Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] I want to take a moment to.
[00:00:20] This is Parsha Nitsavim. It's also. It's a double portion. So you notice this beautiful bouquet of flowers. Isn't this tremendously beautiful?
[00:00:32] This is tremendously beautiful. Right. There's quite a contrast here because there's a significant contrast in the Torah portion this week where God instructs Israel, choose life, not death. Choose blessing, not cursing. So Miranda's creativity in the flowers, these blue flowers are very, very hard and rare to come across. They're not usually around. They have to be special ordered. When Miranda showed up one day this week, they weren't there. When she went to get the flowers for the arrangements, there they were. So we're being blessed with favor and Miranda's incredible creativity. So thank you, Miranda.
[00:01:18] By this time of the year, you have usually heard me say a lot of words. A lot of times. Things like elul, things like shuva, repentance, the high holidays return. You've heard all of these words many, many times. Usually. Okay, now we have a lot of people joining us who may not actually know what in the world that even means, but we are in the month of Elul on the hebrew calendar, 25 days into this month. And this means something significant, because in this period of time, from the month of elul 25 days ago until Rosh Hashanah, and then into the ten days of the days of all leading up to Yom Kippur, this is a very, very important spiritual time. This is a time for deep introspection, considering shortcomings, areas where growth and change are needed in our lives, to consider relationships, to seek forgiveness from those who you might have hurt, to offer forgiveness with some parameters to those who have hurt you.
[00:02:39] And this, of course, as I said, it leads us into the time, the most holy time in the God's calendar.
[00:02:48] This is when the allegory, the metaphor, is that the king is in the field. You've seen this little announcement slide that we have, meaning the king is in the field. It's drawn from Isaiah 55. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. This is a verse that jewish tradition has said speaks to this time of year, when the king, who's normally in his castle, his high place, and there's all these rules about approaching him. No, he comes down, he meets the people where they are in the field to seek him while he is found. He's always accessible. But there's something supernatural about this time period. In a little psalm, song of songs, says in six, three anil e dodi vidodili, which is also a verse that's tied to the month of Ulul. If you take the first letter of those words, ani alef leh dodi, to spell out the month of Elul. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.
[00:04:03] This is the time that we're in in the calendar. Today is the 25th of Allul. Rosh Hashanah begins on the first of Tishrei. That is Wednesday night.
[00:04:17] The first of Tishrei is actually Wednesday night to Thursday, but that's when Rosh Hashanah begins. Okay. And as I said, our roman series has kind of overshadowed much of what usually is happening during this time period. I have usually done some kind of series on the month of allul and introspection and heshbon Hanefesh, another term you should know. Judaism has a name for everything. Cheshbon Hanefesh, the accounting of your soul. That's the time period that we find ourselves in Chuvah. I mentioned that word when I opened repentance to turn to return to God. But listen, I haven't done that. But thanks to technology, you can still go back and refresh your introspective soul, because if you look at YouTube and podcasts, you'll find from last year a message that was called the repentance Road. A series which I know from comments that I received was helpful for some people in moving through some things. Prior to that, I did another series called real repentance. It's all about this kind of stuff. Okay, but here we are. It's the high holidays.
[00:05:29] It's a big time. I feel kind of like Ebenezer Scrooge a little bit at that time. When he wakes up after his hellacious dream, he opens the window, he yells out to the boy, what time is it? I can't do an english accent. Rika, you have to do that for us. What day is it? And he says, it's Christmas day, sir. And he's like, thank you. I haven't missed it. Yes, that's kind of what I feel like, because we have this one little Shabbat before we move into the high holidays, to be able to say what I need to say to you now, I know you've certainly been doing all this preparation yourself. I know every day you've heard the shofar, except Shabbat, you've woken up and blown the shofar to awaken your soul to repentance. You've been reading psalm 27. You've been in deep daily introspection right. Every day for the past 25 days. I know that. But what is elul without at least one of these messages? Now, if it's the high holidays, if you've not experienced them before, if all of what I'm saying is completely new, it's okay. This is all for seasoned people. You know what this is for jewish people who've been doing this all their life. Sometimes these are what we call high holiday Jews. You know how you have Christmas and Easter Christians? You also have high holiday Jews? They go to synagogue two days a year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Okay? But we try to make it something much, much bigger than that. So here today, we need to prepare your soul for the experience of Rosh Hashanah, the ten days in between, which are called the Yamim Nurayim, the days of all, into Yom Kippur. Now, right now, some people are saying, darn it, I thought we were going to get to skip this this year.
