Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] I'm not a person who has a lot of visions. As a matter of fact, I don't know that I've ever had a true vision, like been transported or seen. I've never had an Ezekiel moment. I've never had an Isaiah in the throne room moment. None of these visions. I read, I listen for God, I try to hear, but I don't often see in pictures. And so what when that happens to me, it is a memorable experience and I like to share it. I hope it will translate.
[00:00:39] One day during Elul, before we had started, I was praying and reading and just meditating and I just closed my eyes to kind of set myself in the mode and begin to prepare for the work that we needed to do as a community. And so I just stopped. I just. That's what I do in the morning. I just stop and I just sit.
[00:01:01] And a daily pause.
[00:01:04] Moments of quiet, even if it's only five minutes that you can muster, is transformative for your everything.
[00:01:15] So that's what I was doing.
[00:01:19] And in my mind, of course, then I have this unique thing where I'm sitting in an auditorium, one of the old, like the Grand Opera House downtown, one of those old with the balcony and the curtains and the alcoves and all that. And I'm sitting in the back of this thing and I look forward toward the stage as an observer. And I see myself walking on the stage.
[00:01:50] And as I look at the stage more closely, there are trees all along the stage. They're planted there. And I look more closely and the entire stage is just soil.
[00:02:04] And the trees are in the soil.
[00:02:07] And they're different sized trees. They are different kinds of trees. Some are beautiful, some are flowering and full of life. Some of them are looking like they're in the fall season or worse, but they don't have a lot of leaves. And then there are some that are really just not looking good.
[00:02:28] And as I continue to watch, I observe and see me walking through all these trees, but investigating them as I walk and looking at the bark on certain trees, but especially paying attention to the trees that were not really doing so well. The ones that were struggling and asking and wondering why is it? What needs to be done here? What can be fixed and picking up the soil.
[00:02:56] And that was it.
[00:02:58] And I wrote it down because that's what I do when something like that occurs so that I can remember it. And then I got started.
[00:03:08] I started on the message series for Elul. The inspection and the nail and the climb and everything that we've been through.
[00:03:17] But then when I got to the teaching that we did, I think it was last week on the Shards, something came to my mind and I remembered the mental movie and it started to have a meaning. Because then on Rosh Hashanah, I shared the creation theme on era of Rosh Hashanah about God creating within us a new heart. And it came into focus and I felt like all of it now I began to understand was a message for this Shabbat, which is Shabbat Shuvah. This is the Shabbat of return. And I want to share something with you honestly about this. I pray that I have heard properly from Hashem that it's okay to share the inner workings of my mind for a purpose. Kelly tells me it's dangerous.
[00:04:03] Today is indeed the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is a very special Shabbat with the meaning Shabbat Shuvah, which means the Shabbat of Return.
[00:04:18] It is about, as you might guess, Teshuvah, about turning, about repentance. And you know, it's a beautiful time. It invites a teaching about Teshuvah or returning back to God. But there is a strange tension on Shabbat Shuvah as well. Because here's the deal. Teshuvah is practiced as you know, from four weeks or however long we've been talking about. It is practiced through self inspection. It's practiced through sober self examination and taking a step away, distancing ourselves from missteps of the past and being willing to repudiate the things, the mistakes, the things that must be left behind. And so even when we talk about Teshuvah and repentance bringing new beginning, it still involves something of negative in so many cases, something letting go, something that was back there, something that we got. Some heaviness is usually a part of the idea, that's Teshuvah.
[00:05:29] But this is Shabbat.
[00:05:31] Shabbat is a day of joy.
[00:05:35] It's something we received in love and favor.
[00:05:39] We're commanded to call Shabbat Oneg, to call it a delight. We're happy. We're supposed to be happy today. How is it that the heaviness of Teshuvah and the joy of Shabbat can come together and work.
[00:05:56] They're sort of a contradiction.
[00:06:00] But there's a bridge in the shared language of return.
[00:06:06] And when we talked about collecting our shards and bringing them to God.
[00:06:11] This statement I read you from Rabbi Shapiro in 1941 in the Warsaw Ghetto when he said that shuvah, it means repentance it means return, but it's not simp.
[00:06:21] We return to who we are meant to be but have not yet become.
[00:06:27] That was his statement.
[00:06:30] Similarly, when we speak of this day, Shabbat Shuva, and the apparent contradiction, another very, very brilliant rabbi named Adin Steinsaltz once said this about Shabbat Shuvah. We are encouraged to now think little of the past and much more of what could yet be.
