifice the moral law (e.g., “thou shalt not murder”) when he lifted up the knife to slay his beloved son Isaac. Faith requires you to change your everyday thinking, to go beyond natural expectations, to “walk on water.” In the case of Yeshua, we are confronted with the “Absolute Paradox,” namely, the God-Man, the Infinite-made-Finite, the Holy-made-Profane, the Sinless-made-Sin, who says to you: “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). You will never die; you will never hunger; you are made whole through my brokenness; you will be cleansed by my defilement, and so on. It’s not just hard to believe, it’s impossible, which is why it is a miracle of God to be saved (Matt. 19:26). “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:33). The difference is Yeshua: Salvation is of the LORD. We are enabled to love and know God by means of his inner life and spirit, not by means of good intentions or religious zeal. Faith itself is a miracle, the power of God….

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Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said that life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward, and consequently the present hour provides the only real opportunity you have to examine the present state of your soul… Therefore “repent one day before you die,” and that day is today, since no one knows the day or the hour of his death. The midrash notes that the word Elul (אֶלוּל), when read backward, spells lulei (לוּלֵא), meaning “if not” or “were it not for…”, which suggests that the last month of the Jewish year serves as a season to examine ourselves, to confess our sins, and to resolve to more completely turn toward the Divine Presence before the new year… Indeed the gematria (i.e., letter value) of the name Elul (1+30+6+30) is the same as the Hebrew word binah (בִּינָה), “understanding,” or the ability to discern between (בֵּין) truth and error. During this season of teshuvah, then, we ask the Lord to impart to us greater understanding about how to “live forward” by returning to him “bekhol levavkha,” with all our hearts…

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For more information, see the Elul pages on the Hebrew for Christians website.

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Those who evade the truth about reality – those who willingly suppress the truth and choose to ignore the ultimate existential pathos of the human condition – must “steal” meaning and a sense of value from the heart of faith. “If a human being did not have an eternal consciousness, if underlying everything there was only a wild, fermenting power that writhing in dark passions produced everything, be it significant or insignificant, if a vast, never appeased emptiness hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?” (Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling). The hidden source of anxiety is to be lost to real meaning – to sense the dread of the inevitable and the unknown and to be utterly confounded and devoid of direction in the face of it. The Torah of Yeshua is heeded by the “impoverished of spirit” who know they must “find God or die.” It is first a word spoken to the shattered of heart and crushed of spirit. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” We all desperately need God, and it is a profound tragedy to be unresponsive to real hope. Friend, if you sense the invitation of the Spirit, which moves unseen as the wind, then draw near while there is still time! “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6).

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The advent of the “Season of Teshuvah” reminds us that we all fail, that we all are broken people, and that errors and mistakes are part of our daily spiritual life… We journey toward humility rather than struggle for perfection; we confess our need for forgiveness and seek reconciliation with all those we might have harmed… During this season it is common enough to hear messages about our need to turn and draw near to God for life, but it is equally important to remember that God turns and draws near to the brokenhearted for consolation. As it is said, the Lord is near to the nishbar lev (נִשְׁבָּר לֵב), the one with a broken and crushed heart (Psalm 51:17).

Read more “Teshuvah and Brokenness…”

The Bible begins and ends with the great Tree of Life — first in the orchard of Eden, and later in the midst of the paradise of heaven. ‎”The Tree of Life (i.e., etz ha’ chayim: עֵץ הַחַיִּים) was in the midst of the garden…” (Gen. 2:9); “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the Tree of Life (etz ha-chayim) with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month” (Rev. 22:1-2). Notice that the “twelve fruits” (καρποὺς δώδεκα) from the Tree of Life are directly linked to the “twelve months” of the Jewish year (κατὰ μῆνα ἕκαστον ἀποδιδοῦν τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ: “each month rendering its fruit”). Twelve months; twelve fruits…. This teaches us that the sequence of the holidays (mo’edim) was intended to teach us revelation about God. That is why God created the Sun and the Moon for signs and for “appointed times” (Gen. 1:14), as it also says: “He made the moon to mark the appointed times (לְמוֹעֲדִים); the sun knows its time for setting” (Psalm 104:19).

Read more “The Great Tree of Life…”