[00:07:38] Like I thought I was going to get out of this. Couldn't we have just kept on the Romans road? That was a lot more interesting than talking about my internal failings.
[00:07:50] But I couldn't do that to you because, listen, in the words of one of my favorite titles of a high holiday book, it's not the book itself, but the title is, this is real, and you are completely unprepared. That's the name of the high holiday book. And I love that. When we move to this season, this time of soul searching, okay, it has a tendency to raise a question. Sometimes it's more of an accusation that is raised, particularly by people who don't exactly understand messianic Judaism or someone who's new to the idea of messianic Judaism, particularly Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Why in the world, they say, would I dwell on my past? Why would I look back at my faith? My atonement has been made like I have Jesus. He saved me. I don't have to think about this stuff anymore. I don't need to spend my time thinking about how much I'm a sinner confessing sin in a room with a bunch of people standing up. Why would I do that?
[00:09:07] I mean, also, Rabbi, don't you always tell us that we're nothing, born in original sin and that especially with the spirit, we have, all this greatness that we can accomplish, these new creations? And the answer to that is, yes, I do tell you that, and, yes, I do believe that. But I want to ask this question. Here's a consideration. Could you say with 100% certainty that a year has passed since the last fall holiday season and you have absolutely nothing to consider about how you lived your life, about how you. Your relationships, how you've behaved or responded, your forgiveness, your representation as a disciple of Yeshua, your kingdom representation, your failures and flaws in that. That's not a joke. I'm being real. I'm not being sarcastic. Someone who doesn't have any appreciation for introspection and the idea that this is a commanded, holy thing, that's the question I always have to ask. You're telling me something amazing. If you can answer yes to that question. No, I'm.
[00:10:26] Listen, here's what I would say.
[00:10:29] You have no room for improvement.
[00:10:32] I'm good.
[00:10:34] Jesus fixed me. And I would say, gosh, you know what? That is absolutely incredible. I am so happy for you. You are the first person I've ever met that that happened to, though. You got saved and Jesus made you perfect.
[00:10:55] Wow. I thought only he was. What an incredible accomplishment. We have much to learn from you.
[00:11:03] That is sarcasm. Because there's not a person sitting in the chair who can say that. There is not a person alive.
[00:11:11] I'm still stuck back at forgive them.
[00:11:16] Forgive us our trespasses, our sins as we forgive those. That's like a thing I'm still trying to work through almost every day.
[00:11:27] But there's another real issue for people around the holidays.
[00:11:32] Correcting my soul.
[00:11:36] Introspection. Thinking of former hurts I've suffered considering forgiveness. I've taught many, many times on this. Considerations of having to ask people for forgiveness. This is not a counseling center, dude. You're not a therapist. You're a rabbi. Teach me about the Bible.
[00:11:56] There are people who absolutely despise the idea of introspection, of trying to look deep. And there are people who are not good at it. And there are people who, because they're not good at it, they will never do it. And there are people who just, you know, I'm the master of my mind. They say my emotions never get the best of me. I'm balanced. I'm filled with equanimity. I'm good enough. And doggone it, I'm smart enough. People like me. I'm practically floating on inner peace here.
[00:12:40] Okay, maybe I'm not. Maybe people don't always like me, but I don't like this stuff. Why do you have to talk about it?
[00:12:53] I don't like dredging up negative emotions. Why can't we just focus on spiritual things? There's so many spiritual things we could learn in the high holidays. Teach me, Rabbi, about how many times Moses went up and down the mountain as he was securing Israel's forgiveness. Teach us, brother, about how many changes of clothes Aaron went through. Teach us about the significance of the casting of lots by the high priest on Yom Kippur. Teach us something that matters.
[00:13:30] You know why people don't get excited about this kind of stuff? Well, yeah, because the services are long.
[00:13:40] Because it's boring.
[00:13:43] Well, I'm not a. I don't. I don't need that. I'm not a fan of. You want to know why? Because it's uncomfortable.