[00:06:54] In other words, there are two kinds of return at work, two kinds of teshuvah. Return from a wayward path, that is to abandon sin, but also return to who you are meant to be so that you can become the person you have not yet become.
[00:07:20] But that raises a question.
[00:07:23] Who am I supposed to become?
[00:07:26] What am I supposed to be? What are we returning to? Not just what are we turning from, but what are we turning toward? Well, to live a holy life. Okay, great. What does that mean?
[00:07:40] What does it mean?
[00:07:43] Well, there's much more.
[00:07:45] And we can look back again at creation and Adam and the soil in the garden on Rosh Hashanah. I told you that the sixth day, the birthday of the world, was on day six, which is Rosh Hashanah. That was the day God created Adam, Adam and Chava, Adam and Eve. He had partners and creation. He had friends.
[00:08:10] He had people he could love, and they could love him back. And that was the beginning of a relationship. And the Torah tells us that God breathed into Adam the breath of life. He formed him from the soil and breathed into him the breath of life, dust and breath, earth and spirit. And that took place where?
[00:08:35] Gan Edin in the Garden of Eden.
[00:08:39] Gan Edin or Gan Edin?
[00:08:43] But I want to say.
[00:08:45] Well, and I should say, if you'll open your understanding a bit with me and allow me to take you back to my vision from the day in early Elul. I want to teach you about another garden that's in that story, that account, that biblical account, because not only were they in the garden of Eden, but God planted a garden in Adam.
[00:09:17] What I mean is, in that soil that became humanity, God planted seeds.
[00:09:25] He planted in that seed into that soil of Adam. The seeds of identity, the seeds of purpose, the seeds of greatness.
[00:09:37] He had plans for Adam, and he placed potential into the human that was made from earth. And then he gave it breath and light and water. And from the beginning, humanity was earth on the outside and earth on the inside, where God can plant and work. A sort of garden of God that's in you.
[00:10:04] And it is in you in the soil of Your soul.
[00:10:12] God planted a garden of potential and seeds.
[00:10:18] Seeds are not supposed to stay seeds. That kind of defeats the purpose. They are supposed to grow. They are supposed to become. They are a living thing meant to grow. I already referenced this idea in previous teaching in Psalms where they pick up on Psalm 1. The righteous person is like a tree planted by streams of living water, right?
[00:10:43] A tree planted by streams, roots and fruit in season, a leaf that does not wither. Those seeds that God plants in us do not stay seeds.
[00:10:55] They become under God's care. You are now a garden of blossomed seeds, each seed growing into some aspect of your identity, of your potential, of who you actually are, of who you are supposed to be. A garden of God. Maybe an orchard would be better, but full of trees that reflect all the beauty that you in all of your roles, are supposed to bring into the world.
[00:11:25] That's what God planted. As I was considering the stage and the soil and all the trees I was inspecting, I could see now the trees that God has grown from those seeds. In my life, as a husband, as a father, as a son, as a brother, as a rabbi, as a musician, as a friend, all of the ways in which God planted in me things that needed to grow and blossom so that I.
[00:11:57] My garden, my manifestation, my trees that God planted in me. Each one representing something that I would bring to bless other people, not about me. To bless other people.
[00:12:14] And I'm sure you can think of the forest that has come up in your own soil.
[00:12:21] Well, you can if you try.
[00:12:25] Mother, encourager, builder, healer, provider, teacher, friend. That's God's garden in you. That's all of the trees. That's everything. He planted all of these beautiful rolls. And those trees are not accidents he put there. He has plans. Just like he had plans for Adam to rule and have dominion. He had plans for you. And he placed them in this beautiful soil. And they are maturing.
[00:12:52] They are the maturing of what God planted in the soil of you.
[00:12:58] Which is a strange way to look at it, but that's where we started, the soil of you.
[00:13:09] And I hope maybe you'll remember our work on the shards. And I offered you a piece of bark to take as a reminder. We spoke about how a tree can be wounded, right? Barks. Bark chips and peels and wind and weather. And sometimes major storms come and lightning comes and scars the trunk. And so it is with us. Our choices, our anger, our apathy, our old resentments, our quiet when we should speak, our neglect. Those can strip the bark and expose raw and tender wood. And then our blossoms fade and our fruit falls off early.
[00:13:51] We don't have any harvest in the world. A tree that should have been strong becomes brittle because the parts of it again are scattered about.
[00:14:05] Yet we chose, I hope you chose, will choose to seek out those scattered pieces, to ask to give them to God to repair, to renew, to restore, to create within us a new heart that wounds can close, a scar can become a sign of survival, not of death. As a matter of fact, we know in trees you prune something so that more growth occurs, so that sometimes what apparent pain and misery actually leads to a more full life, a fuller tree, a fuller manifestation of the person you were supposed to be.
