Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] I do sometimes have a way of getting myself in trouble up here, pushing buttons and challenging people and questioning people and all those ings that can rub people the wrong way. Darren just sent me a beautiful comment before we arrived here about we have a new fan on YouTube who expressed that our Baseless Hatred series was full of baseless hatred.
[00:00:35] So that's. I guess that's calling it even, I don't know. But anyway, the point is that sometimes, you know, I had the realization that maybe that's actually our purpose here. I was talking with Ross yesterday and realized maybe. I think what we're really good at is prodding people, poking them a little bit to make them think differently, whether it's theologically or relationally or personally or whatever. The thing is, I like to think we're good at that, to make people uncomfortable. How about that for a mission statement?
[00:01:08] Shalom, Macon. Making the world uncomfortable in so many ways.
[00:01:16] And then a tagline, no, I'm just kidding.
[00:01:20] But I might push some of those buttons today here with the traditionalists. And usually when I'm talking about the traditionalists, it's because I've challenged some long standing, well established church theology or doctrine that goes against the Jewish understanding of the Bible and teaching about new interpretations and all that. But I'm not really talking about those traditionalists. We're going to give them a break today. Today I think I might walk the line of challenging some traditional Jewish interpretation.
[00:01:53] Not out of antagonism, not out of disrespect, but out of a wake up kind of necessity.
[00:02:02] Because that is the season. You know, that kind of necessity, right? The wake up kind. This is what we call the Rambam wake up call.
[00:02:11] You may not be familiar with that wake up call, but the Rambam wrote these words. Awake you sleepers from your sleep and you who slumber, get up, he said, arise, search your deeds, repent. Remember your creator. Those of you who forget the truth because of daily trivialities indulging throughout the year and the useless things that cannot profit you or save you, look into your souls, he said.
[00:02:44] Amend your ways and your deeds. Let everyone give up his evil way and his bad purpose or hers.
[00:02:54] It's Elul, my friends.
[00:02:57] It's the month that precedes the holidays. It's actually already the 13th of Elul. We've missed some of it because we are doing other important work. But this begins this month. Of course, the first begins the serious time of Teshuvah. You hear it pronounced teshuvah, but it all kind of runs Together in Hebrew Teshuvah.
[00:03:22] Okay, so listen, what is this?
[00:03:26] Everyone probably in the room knows, but we have other people around the world joining us who might not. So in 45 seconds or less, on the first of Elul, Moses came. He ascended the mountain to receive the second tablets. Forty days later, on Yom Kippur, he came down. This was the. The day of atonement, making these 40 days well established as forever an amazingly spiritual time.
[00:03:55] For what?
[00:03:58] Cheshbon Hanefesh.
[00:04:02] Sounds like a seafood dinner a little bit or something. Cheshbon Hanefesh, the accounting of the soul looking in. So, you know, just as Israel was forgiven and received the gift of God's continued presence, his grace on Yom Kippur. Did you know that occurs in the Torah? That God demonstrates grace over and over to his people, Israel. So too, we take these 40 days to investigate our sins, our shortcomings, our ways. We repent. We come back. We confess our wrongdoings, we change, we make things right. As much as possible. We partake of the same reality of God's presence being restored to us in beautiful and meaningful ways. Our sages say this is the time at which the king is in the field.
[00:04:57] The king, usually dwelling in his majestic castle, comes down into the city and into the fields with his people. That's the image.
[00:05:09] It's the time when God is near. He's closer than ever. He comes down. Isaiah 56, 55, 6. Seek Adonai while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
[00:05:24] This is now Elul.
[00:05:32] We press in. We do the work.
[00:05:34] But according to Rambam's famous quote, you got to do something.
[00:05:45] Wake up.
[00:05:52] So far, so good.
[00:05:53] We haven't messed with anything traditional, right?
[00:05:57] This is what we do. We do it every year. And I ask who's excited?
[00:06:08] Who's ready for these days of Teshuvah? Who's got great expectations for what's coming?
[00:06:22] What are we expecting? Well, let me tell you from a lot of years in the synagogue, what a lot of people are expecting when it comes to this time of the year.
[00:06:36] Confrontation.