[00:13:50] Because it's uncomfortable. Because it's not nice. Because it's not pretty. Because it's not fun to look at yourself in the mirror and think back and say, not only have I let other people down, I've let myself down.
[00:14:12] Who loves that exercise?
[00:14:18] It takes time. It takes effort. And most of all, you know what it takes? Honesty, humility, a broken and contrite heart.
[00:14:30] All of which, when it comes to self evaluation of very uncomfortable things. I love the spiritual significance of the biblical festivals, especially the fall ones. Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world, the coronation of the king, the sound of the shofar as Messiah returns. Yom Kippur, the day of judgment, of the quick and the dead, the opening of the books of life and death, and in between, all of it.
[00:15:00] And I've taught on it so many times. But what I'm sharing with you today and so many prior times is just as important and probably more important.
[00:15:14] Heresy. No, not heresy.
[00:15:18] Very important.
[00:15:22] Because while the shofar sounds, and we can talk about all of the spiritual and supernatural significance of that sound, it is the work inside that God desires that you do most.
[00:15:43] These holidays, this period of discomfort, it's the opportunity of a lifetime from God. Every year, actually a holiday that forces us to confront our worst enemy.
[00:15:56] You know who your worst enemy is?
[00:16:00] It's the voice inside your head that tells you, you don't need this.
[00:16:05] That's your worst enemy.
[00:16:07] It's the voice inside your head that says, you don't need this psychological crap. Or worse. Why would you want to uncover what you're already dealt with? You don't need this. We've already been through this. You. It's not your problem. It's their problem. You've done all the forgiving you need to do. By the way, you're the one who got hurt. What's the deal? What are you supposed to do.
[00:16:32] You don't need to. You don't need this. You need to just protect yourself and be strong. That voice is not your friend. That voice is not your protector. That voice is not looking out for you. That voice is not from God. The voice that leads to the work we must do now is a spiritual voice from heaven that leads us to Cheshbon Hanefesh. The soul work, the growth of the elevation. That voice.
[00:17:04] That voice is your enemy. That voice wants you to stay wherever you are right now. But I'm totally fine where I am.
[00:17:15] Okay?
[00:17:17] That place may not be dreadful. That's not the point.
[00:17:22] This is not you. You know what? I wait all year to tell you guys what a despicably filthy, horrendous lot you are. That's not the point. Your place right now may not be dreadful. The point is there's more. There's always more.
[00:17:40] There is. There's more fulfilling. Here's a great description. Yeshua says in John, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. The contrast, steal, kill, destroy, abundance. You know what that means? More. It means more. It means better. It means higher. And he's not just talking about elevating into the clouds.
[00:18:12] He's talking about this life.
[00:18:16] This life as well. More life. More life. Because while I know that the high holidays have and judgment and fear of the Lord and even death, and we do talk about the three books open in the ten days and books of life and in between and death, this is all really about life.
[00:18:36] It's about life. He died that you could have life in the next world, of course.
[00:18:44] But there's a great life here. And it takes being very uncomfortable sometimes to have that best life.
[00:18:55] It does. Part of that process. What we're able to do right now, whether we like it or not, is a gift from God. I told you that. What a gift. What an opportunity that God gives us. A season that forces us into introspection. But that's completely wrong, isn't it?
[00:19:14] God doesn't force you into this.
[00:19:17] It's here for the taking. It's your choice. It's your opportunity whether or not you want to do the work now, to participate, to be changed, updated, advanced, supernaturally elevated by your willingness, the opportunity to say yes.
[00:19:33] Yes. Something I read in a leadership book from John Maxwell. I loved it. He says, I met with all these corporate leaders to discuss the possibilities of working together. One of those leaders, Larry Stock, still interrupted, and he said, john, the answer is yes. Count me in. Whatever this means. Yes. And his response energized the room. After the meeting, I asked him, what did that? Why, Larry? Why were you so emphatic? Why'd you respond so boldly? He said, I live on the other side of yes.
[00:20:07] That's where I find abundance and opportunity. It's where I become better and bigger. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of opportunity. So I try to say yes whenever I can.
[00:20:21] Who loves to say yes?
[00:20:29] Do you love to say yes?
[00:20:34] That was a yes. Oh, sorry. No. I'm glad you didn't, because maybe you don't. But I want you to. I want you to. God doesn't force you. But the other side of being willing to say yes. Isn't that worth a little bit of discomfort? Of course it is, because here's the deal. You ready? You get this one.