[00:14:47] But on this Shabbat Shuvah, we have to take this statement very, very seriously. We return to who we are meant to be, but have not yet become what we are returning to.
[00:15:03] Well, you need a garden walk.
[00:15:07] Who likes a walk among the beautiful things of nature?
[00:15:12] That's another thing you should do. Besides the quiet of the day, you should always get out somewhere and walk. It's the most amazing thing for clearing your head, for getting ideas, for hearing from God.
[00:15:24] But you need, like God walked in the garden with Adam, we need to spend some time in our own garden.
[00:15:33] Shabbat Shuvah is an invitation to the gentle walk through the garden of God in us. The inspection that we began in Elul, it continues, but the tone is different. We are returning to this garden. We are returning to seek out our potential and the roles that he has entrusted to us.
[00:15:57] We are returning to our purpose in our lives, for the future that you have.
[00:16:06] But here's the bridge. It is Shabbat.
[00:16:11] So we examine with this great hope, hope for who we can be. We're joyful, we're celebrating. What are we looking for? What are we examining? Well, here's the answer. Here's the question. Here's the answer. How healthy is your garden?
[00:16:26] What will your inspection reveal?
[00:16:29] As you take God's hand and ask him to walk through the soil of you and inspect the trees that are the manifestation of the person you are on this earth, what will that inspection reveal?
[00:16:50] You see beautiful flowering trees in our garden and will you find fruit producing trees? Of all the different people that you are that God has called you to be, those things can actually grow. Do you know? Some of the things, some of you, some of the parts of you can grow on their own.
[00:17:15] But generally speaking, if we do not nourish these trees, if we do not, they will wither if they are uncared for, they will die. They need water, light, wind. They need nurture. And when they don't get it, they shrivel up, just like a plant that looks thirsty. Part of your soul will begin to show its neglect when you do not pay attention to what's planted in you.
[00:17:46] And so often, what do we say? Well, yeah, yeah, I'm not doing my. I'll get to it. I'll water it eventually. In the meantime, that part of you is going, water, nourish me. Pay attention to me. Notice that you have a unique call to be this particular person. Put water on me, me, grow me up, strengthen me.
[00:18:21] It is on the negative side. It is what sin does, it's what apathy does. It's what fear does. It's what avoidance does. It chokes out life.
[00:18:32] Weeds take over. But different trees, different plants, as I was saying, they have different care. You know that in your yard.
[00:18:39] You certainly should know it in your soul.
[00:18:42] Parts of you, some parts need constant tending. Other parts are like a succulent, you know, in my life, one of those. My musicianship is like a succulent.
[00:18:57] I love playing music. I'm a musician, I'm passionate for it. Could I be incredibly, much better at it? Yes, I could. If I would tend to it, much, much more. But I don't really have to. It's something that blossoms and it produces fruit. I don't have to constantly be tending to that tree in my garden, but other trees.
[00:19:22] As a husband, as a father, as a present father, as someone who has a desire to listen to other people, to be present, to hear other people's problems. All of these things, all of these trees all rolls and they need steady water and light. And when I neglect them, it shows fast. It shows very fast to my wife, to my children, you must inspect, you must take a walk.
[00:20:06] And those are the trees.
[00:20:09] That's what I was inspecting that day.
[00:20:13] In my mind, those withered, dried, brittle branches that don't get attention, they'll break, and the trees just won't thrive. And your garden is the same. Some trees, some parts of you thrive. You're good at it, you've done the work, they're established. You need to observe them for signs of blight and disease. But generally speaking, parts of you, you're really good at it, guys. Maybe it's your job, it's your occupation. I don't know. But things, they just.
[00:20:47] But again, other parts of you, your most important trees in the garden are all the relationships you have with people. And if they are not Nourished if they were not cared for, you will let them die and everyone else will suffer for it.
[00:21:11] That's what I saw the day I prayed. I saw this day headlong into the holidays with God creating within us a clean heart, calling us back from wherever we've been called to the garden he planted within us, to return to take his hand and take a walk, to come to this season, to this day to Shabbat Shuvah and hear Rabbi Steinsalt say, we are encouraged to think little of the past and much more about what we could be.
[00:21:43] That's the beauty of the high holidays. There is nothing else like it.
[00:21:51] A forced journey.
[00:21:55] But it's not forced because God will put his hand out and say, let me show you, let me help you tend your garden. But you can say later, not today.
[00:22:11] Ask him to go with you on your walk through your garden. His garden of potential that he placed in the soil of you, his garden in you.
