Talmudic Wisdom
“For after I turned back, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh; I was ashamed and also humiliated because I bore the reproach of my youth.” Jeremiah 31:19 NASB
Turned back – Shuv. To turn back. To return. To turn around. Shuv assumes prior defeat. One does not turn back from victory. One turns back from failure. Perhaps this says it best:
Teshuva, the noun of repentance, assumes that we have failed. There is no restoration unless there is collapse. But the Talmud offers a unique and crucial insight into our condition. “Every time the Talmud records an individual who speaks of doing something wrong, the third person singular is used—hahu gavra, ‘that person’—as if the individual had been overtaken by an outer evil force. When the individual recalls having acted righteously, however, the first person singular—ana—is used, as righteousness is one’s true self.”[1]
Consider for a moment the importance of this tiny change. Brought up in the world after Luther, we have been taught that there is nothing good within us, that we are sinners from birth and our only hope of restoration is completely outside of ourselves. We believe that unless God acts upon us, we are irreconcilably lost. We have no motivation to seek any answers deep within because we expect to find only more dross. But the Hebraic view does not treat Luther as the authority on Scripture. Consequently, it does not share the idea that human beings are essentially flawed. Of course YHVH must be involved in the restoration, but the process requires more than an outside agent’s magical transformation. It requires a return to the original design, a design that YHVH Himself constructed. That design, however marred by disobedience, is still latently present, waiting to be resurrected within. The deep work of deliverance requires, as Paul noted, our active participation with fear and trembling alongside the work of the Father. In the Hebraic world there is very good reason for looking within because that’s where we will ultimately find ourselves. Avraham Weiss notes that the Sefer Emet interprets the verse concerning Abel’s sacrifice as follows: “Abel brought himself [his inner I] with the sacrifice, and therefore it was accepted before the Lord, Blessed Be He.”[2]
Perhaps prayer is obstructed by the inheritance of Reformation thinking. If we believe that nothing good lies within, why would we ever attempt to present our deepest concerns, hopes and dreams to the Father? Instead, we would be motivated to hide from Him those abominable inner longings, and as a result, our prayers remain on the surface. We feel the desperate need to pray but by the time the words reach our lips they have been reduced to polite, acceptable banter—as unsatisfying as elevator music. We read David’s prayers and discover an intensity that we long to experience but have been trained to avoid. And so we opt out. We just don’t pray because the whole experience makes us feel so uncomfortable. Perhaps we must begin with a workshop in crying.
Topical Index: prayer, teshuva, Jeremiah 31:19
[1] Avraham Weiss, Holistic Prayer, p. 10.
[2] Sefer Emet, Genesis, Bereshit 5635, s.v. BeSefer Kol Simha in Avraham Weiss, Holistic Prayer, p. 11.
Hmm, Think we could get Boehner to hold a class on this?
Just As I Am
~ For He [has] rescued us from the domain of darkness, and [has] transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins ~
First, the Bad News..
No one, (no, not one) “measures up.” Y’all, “ALL” (a very inclusive word) have sinned. And? “There is NONE righteous, — No, not one. We (as in you and I) are sinners. “Thou shalt not” – (eat the fruit? – and we did. “Thou shalt” (do this or that) and we failed to do. Either way,-
(Just the facts)- ~ ‘ALL’ have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God..
And now, the “Good News”
The Gift
~ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3.24)
Friend, a Lamb has been provided!! – Abraham was right! God HAS provided Himself the Lamb.
Calvary’s Lamb. In the words of John the Immerser: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..
”
~whom God displayed publicly (nothing more public than hanging naked and bleeding on the tslav- the execution stake) as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed..
Up Calv’ry’s mountain, one dreadful morn,
Walked Christ my Savior, weary and worn;
Facing for sinners death on the cross,
That He might save them from endless loss
Blessed Redeemer! Precious Redeemer!
Seems now I see Him on Calvary’s tree;
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading,
Blind and unheeding—dying for me!
“Father forgive them!” thus did He pray,
E’en while His lifeblood flowed fast away;
Praying for sinners while in such woe—
No one but Jesus ever loved so.