[00:06:39] Yes, confrontation with parts of ourselves that we don't love. Resistance to change. Considering our failures. Making amends, having uncomfortable conversations with people that we may have offended. Learning to let go of hurt.
[00:06:59] Discomfort, very uncomfortable messages about being somebody different than you are now.
[00:07:08] Not that who you are is bad, but that you could be better.
[00:07:13] Emotion, difficult emotions. Bringing up memories of past things that hurt or people close to us that have hurt us or difficulties in our lives. And then the Services, prayers and supplications, many, many prayers and supplic, culminating, as Dave described, in 25 hours of no food or water.
[00:07:45] Let's beat ourselves down until there's not much left. Who's excited?
[00:07:55] Most people wouldn't be.
[00:07:58] That's part of the reason, by the way, why on Yom Kippur the. The line will not be out the door to get into the sanctuary to pray.
[00:08:11] And here's where I lose some of the traditionalists. Because if I'm honest, there's a part of me that says, no, I'm not excited based on past experiences. If what I described above, if that's what I expect, if that's what I'm expecting to get, if I go in with my attitudes and I've had this experience and we've done it before, if that's what I'm expecting, how could I be excited, right?
[00:08:52] Speaking of traditionalists, I've heard from many, many people through the years that have asked me this question.
[00:09:00] Why do you do that?
[00:09:03] You are a disciple of Jesus.
[00:09:06] You don't have to do that. As a matter of fact, you probably shouldn't do it because you're undoing the work of Christ.
[00:09:15] Has anyone ever heard that?
[00:09:18] I have.
[00:09:20] You're a new creation. What do you expect to get out of that?
[00:09:24] Well, I'm going to tell you, and it's for you and me.
[00:09:27] I have a friend, lives in Missouri, Mike Cundiff. He and his wife Becky have been behind the scenes at firstfruits of Zion from the beginning. It's actually Amber, Michael's parents, and Mike handled a lot of the logistics at First Fruits for decades.
[00:09:47] Shipping and money and warehouse and all this kind of stuff. And Becky, well, she handled Mike, for one thing, but in addition to that, a whole bunch of other responsibilities. And with all that responsibility that was on them, of packing boxes and spinning plates and paying, and it's easy to get careless, to get distracted, to get lackadaisical, to assume, you know what, things will just happen a certain way, it's just how it will be, that always gets done by so and so or, well, we did it this way before. I'm sure it'll work out.
[00:10:29] But Mike had a phrase that was passed on to me by Boaz after I was expecting something to happen that didn't happen like that at all.
[00:10:41] And Mike's phrase was this.
[00:10:43] You don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.
[00:10:52] You don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect. Just because it's Been one way before does not mean it will go that way again. And what does this have to do with Elul? It's easy. Too often we lose the power, we lose the potential. The unbelievable opportunity that is before you that these days present to us because we refuse to recognize it. We simply go into it with the preconceived notion that this is what we do.
[00:11:27] We've done it before, let's do it again.
[00:11:31] It turns out that I actually am at least the divine part of me. We all have that.
[00:11:39] The divine part of us is bursting at the seams to come into the holidays.
[00:11:49] I am excited because I know that if we will shine the light of inspection into our being, to not expect what has been, but to shine the light of inspection into our being, to ask God to reveal to us what needs to be inspected and corrected, that it doesn't matter what's happened in the past or what we didn't do, or that we may not have experienced something that was mind blowing.
[00:12:20] You could this year if you do the work.
[00:12:28] I'm excited because God has given us these days. And you can call it introspection, but as I thought about that phrase, you don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.
[00:12:40] I was reminded of something that Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of Blessed Memory also once said. He described the Jewish year as a spiral staircase.
[00:12:48] Right? We circle. We circle in the year. We go on a revolution with the Jewish year and the holidays, but it's a spiral staircase. You know what they look like, right? You go up them, you circle. But what happens as you circle, you elevate.
[00:13:06] And that is the cycle of the Jewish calendar and especially these days. And I thought, how appropriate is that? We go through this every single year, right? This cycle, this circle of accounting, the soul and the difficulties and all that. Why?
[00:13:27] Why?
[00:13:28] Because we have to.
[00:13:31] Yes, part of it. That's for some people. Yes.