[00:22:27] Who are you?
[00:22:29] What are you?
[00:22:32] What trees are in your garden? What roles, what opportunities has God given you to shine in this life? What opportunity? And then ask some questions. Which of these trees, which of these are healthy? Which are blossoming, which are producing fruit? Where do I see fruit? And then I see it and I say, thank God, this is a healthy tree.
[00:23:03] Second, which ones are thirsty?
[00:23:06] Which parts of you have you allowed the last year to Just get back there, I'll give you some water later. Get back, which just need some water. And third, where is the soil completely rotten?
[00:23:25] Where are weeds completely choking out the roots? Where do you have this frail looking half dead tree? What are we avoiding that needs to be addressed to re sprout this tree and let it grow and be beautiful.
[00:23:45] But that is not our search for reasons to feel bad. We're taking responsibility for what God has entrusted in us. So what are we returning to? Is not anything of the past. There's not a past really we can fix. On Shabbat Shuvah we return to the idea of potential, God's purpose in our lives. We return to who we are meant to be, but have not yet become. Have you gotten that message yet?
[00:24:12] That's what we're returning to.
[00:24:17] To become. Psalm Oners that's what we need. A shirt. Psalm Oners planted trees planted by streams of living water. Their leaves don't wither. There's fruit in the season. But here's a beautiful confirmation from the special Haftarah for this day Shabbat Shuvah. Listen, here's how it starts. This is why the Shabbat gets the Shabbat Shuva. Hosea 14.
[00:24:46] Return, O Israel, to the Lord. He begs. The prophet begs, return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
[00:24:56] Take words with you and return to the Lord. That's the beginning. That's part of it. But listen to how it continues on Shabbat Shuvah, or in this reading that opens on Shabbat Shuvah. He says, later, I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily. He shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive tree, his fragrance like that of Lebanon. They shall again live beneath my shadow. They shall flourish as a garden that he planted in you.
[00:25:38] How are you tending it?
[00:25:45] Dew blossom, root tree, flourishing. This is the garden we're meant to be. So teshuva is not only pulling weeds. It's about letting God come in and soak us with some water, some spirit and some forgiveness, but also his guidance and his nourishment so these trees can live. If we'll return. If we'll return. He gives blossom. He gives beauty and strength. I love the idea. I love the idea. I've spent so many years in my rabbinic role, I have, and I probably will again next year, talking about the books and judgment and you, pitiful sinner, we all are. Let's go back. And there is a place for that. I'm not saying it's not a part of this high holy.
[00:26:33] But there's so much power in seeing the positive side of teshuvah, of seeing the way forward to return so that we can go forward in tending the garden, relationship by relationship, habit by habit.
[00:26:55] So listen, I'm not giving you anything today.
[00:26:58] I'm not giving you any more props. I threw my bark. I've given you enough things, I hope. Well, if I give them, they'll think about these things. So I'm not gonna give you anything. But I am gonna tell you you should get something.
[00:27:11] You know what I think you should get?
[00:27:13] I think you should get yourself a plant.
[00:27:17] I think you should get yourself some kind of small plant.
[00:27:21] You know whose job it is to take care of that plant?
[00:27:26] You.
[00:27:27] Why?
[00:27:28] Because it represents the garden of God in you.
[00:27:34] And when you see it, when you see. And no cactuses, by the way.
[00:27:43] That doesn't count.
[00:27:45] No succulents. Something that needs attention and care. And when you water it, I want you to think of your garden. And when you see a leaf fall or the plant drooping or looking like it needs water. I want you to think of your garden.
[00:28:03] And as it grows, I want you to think of your garden.
[00:28:10] Time and attention. When you see new growth, the dew of God's presence, it's like it's in you.
[00:28:18] And if it dies, I don't know how. You should read that.
[00:28:23] I'm kidding. Get a new plant.
[00:28:26] My plant will probably die in a week. That's just. I'm not very good at plants. But you got to do it anyway. Get a new plant. If it dies, the lesson is still there.
[00:28:38] But on one more practical level, what I just told you about, about the positive side of teshuvah, there are many people who could say, well, man, you're really. You're missing the whole point. We gotta get down and we gotta see the worst. You're right. You're right. But I was listening yesterday to a podcast. Can I see that? How fitting is this?
[00:29:05] This is a book by Rabbi Mendel Kalmanson.
[00:29:10] He is a Chabad rabbi. Traveled to 55 different countries as a shaliach for chabad. He went to 55 countries and worked to set up chabad houses and be a light.