[00:20:57] If you are in an unhappy place right now, or if you're in a static place or you're in whatever, you get one shot at this thing, you get one life. Jonathan Sachs is not a holiday that can go by without finding something that just pierces my soul. From Jonathan Sachs of blessed memory. Life is not something we may take for granted.
[00:21:31] If we do, we will fail to celebrate it. God gives us one gift above all others, said maimonides. Life itself, besides which everything else is secondary. Listen to this. Think about it. Other religions have sought God in heaven or in the afterlife, the distant past or the distant future. Here there's suffering. Here there's suffering. There is reward. Right here chaos. There order. Here pain. There, calm. Here, poverty. There plenty. Judaism has relentlessly sought God in the here and now of life on earth. Yes, we believe in life after death, but it is in this life before death where we find truly human greatness.
[00:22:24] So what I'm telling you, my friends, is what God told Israel about his Torah, which includes his festivals, his holidays, and especially these highest of holidays, when the season, when the king is in the field, when the gates are open. He told Israel, make a choice.
[00:22:43] What do you want? That or this?
[00:22:48] I'm not saying if you miss this, all the flesh melts off your body, and you're a walking skeleton and you die.
[00:22:58] I'm saying you have an opportunity to choose life, to choose blessing, to choose growth, to be obedient to what God said, to honor the time in the calendar. It's this week's Torah portion. I've set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Choose life that your children may live taking responsibility. That means choose today and where we want to go tomorrow, that means there's always more. Look for more. Be willing for more. Do more. Break yourself down if it takes that to get you to be somebody different. Not that who you are is bad, but there is a better version of you. Always, every single day.
[00:23:52] Unless you think this about guilt and shame. You hear me make jokes about my mom and jewish guilt. No, not about my mom. About jewish guilt and my mom. Jewish mothers. You hear me joke. This is not a joke.
[00:24:08] This isn't about jewish guilt. You need to understand that there's a difference between feeling guilt and remorse. Guilt. Guilt is a feeling that demoralizes. And you know what else it does? It paralyzes remorse. This is from Simon Jacobson. I just saw it in one of his elul meaning of life podcasts. It's so good. It's not jewish guilt. Remorse makes you consider. It makes you feel real, burning emotion, which then, rather than paralyzing you and belittling you and demoralizing you, it forces you into action, to take steps to correct your life and the life of others and to make the world a better place when you have remorse. This isn't about guilt.
[00:24:58] It activates, it leads to action. So, listen, ask yourself, as you, of course I'm talking about the holidays, but the truth is, this is a daily, daily exercise.
[00:25:13] I have an exercise I do where I look at what great three gratitude things. What must I accomplish today? And at the end of the day, what did I do?
[00:25:29] I'm writing a book about this one day because it's a life changing exercise every day.
[00:25:36] But if when you do this, you begin to feel beaten down and demoralized, that's not it. When you feel emotions that move you and spur you onto action, that's it. That's the right voice. That's the one you should hear. That's the one you should listen to, because that's God. Okay, got it, Rabbi. Got it. I hear you. You did another one of these. Thank God it wasn't five of them. That gets really old after, like, the second one, but I got it. Okay, I hear you. You did it again. Thank you. Don't you always tell us this? Yes.
[00:26:11] My turn for a question. Are you doing it?
[00:26:16] Will you do it? Will you take it seriously? I haven't given you the outline of every single exercise and step you need to do. Here comes your 27 point plan on being the better you, more abundance.
[00:26:31] That's up to you.
[00:26:33] That's up to you. That is the work we must do. Now, it's up to you. I can only hope you hopefully spur you on to some action to ask, which voice should you be hearing? Not mine.
[00:26:51] You should be hearing a different voice. I'm only the messenger.
[00:26:57] So right now, close your eyes. Everybody close your eyes. I don't want to do that weird stuff. What's he going to do?
[00:27:05] Close your eyes and just think. Just think of one thing. One thing. One area in your life. One relationship, one weakness, one failure, one horrendous habit, one thing with your eyes closed that needs to be worked on, corrected. Let that thought with your eyes closed, hearing me take up residence in your soul, where it needs to be accounted for, where it can be changed. If you're willing to commit to acting on what God tells you this season can do, not from guilt, but from desire for abundance. One thing, you can open your eyes. It's an active process. It's not passive. It's not. Wait and see. It's not.