[00:13:35] My parents are dragging me here. I felt that way for a long time.
[00:13:39] I finally moved out when I was 41 and that got better.
[00:13:47] Why do we do it? To say that we're obedient and we honored the holiday and we honored the spirit of the thing and we did what's expected of us. And thank God. You know what? We'll do it again next year. So. So what about this? Let's just get in there and let's walk the circle like we're on some kind of spiritual Groundhog Day event.
[00:14:10] Right? Oh, a circle of cycles. I can walk in the circle. Neat, neat. Look how far I'm going, wow.
[00:14:25] You don't get anywhere in a circle.
[00:14:35] Do we expect more of the same, or do we expect to dig deep, to inspect, to uncover the things that lead us, things that lead us into a more abundant life?
[00:14:51] Right.
[00:14:55] It's the going up, it's the elevating. But you know what? When you're walking on a spiral staircase, who's ever walked on, like a little, tiny metal spiral staircase? Do you just shoot up the thing and jump up it? Of course not. You gotta watch what you're doing or you're gonna, like, bust down, you're gonna fall down this thing. You gotta watch, you gotta see where you're stepping.
[00:15:18] You gotta pay attention. You gotta take it slow. You gotta be intentional.
[00:15:24] You gotta be purposeful to get somewhere. And that is our deal here.
[00:15:31] To be purposeful, to be dedicated, to look, to discover what needs repair. What if I'm willing to make a commitment to myself?
[00:15:44] Who doesn't love making commitments to themselves that are gonna make them better? What if I make that commitment to inspecting my life, to strengthening my relationships, my attitud, my heart, my finances, my efforts, my words, whatever it is, I guarantee you got a long list. No offense.
[00:16:06] Well, that leads to an expectation for the next year. If you will do the work, if you will do this inspection, then I can promise you there is one expectation you can have for next year. Do you know what it is you can expect that next year you will have one less thing to bring into the holidays because you dealt with it this year.
[00:16:29] That's amazing, right? Look at that math.
[00:16:38] You'll be on another floor of the staircase at least. And at least closer and elevated to that better version of yourself that's just waiting in there.
[00:16:49] It's a real challenge, you know, to be willing to do that. But I got a little secret for you. You, every single one of you, know you better than anyone else.
[00:17:04] Did you know that people don't inspect themselves because they don't like it. They don't want to confront challenges or shortcomings or failures. They don't want to accept responsibility. They don't want to be vulnerable. They don't want to be forced to change. And forgiveness is an especially hard part of these things. It's a key concept. We have to forgive those who harshly.
[00:17:29] And we have to forgive, ask for forgiveness from those that we might harm, have harmed. That takes a lot of work.
[00:17:37] And sometimes we don't even know how deep down those hurts are inside of us. Do you know why?
[00:17:45] Because we bury them real deep.
[00:17:49] We bury them. We push them so far down that we don't even know where they're buried.
[00:17:58] You know how you find them, though?
[00:18:01] Inspection.
[00:18:04] Inspection. And in order to do that, any of the things that I'm talking about, we need the tool.
[00:18:11] And these are the days which God gave us to utilize the tool of Elulse.
[00:18:29] Egad.
[00:18:31] I remember Sherlock Holmes. He said that right when he stumbled upon a clue. Egad.
[00:18:38] He didn't. Oh, well, he said something that was funny.
[00:18:42] Maybe it was like Cookie Monster who said, egad or something. I don't.
[00:18:47] Who said he get. No, let's not get off topic.
[00:18:51] The divine magnifying glass.
[00:18:57] I remember.
[00:18:59] You know, they. Sherlock Holmes at least looked for clues. Give me that.
[00:19:04] And guess what?
[00:19:06] We have clues, too, in our own lives.
[00:19:10] Clues that we should be inspecting.
[00:19:14] You know what they are? They're called recurring issues.
[00:19:22] That was good.
[00:19:24] Anyone in the room have recurring issues?
[00:19:31] Wow. Thank you. Jacob, Come up. Sit right there. I'll give the rest of the message to you. Because everyone else has got it figured out.
[00:19:40] Let me help you understand what those look like.
[00:19:43] These are struggles that show up again and again and again in your life.