Oh, how I love Him, Savior and Friend,
How can my praises ever find end?
Through years unnumbered on heaven’s shore,
My tongue shall praise Him forevermore.
Blessed Redeemer! Precious Redeemer!
Seems now I see Him on Calvary’s tree;
Wounded and bleeding, — for sinners pleading,
Blind and unheeding—dying for me!
Our Father who is in Heaven (Separate from us)
Hallowed is your Name (Sacred and peaceful, unlike us)
Thy Kingdom come (turn to Him to engage/address our pain)
Thy will be done (Change our behavior/follow His orders)
On earth as it is in Heaven (make the two “things” one)
Who am I? Perhaps the question could be better asked as “who are we?” Reduction to the singular collapses the definition of me to nothing, for there is no singular me! I AM my connections to others. My identity IS a picture of the spaces in between me and God, myself, and others. A person on death row, in solitary confinement, is, so often, in a very real sense, already dead, for they have been denied the identity that can only be found between themselves and others. But God! No one can deny the space between the weakest and most depraved person and Him except that person. Not a few people on that row of death have found Him, when there was no one else, and thus found their true identity at the same time.
Sin is who I am NOT. Sin is a contrived caricature that got handed to me (temptation) and I fell for it. Sin says “here is a shortcut to the fruit of relationship; to hell with relationship!”. I fall for it when I believe that, on some level, I cannot, in fact, achieve that relationship. But I still have to have that fruit to survive! My very life depends on the fruits of relationship. Life itself is a sum total of relationship. We are all walking around right now in the grace of those new chances at relationship that we are getting handed, over and over, because Someone is bridging the gap with His body (and taking a beating in the process). I am breathing right now because of that grace, along with the most depraved criminal on the planet. If I could truly see my true condition in all its fracture, right now, I am certain that I would not survive the realization. It would kill me, for I would lose all faith, and without that faith, I cannot live, even if it is the faith of illusion! We all live by grace and by faith, for that is the only way any of us are, but it remains to be seen who of us lepers are going to turn back (teshuva!) and give the glory, honor and power for that Life to Whom it belongs. Sin tells me that the glory, honor and power of my life belongs to someone other than God (usually me!). When I fall for that, I have stepped outside the Kingdom.
Sin destroys me in my identity; righteousness returns me to that identity. The fracture of relationship is the fracture of ME, for the real me lies beyond me, and I must make a constant effort to become, and then stay, fully realized in reality. It is grace that hands me those opportunities, over and over, as grace does to all of us, for the righteousness of Christ IS His connections (love) to all, but it is only WHEN I take advantage of what He hands me (by the actions of the Law, which are those actions of relationship) that that grace is efficacious for me. I am on the receiving end of the transmission of love (connection), but the transmission is not complete until I do my part, which is to receive it, and I receive it by acting on it. I am given, through grace, opportunities to love, but I still have to actually do the action of that love (which is the fulfillment of the Law). I am absolutely certain that love (connection) comes from beyond me, as I am also quite certain that it came from beyond the sinless pair in that Garden, but once I am connected through that most precious of gifts from beyond me, it is still up to me to STAY connected. Love hands me my identity, over and over, but I can still refuse to take it; I can still choose to believe the lies that steal my faith in that love and tell me that I have failed God, hate others, and can’t stand myself (who I am not). When I believe those lies, then I will fall for the temptation to try to pick the fruit I see hanging over the wall, instead of growing my own. I must have the fruits of relationship to live, but sin convinces me that I can only live by taking fruit that I did not earn. Survival IS about love, but sin is about appropriating the results of love without completing my end of the transmission of love. Sin pastes on a false identity; sin hands me a fabrication of lies to believe and to walk in. Sin creates an illusion of connection by handing me those stolen fruits – those altered states of reality – while at the same time it fractures who I really am, for who I really am is a sum total of all connections. When I accept the offer of the perfect connections that Yeshua came to return to me, then I am returned to who I really am. May I stay there (obey)!
I asked YHVH who i was, once. his response was to show all that i was not.
All that i believed and had acted on, to that point in my life, that was NOT me.
I should do that again…