Hebraic-Repentance
-hebraicstudies.net-
Please do NOT visit this
site on שַׁבָּת - Shabbat or on
the מוֹעֲדִים - Mo’a’dim - Feasts!
Re Tanakh versions:
Throughout this site I may use any of three versions of the Tanakh: 1. “Jewish
Publication Society” (JPS-1917), 2. “Mechon-Mamre.org” (MEC), and 3. “Sefaria.org” (SEF), three brilliant versions, However, the
JPS-1917 is my preferred version!
Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah = History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical
books - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth,
Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of
Daniel, and history of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please Note: Some
alterations or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’
of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim (God), having been corrected
like it once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember the following truth from our
beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of אֱלֹהֵיכֶם יְהוָה - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
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With Rabbi,
Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
The Ten Days of Repentance are the holy of holies of Hebraic time. It begins on the evening of ‘Rosh Hashanah’, our ‘New Year’, and culminates 10 days later with ‘Yom Kippur’, the ‘Day of Atonement’. At no other time do we feel so close to אֱלֹהִים יְהוָה - the LORD Elohim and I pray this is true for most of us.
Those days constitute a courtroom drama like no other. The Judge is אֱלֹהִים - Elohim Himself, and we are on trial for our lives. It begins on ‘Rosh Hashanah’, with the sounding of the Shofar, announcing that the court is in session. The ‘Book of Life’, in which our fate will be inscribed, now lies open. As we say in prayer, “On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, who will live and who will die”. At home, we eat an apple dipped in honey as a symbol of our hope for a sweet new year.
On ‘Yom Kippur’, the atmosphere reaches a peak of intensity in a day of fasting and prayer. Repeatedly we confess our sins, whole alphabetical litanies of them, including ones we probably had neither the time nor the imagination to commit. We throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, which is to say, on אֱלֹהִים - Elohim Himself.
And at the end of a long and wrenching day, we finish as we began 10 days earlier, with the sound of the ram’s horn, this time not with tears and fears but with cautious yet confident hope. We have admitted the worst about ourselves and survived.
Beneath the surface of this long religious ritual lies one of the more transformative stories of the human spirit. The sociologist Philip Rieff pointed out that the movement from paganism to monotheism was a transition from ‘fate to faith’. By this he meant that in the world people were pitted against powerful, capricious forces personified as gods who were at best indifferent, at worst hostile, to humankind. All you could do was try to propitiate battle or outwit them.
We Hebrews came to see the world in a completely different way. The book of Genesis opens with אֱלֹהִים - Elohim making humans “in His image and likeness”. This phrase has become so familiar to us that we forget how paradoxical it is, since for in our Torah, אֱלֹהִים - Elohim simply has no image and likeness. As the narrative quickly makes clear, what humans have in common with אֱלֹהִים - Elohim is ‘freedom’ and ‘moral responsibility’.
Our drama is less about ‘character’ and ‘fate’ than about ‘will’ and ‘choice’. To the monotheistic mind, the real battles are not “out there”, against external forces of darkness, but “in here”, between the bad and better angels of our nature.
The trouble is of course, when faced with choice we often make the wrong one. Given a second chance, ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ would probably pass on the fruit. Cain might work a little harder on his anger management. And there is a straight line from these Scriptural episodes to the destruction left by Homo-sapiens: ‘war’, ‘murder’, ‘human devastation’ and ‘environmental destruction’.
That is still our world today. The key fact about us, according to the Tanakh, is that uniquely in an otherwise law-governed universe, we are able to break the law - a power that we too often relish exercising.
This raises an acute theological dilemma. How are we to reconcile אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s high hopes for humanity with our ‘shabby’ and ‘threadbare moral record?’ The short answer is forgiveness.
אֱלֹהִים - Elohim wrote forgiveness into the script. He always gives us a second chance, and more. All we have to do is to acknowledge our ‘wrongs’, ‘apologise’, ‘make amends’ and ‘resolve to behave better’, and אֱלֹהִים - Elohim forgives. It allows us to hold simultaneously to the highest moral aspirations while admitting honestly our deepest moral failings. That is the drama of the Jewish High Holy Days.
Meaning comes not from systems of thought but from stories, and the Hebrew story is among the most unusual of all. It tells us that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim sought to make us His partners in the work of creation, but we repeatedly disappointed Him. Yet He never gives up. He forgives us time and again. The real religious mystery of our faith is not our belief in אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, but אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s ‘faith in us’.
This is not, as ‘atheists’ and ‘sceptics’ tend to claim, a comforting fiction but quite the opposite. Hebraism is אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s call to human responsibility, to create a world that is a worthy home for His Presence. That is why we are so often to be found as doctors fighting disease, economists fighting poverty, lawyers fighting injustice, teachers fighting ignorance and therapists fighting depression and despair.
Hebraism is a supremely activist faith for which the greatest religious challenge is to heal some of the wounds of our deeply fractured world. The real question is not what we want from life, but what does life want from us?
That is the question we are asked on ‘Rosh Hashanah’ and ‘Yom Kippur’. As we ask אֱלֹהִים - Elohim to write us in the ‘Book of Life’, He asks us: ‘what have you done with your life thus far? Have you thought about others or only about yourself? Have you brought healing to a place of human pain or hope where you found despair? You may have been a success, but have you also been a blessing? Have you written other people in the Book of Life?’
To ask these questions once a year in the company of others publicly willing to confess their faults, knowing that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim forgives every failure we acknowledge as a failure, and that He has faith in us even when we lose faith in ourselves, can be a life-changing experience. That is when we discover that, even in a secular age, אֱלֹהִים - Elohim is still there; open to us whenever we are willing to open ourselves to Him.
Therefore, let us be grateful to our beloved Heavenly Father, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ - the LORD our Eloheynu, בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם קָדוֹשׁוֹ - ‘Baruch Shem Kadosho’ - ‘Blessed be His Holy Name’.
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Please Note: “hebraicstudies” links are located down
the page!
This site was originally created, for those
who desired to return to our blessed and wonderful faith. Thus be wise and work
on your faith and pray at least two or three times a day (if possible) and
always seek our beloved אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s guidance,
for His love is always with us, especially when we seek Him, blessed be He!
However this site has become very much a teaching site with hundreds of
studies!
Remember what אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, blessed be
He, said the following through a number of our prophets...
“Hebraic Studies” motto is as follows;
“The More Torah, the More Life”,
For Elohim is the One who
gave us our ... “Life!”
May the שָׁלוֹם - Shalom = Peace
of צְבָאוֹת- יְהוָה= the LORD of hosts, be with
you, and please always uphold our blessed שַׁבָּת - Shabbat, as well as
the מוֹעֲדִים - Mo’a’dim - Feasts, and continue saying your
daily תְּפִלָּה - Tefeelah’s - Prayers and
regular בְּרָכָה - Be’ra’chah’s - blessings before food
and drinks, etc!
שָׁלוֹם
עֲלֵיכֶם - Shalom
Aleichem - Peace be with you!
Enter ...