[00:19:51] Who has a relationship that just continues to be stressed and strained?
[00:19:58] Who finds themselves battling emotions that steal your joy or regrets or fear that prevent you from enjoying the present moment of your life?
[00:20:09] Most people do. And there is a cause for these things. These are recurring issues. I'll ask you one more time. Does anyone in the room have any recurring issues that they deal with?
[00:20:23] You can have it.
[00:20:26] Musar talks about recurring issues. It's called a life curriculum. You know this term.
[00:20:34] You will continue to struggle with the same things over and over and over again until you get to the root cause. And guess what? You can count on that.
[00:20:45] That is an expectation you should have. That if you don't deal with things, you can expect that for the rest of your life you will struggle with them. Now who's excited?
[00:20:59] Because I know I'm talking to you.
[00:21:05] There is a way to change that expectation, and it is by inspection. Sure.
[00:21:11] Definitely. We should be working on our issues every day. There should not be a night that goes by that we don't lay our head on our pillow and say, thank you, God, that I am immeasurably better tonight than I was when I woke up today, because I spend a lot of time working on my personal issues every night. Yeah, sure, that's the dream world.
[00:21:39] We should be doing that. But we don't do that very often. Why because they hide away. We don't look for them, we push them away. They get buried in our being. And what emerges is a personality of yours, like it or not. That personality that says, that's just the way I am.
[00:22:02] I hate that phrase.
[00:22:05] I do.
[00:22:06] It's just the way I am.
[00:22:12] Your choice.
[00:22:15] Give you a hint.
[00:22:17] If you're ever having to say to somebody, it's just the way I am, they probably don't like you.
[00:22:26] And a bunch of other people probably don't either. And I'm not saying that's anyone in the room. I'm just saying that is not a good thing to say.
[00:22:35] That is not a good outlook on life. It's just the way I am. But they're in there. They're pushed down because you don't even know. They integrate into your thoughts and the way you express yourself and everything. And that's predictable behavior. But it doesn't have to be because you pick up the magnifying glass and you just put it on yourself and look.
[00:23:04] This is the time to do that, to put your issues front and center, to put them into the light, to bring them to God, to be honest with yourself. And an amazing thing happens when we shine God's divine magnifying glass on these issues. Anyone ever been a kid with a magnifying glass outside taking a leaf or a bug if you ever did that. But what happens? You shine the light through the magnifying glass and this hyper focus of heat and light sets things on fire.
[00:23:41] It burns them up. And the same thing happens spiritually when you take the magnifying glass of Hashem, the divine tool, and you shine it and the light and the heat can burn it away.
[00:24:07] And speaking of the sun's light, the light of the world, the S O N has given us the ultimate magnifying glass that is called the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit to guide you. And in this process, my friends, even if it is one less thing to carry out of here, one less thing to confront, one less burden. I'm reminded of Yeshua and the yoke being easy and the burden being light.
[00:24:45] What's ahead of you depends on you.
[00:24:53] And there are these traditional themes of the holidays, which are incredibly powerful and this could be a challenge. But we have the books of life, we have the book of death, we have the book of in between. These are the high holiday images, right? We say prayers about our fate resting in God's hands for the upcoming year. Unatane token. It's one of the like the highlight of the Rosh Hashanah service.
[00:25:21] Let us voice the power of this day, its sanctity. It's awesomely terrible on this day. This is the prayer. Your kingship is raised.
[00:25:32] Your throne is founded upon loving you with truth. You sit, it is you judge and accuser, knowing one and witness, writing, sealing, counting, numbering, remembering. You open the book of memories. It is read, and every man's name is signed there.
[00:25:48] And we're singing it in this haunting, beautiful tune.
[00:25:52] Who will die of hunger, thirst, disease? Who will suffer? Who is cast down?
[00:25:59] It's this incredible moment in the liturgy, but I want to reframe it in the context of our discussion regarding the traditional interpretation. Allow me this pastoral reframing.
[00:26:16] I do not believe that God is sitting in heaven with a red Sharpie crossing off names.
[00:26:24] And I know that may rub some Jewish tradition the wrong way.
[00:26:33] I know a lot of evil people who will go through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with no problems at all. As a matter of fact, they won't even show up for it.
