Many people minimize the idea of sin because they fail to recognize it as life-threatening, lethal, and spiritually disastrous. Sin (and its justification in our lives) cuts us off from God, however, and that invariably leads to a sense of existential dread (Isa. 59:2; Ezek. 18:4). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and that means those who practice sin are considered “dead” even while alive (Berachot 18a-b). Tragically, sin can lead to the dreadful punishment of karet (כָּרֵת), being “cut off” from any awareness of the Truth. Regarding this the sages note that the Hebrew word for sin, chet (חַטְא), is written with a silent Aleph (א) because when we sin, the Master and LORD (אַלּוּף) is present, because without his power no one could lift his hand to do anything great or small. Here we note the terrible reality that our sin is witnessed by God himself, a pain that pierces his very heart.

Read more “Teshuvah and Sin…”

When you become alive to the truth that the LORD is your Rock, the very ground upon which you live, move, and have your being, then your steps are made sure, as it says, “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast down: for the LORD holds his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24). When you are unsure of your way, when you walk in uncertainty, you are unsteady in your resolve and are tempted to regard your life as being without any solid foundation. As you commit your way to the LORD, your steps are made sure, for you are walking before his Presence, and therefore you are upheld by his power.

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The knowledge of God (ידיעת יהוה) is our supreme good and the “chief end of human life.” It is our highest blessing, more precious than earthly riches, power, or any of the pleasures this world affords (Jer. 9:23-24; Prov. 3:15; Matt. 13:44-46). Those who do not esteem the true knowledge of God invariably fall into darkness, idolatry, and despair (1 Thess. 4:5; Eph. 4:17; Hos. 4:1-2). The knowledge of God set us free to receive the inestimable blessing of eternal life given in the Messiah, as Yeshua testified: “And this is eternal life, to know you (לדעת אותך) the only true God (האל האמיתי היחיד), and Yeshua the Messiah (ישוע המשיח) whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Knowing God is the very reason for your existence and nothing can be compared with its superlative excellence (Phil. 3:8). Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! (Rom. 11:33).

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We seek the knowledge of God by first of all believing in its possibility. This in itself is a miracle, since only God can make us come alive to “see” and “hear” the truth of the Spirit (John 3:8). We must humble ourselves, confess our need, and ask God for the grace to truly know him. We must be willing to study his word. This involves doing teshuvah – turning to God and trusting that he desires a genuine relationship with Him (Deut. 10:12). We first know know God in our need for deliverance, our poverty of spirit, and our inner desperation for life, for without these primary and existential concerns, we will not be actually receptive to the divine presence. As we begin to trust in God, however, holy desire is awakened within us to know Him more deeply. We begin to “enshrine” his Presence within the sanctuary of our hearts, making a “place” for him, affirming his reality as what is most precious and glorious (Exod. 15:2). We discover the “one thing” that King David desired – to dwell in God’s Presence all his days, beholding the beauty of the LORD and inquiring in his palace (Psalm 27:4).

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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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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