[00:28:01] That's what we do. That's what we do at the end.
[00:28:05] At the end, on Yom Kippur, when we all come together, we stand up and corporately we acknowledge and we say hash nou, and we say these things.
[00:28:16] But you had to have done the work before that.
[00:28:20] That's all of us together. We're supporting one another. We're saying, listen, arm in arm. We're in it together as a community. We all know we've fallen short. We're all here because we've fallen short, and we're going to do it together. But you must do the work now to get to that place.
[00:28:39] And so I am calling you to action with that promise. Living on the other side of yes, here's the truth.
[00:28:51] Everyone wants what this work brings. I know that. I know that. Who doesn't, who doesn't want a life with more meaning, more purpose, more joy, more abundance? I don't use the word happiness because happiness is like this. Happiness comes and goes. If your life is driven by the desire for happiness, you'll just be sad again, and then you gotta get happy again, and then you got. It's not about happiness. It's about contentment. It's about satisfaction in life. It's about bliss.
[00:29:24] It's about finding a place where you can't be thrown about like this. Because that's what makes people unhappy, actually. So we're talking about elevating to this place. And listen, we do it because we want to grow into the best version. You know the Hebrew word which means to pray? You know what it literally means when we say to pray, it means to judge oneself.
[00:29:54] That's a strange thing, isn't it? Well, what are you usually praying about? Most people are usually praying about who's got two thumbs, and we're usually playing about each other. But this gives a whole new concept to judge oneself. Rosh Hashanah. We stand in judgment, not before one another, but before God. And most importantly, before yourself, if you're willing.
[00:30:25] Before yourself. God sees the best in us. We know our flaws, our shortcomings. Places where we're really falling down or things where we're just completely losing it, or incomplete, or nothing. Doing a good. But God knows enough he sees the best in us, even when we don't. So, listen, what I'm calling you to is when we don't enter into the spirit of Rosh hashanah, holidays, yom Kippur, we miss an opportunity. And I don't want you to leave here thinking, thank God that's over. Or, well, yeah, let me read paragraph out of the daily bread book. You know, the little daily thing that's got, like, 14 words in it. I'm not saying they're great, they're wonderful. But I don't want you to do this superficial stuff. I want you to think I want you to take time. You and God alone. You and a notebook and a pen. And I want you to think I want you to do it. And it will cause something great to happen when we complete this process on the other side of, yes, it really will. I've heard. If I could tell you the stories that I get after the holidays from people. It's not. My mailbox is not full, let me assure you. I get one a year, and I can think specifically of two over the last two years where someone's life was literally changed forever from the experience had nothing to do with us or this community or anything. It had to do with the work that they needed to do before, and it took them somewhere special. Tonight begins. We haven't missed it. We're not Charles Dickens. We're not Ebenezer Scrooge. Tonight begins in traditional synagogues, something called Leil Slichot, where at midnight, orthodox communities gather. They all begin the slichot, the prayers of forgiveness and repentance.
[00:32:21] So if you want to wake up at midnight and do that, please feel free. We won't be here doing it together. But my point there is, this is the time we have missed nothing. We have an opportunity now. It starts now.
[00:32:38] This is the work that we must do now. I will see you Wednesday.
[00:32:44] For Erev Rosh Hashanah, the sound of the shofar is Thursday. As we prepare for that sound of awakening, as we hear that cry of the shofar, please, please, God, for all of us, let it be more than any year before, a sound that actually does something. It doesn't happen in the midst of it. It's not like you fall down on your face and begin to just weep. It'd be cool. People would think you were weird, but it would be cool.
[00:33:12] But the point is, it's supposed to affect this internal change. So in the words of Mother Teresa, yesterday is gone.
[00:33:25] Let us begin with the work we must do now.
[00:33:33] Shabbat Shalom please visit our website, shalommakin.org, to learn more about us. Join our live services, access other teachings, sign up for our newsletter, join our private network that will connect you with our our greater community from around the world, or contribute to the work of Shalom, Macon, thank you for watching, and we look forward to connecting with.