[00:26:52] I think for God, it's the last little bit of the prayer that I just read you. Unatane, tokef, and ends with these. But repentance, prayer and charity avert the evil decree. In other words, inspect yourself, Inspect yourself. Use these days, these amazingly significant days, to dig deep, to find the things we need to be released from, to repent, to turn back, to pray that God will illuminate these things, and then to give charity, which is the essence of your soul, the goodness of you that you give back to the world for repentance, prayer and charity avert these things. And let me say this, the books are an image. They're a powerful one, a very real consideration of life and death. But to be written in the Book of Death, it's the opposite of life. And, my friends, a life that is weighed down by hurt and past and regret, or the weight of anger, resentment, unforgiveness. This is not life.
[00:28:06] This is walking death.
[00:28:09] And you can have more of it.
[00:28:13] You can be inscribed in that for next year, or the in between, right? You can choose to. You can acknowledge that you need to work, but you can choose to just walk with it and ignore it all. And that's just in between. And that in and of itself is a slow kind of death. Or you can choose life, live life, abundant life. That's what these days are about. That's what it's about.
[00:28:50] Yeshua came that we might have life and life more abundantly. He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. A divine magnifying glass to search you can be written in the Book of Life abundantly.
[00:29:03] How about that for a book for next year?
[00:29:08] The Book of Life more abundantly.
[00:29:14] Or stay in between. I recommend we choose life. So remember, in this process, you don't get what you expect.
[00:29:28] Thank you, Mike Cundiff. You get what you inspect. Mike's a Shalomi in Missouri. I hope he's watching you. Never knew you'd write a high holiday message, did you?
[00:29:40] We need to inspect ourselves, Ross.
[00:29:44] Go for it.
[00:29:48] And to help us in this pursuit, I got you a little tool.
[00:30:00] Now listen, they're going to hand those out. But don't get distracted. Listen to me.
[00:30:05] Listen to what I'm going to say when I end this. They're going to hand them out. Don't worry about it. If you don't get one, I'll make sure you do.
[00:30:15] Put this somewhere you will see it every day.
[00:30:22] Put it somewhere, you will see it every day.
[00:30:31] And there's a statement that goes with it. That phrase is wonderful. You don't get what you inspect. You don't get what you expect. You get what you inspect.
[00:30:40] But here's something even easier that I want you to remember with this tool, your elul tool, your divine magnifying glass. It is this easy. You ready? Reveal, deal, heal.
[00:30:58] When you see this, I want you to remember these words. Reveal, deal, and heal.
[00:31:07] It's got to start with revelation. It's got to say, I'm willing to look.
[00:31:16] I'm willing to look in here. I'm willing to look in here for things that are poisoning my life.
[00:31:24] Your thoughts can poison your life.
[00:31:30] I'm willing to do that.
[00:31:34] That middle part is tricky, the dealing part. You may have tried before to deal with many things. It's not that easy sometimes. Guess what? But you can't do it by yourself.
[00:31:45] You just can't. You need help. I'm here to help you. A community is here to help you. There are professionals that are here to help you if need be. But most of all, there's a God in heaven who ordained these days that we might go through this process. Of the three things, what did I tell you? Say it with me. Reveal, deal, and heal. And I know it's cheesy, but it's memorable.
[00:32:15] This is the symbol for the start of the process and moving past things. However long it's been a struggle, however long we don't expect the same things, we don't have to.
[00:32:35] So I hope that we can go around the circle of the holidays again.
[00:32:40] But this time we're taking the steps up.
[00:32:45] This time we're doing the work to inspect to climb the spiral staircase toward our higher self. Maybe one level. Maybe the whole year is one level, but maybe you're five flights of stairs up by the end of it.
[00:33:05] Maybe the climb will be the most amazing you've ever had.
[00:33:12] Put it somewhere you see it every day and be willing to do the work.
[00:33:21] Next week we'll talk about the climb.
[00:33:25] Shabbat Shalom I'm Darren with Shalom Macon. If you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step.
[00:33:32] Start by making sure you're subscribed to our channel. Next, make sure you hit the like button on this video so that others know it's worth their time to watch.
[00:33:40] Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined, contribute to the work that we're doing to further the kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon Sa.