[00:29:26] Think about the garden that guy is tending. This is his most recent book. It's called On Purpose. Rabbi Calvinson is a Hasidic Jew. So I'm going to tell you something I think you should read. He's not Messianic. Okay?
[00:29:43] He's with Chabad. He's a beautiful soul.
[00:29:50] I think you should buy this book, practically speaking, and I think you should read it now. You'll need to put on your big boy and girl spiritual underpants because it's not Christianity and it's not Messianic Judaism.
[00:30:07] It's Hasidus. That means that there's esoteric and mystical ideas that are here. And if you can't handle that, don't buy the book. That's not the premise of the book, but that's part of Hasidic Judaism. Within this book, you can, if you would like, do the smart thing that I do so many times. It's one of the smart things I do. I read a book.
[00:30:31] I don't think there's ever been a book. I've agreed with everything in. But there are so many things that I do agree with that I say, oh, God, thank you for this book.
[00:30:42] And I don't worry about that. You know, on page 67 that he actually said that.
[00:30:47] I don't worry about that.
[00:30:50] But that's a fairly thick book. Thank you, Holly. That's Providential that you happen to have Rabbi Kalmanson's book, but on another side, and this is something you can do whether you get that book or not.
[00:31:03] My friend and colleague Ryan Lambert has a podcast that's called the Bridge Builders Forum. Ryan's a messianic Jew. Bridge Builders Forum is about, as you might guess, building bridges between Judaism and Christianity and teaching. And as a messianic Jew, you know who was on his podcast recently?
[00:31:26] Rabbi Mendel Kalmanson.
[00:31:29] And I listened to it yesterday as I was driving to Atlanta. I don't want to oversell it. It affected me pretty significantly. And for everything I've said today, I really want to ask you, for your own good, to find the Bridge Builders Forum episode where you listen to podcasts, you, where Ryan hosts Mendel Kalmanson. And I want you to devote an hour and 20 minutes of your life to listening to it before Yom Kippur.
[00:32:03] It will be worth it.
[00:32:05] And maybe, just maybe, first of all, if you can't find an hour and 20 minutes, you can double speed it. You can do that, but I wouldn't.
[00:32:16] But if you can't find an hour and 20 minutes for a walk through the garden, we got big problems.
[00:32:22] And it may just be that that is the doorway. That may be the gate that God opens to take you into that garden to show you some things and let you know some things about yourself, things you need to know.
[00:32:35] So listen, I know it was my vision. I know I'm the one who saw that. And I know I was watching it and I was on the stage and I was expecting my trees. But the garden is not mine alone. It's your garden. Garden.
[00:32:48] It's for everyone. Psalm 1 has already given us this language by the water. Hosea has given us the lily and the olive tree, and we're becoming a garden of God. And what I saw simply gave me eyes for what God has promised to all of us. He planted a garden within us. He has such. Such high hopes for you. Can you nourish it?
[00:33:09] Can you feed it? Can you build it? Can you cause it to be fruit? The fruit will be good for you. It will be good for others. So I hope that you'll take the walk, that you'll notice what's thirsty. You'll water it today, tomorrow, all week, until the first blossoms. So the ark of these days, so you know exactly where you are. We had Elul, Rosh Hashanah, creation renewed, a clean heart planted. We have Shabbat Shuvah, we return. It's a garden walk. We assess, we commit, we tend to what God has grown.
[00:33:42] Wednesday night Thursday Yom Kippur God cleans the soil.
[00:33:49] He pulls the weeds.
[00:33:52] We ask God to put us back together. And, God willing, Thursday night, we'll find ourselves firmly planted and flourishing and nourished and ready for a year of explosive growth.
[00:34:14] Shabbat Shuvah is no contrast at all. There's no contradiction. Actually, as a matter of fact, the psalm for Shabbat Psalm 92 tradition tells us who wrote this?
[00:34:30] Adam the righteous will flourish like what a palm tree?
[00:34:41] He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon planted in the house of Adonai. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They will be full of SAP and freshness.
[00:34:53] You are a tree.
[00:34:56] There is a garden of trees planted within you. That's the posture not to be trapped by what's behind. To receive God's do as Hosea says today so the garden can bear tomorrow's harvest.
[00:35:14] Gemar Chatima Tovah.
[00:35:18] May it be a good and final sealing for you on Yom Kippur.
[00:35:24] Until then, do the work.
[00:35:27] Get a plant Listen to the podcast Go on a garden tour Shabbat Shalom I'm Darren with Shalom Macon. If you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step. Start by making sure you subscribe 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.
[00:35:50] Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined to contribute to the work that we're doing to further the kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon.
