{"id":6685,"date":"2024-08-30T22:40:17","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T03:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=6685"},"modified":"2024-08-30T22:42:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T03:42:02","slug":"the-40-days-of-teshuvah-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/the-40-days-of-teshuvah-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The 40 Days of Teshuvah…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The last month of the Jewish calendar<\/a> (counting from Tishri) is called Elul<\/a> (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc), which (this year) begins at sundown on Monday, September 2nd, 2024. Traditionally, Rosh Chodesh Elul marks the beginning of a forty day \u201cSeason of Teshuvah\u201d that culminates on the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur<\/a>. The month of Elul is therefore a time set aside each year to prepare for the Yamim Nora\u2019im,<\/em> the \u201cDays of Awe,\u201d by getting our spiritual house in order.<\/p>\n

During this time we make additional effort to repent, or \u201cturn [shuv<\/em>] toward God.\u201d In Jewish tradition, these 40 days are sometimes called Yemei Ratzon<\/em> (\u05d9\u05b0\u05de\u05b5\u05d9 \u05e8\u05b8\u05e6\u05d5\u05b9\u05df) – “Days of Favor,” since it was during this time that the LORD forgave the Jewish nation after the sin of the Golden Calf (Pirke d\u2019Reb Eliezar). Some of the sages liken these 40 days to the number of days it takes for the human fetus to be formed within the womb.<\/p>\n

The advent of the \u201cSeason of Teshuvah\u201d 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 and compassion 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<\/em> (\u05e0\u05b4\u05e9\u05c1\u05b0\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05e8 \u05dc\u05b5\u05d1), the one with a broken and crushed heart (Psalm 34:18).<\/p>\n

Brokenness is the means through which God performs some of His deepest work within our hearts. A.W. Tozer once said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Likewise Alan Redpath once wrote, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible individual \u2013 and crushes him.” William James called this deep work of the spiritual life Zerrissenheit<\/em>, a term that roughly can be translated as “torn-to-pieces-hood,” or a state of being utterly broken and in disarray… The brokenhearted live in day-to-day dependence upon God for the miracle…<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/psalm34-18-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Psalm 34:18 Hebrew page<\/a> (pdf)<\/p>\n

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Note that the word “Elul” (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc) may be read as an acronym for the phrase, ani le\u2019dodi ve\u2019dodi li<\/em> (\u05d0\u05b2\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9 \u05dc\u05b0\u05d3\u05d5\u05b9\u05d3\u05b4\u05d9 \u05d5\u05b0\u05d3\u05d5\u05b9\u05d3\u05b4\u05d9 \u05dc\u05b4\u05d9), “I am my beloved\u2019s, and my beloved in mine” (Song 6:3), to encourage to become full of desire for the Beloved of our soul…<\/p>\n

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The last month of the Jewish calendar (counting from Tishri) is called Elul (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc), which (this year) begins at sundown on Monday, September 2nd, 2024. Traditionally, Rosh Chodesh Elul marks the beginning of a forty day \u201cSeason of Teshuvah\u201d that culminates on the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur. The month of Elul is therefore a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-dvar","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6685"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6694,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions\/6694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}