The beatitudes unlocked by Hebrew parallelism

Hebraic poetic parallelism

Much of the Old Testament is poetry. In fact one third of it is written in Hebrew poetic form, equivalent to more than the entire New Testament. Isaiah 40-66, Job and Lamentations are arranged poetically, as are the Psalms and Proverbs. Many of the prophecies are also poetic. Hebrew poetry does not use rhyming words but rhyming ideas. Complementary or duplicate descriptions are written in parallel, line by line. This adds helpful insights for translation through word equivalence, and interpretation of difficult phrases by comparison with an easier to understand parallel phrase. Additionally, it acts as an aide memoire in that the idea when spoken twice is doubly memorable and like poetry or song is easier to remember than mere prose or narrative. Most believers know more hymns and choruses than Bible verses because more of their senses are involved in singing and dancing than in mere silent reading. At the very least we should get back to reading Scripture aloud so that we hear it twice, once with the mind and once with the external ear. A good example would be Proverbs 31.20, there is no difference between poor and needy:

"She stretches / out her hand / to the poor;"
"She reaches / forth her arms / to the needy"

Here, each phrase is paralleled by a similar phrase of different wording but of equal meaning in the corresponding second half of the verse. Thus, "ask, seek and knock", in the gospels, are three ways of saying 'inquire of Yahweh' not suggesting that if your prayer was unanswered it was because you asked and sought but forgot to knock. This phraseology is poetic, which you should read and get the flow and drift, the heart of the message, not be distracted by small print. Alternatively, if you were reading the Ten Commandments, you would read the small print, as they are a legal document. Different styles of writing require different methods of reading.

The beatitudes unlocked by parallelism

The use of Hebraic poetic parallelism can be seen carried into the New Testament in the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) are arranged in pairs which can help clarify the meaning of their corresponding phrase. Here the transposed order of verses 4 & 5 has been used as in many Greek NT and Latin Vulgate manuscripts , making a more obvious parallelism of the first four blessings:

Blessed [are] the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed [are] the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed [are] they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed [are] those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed [are] the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed [are] the pure in heart: for they shall see Eloah.
Blessed [are] the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of Eloah.
Blessed [are] those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake/pursue righteousness: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Hence, we can immediately see some aids to interpretation from the equivalent phrases outlined below:

v.3 = v.5 (v.4 in some MSS)
poor (humble) in spirit = meek kingdom of heaven = inherit the earth
v.6 = v.4 (v.5 in some MSS)
mourn = hunger and thirst for righteousness comforted = filled/satisfied
v.7 = v.8
merciful = pure in heart to obtain mercy = to see Eloah
v.9 = v.10
peacemakers = pursue/persecute righteous children of God = have the kingdom of Elohim Further justification of this exegesis will be found by an understanding that most of the language used in the Beatitudes is Old Testament references and phraseology.

Poor in spirit = meek

Therefore, using parallelistic equivalence of phrase and Older Testament language context we can see that 'poor in spirit' does not refer to material poverty as Luke 6:20 taken in isolation might suggest. Rather, it refers to being 'meek' or 'humble'. This is relevant because another passage used by Yahshua to describe his ministry is Isaiah 61:1ff., this refers to the Spirit's anointing to preach the gospel to the poor, or so it is usually translated. However, the Hebrew word in Isaiah is again 'meek' and not 'poor'. Thus, it is not material poverty but spiritual humility which is most open to hear the gospel. Yah shows no partiality to rich or poor.

"poor", ptôchos (34x), refers to abject poverty, unable to even scrape a living and therefore reduced to begging, having come to an end in oneself. In Greek, more poor than penês (also, 'poor'). The word is used in Luke 4:16 to translate Isaiah 61:1, 'ânâv 'poor'. Thus "poor in spirit" means having nothing to offer Yah, and thus meek and humble, the opposite of Pharisaic self-righteousness. It sometimes stand for 'the oppressed' of Yahweh's own people. The OT has 179 references to 'poor' and more than 8 words to describe it.

Significantly, Isaiah 61:1 and 66:2 are sometimes mistranslated as 'poor' creating a mandate of exclusivity to the poor, which is just as wrong in Yahweh's sight as partiality to the rich - Yahweh shows no partiality. The Isaiah references actually use 'ânâv and 'ânîy both from 'ânâh, 'to depress' or 'abase', and really mean humility or meekness. Numbers 12:3 uses the first of these to describe Moshe as the meekest man on earth, i.e., there is no insinuation as to Moshe's bank balance or state of poverty!

[Yahshua nowhere sanctifies a state of poverty or describes it as a 'blessed' position to be in, as anyone who has been poor can agree with. In fact, Scripture's comment on blessed finances is that "the blessing of Yahweh brings riches without sorrow [or grief]" (Proverbs 10:22).]

"Blessed are the meek", this by Hebrew parallelism may echo and explain 5:3, "blessed are the poor in the spirit". 'Meek' does not mean 'weak', but humility and gentleness, someone who acknowledges their need. It is taken straight from Psalm 37:11, "the meek shall inherit the earth", here 'meek' is the Hebrew 'ânâv again, from which Isaiah 61:1's "poor/humble/meek" and Matthew's "poor in spirit" are taken.

Isaiah 66:2 and a Dead Sea Scroll passage also pair up these synonymous phrases:
"But on this one will I look: On the poor and of contrite spirit, And who trembles at My Word" (Isaiah 66:2)
"to proclaim to the meek the multitude of Your mercies,and to let them that are of contrite spirit he[ar salvation . . .]"

(DSS, 1QH, Thanksgiving Scroll, 18.14-15)

Hence it is the meek and humble who inherit, who are teachable (Psalm 25), who receive the good news (Isaiah 61:1).

Kingdom of heaven = inherit the earth

'Heaven' is a Jewish synonym for Yahweh, hence the 'kingdom of heaven' in Matthew's Jewish language is identical with 'the kingdom of Yahweh' in the other gospels. Furthermore, Jewish kingdom expectation was not of an ethereal heavenly kingdom but of a messianic millennial earth where Yahweh dwelt with man. It is not that we ascend to be with Yahweh in the long run but that Yahweh descends, once sin and evil are banished, to once more dwell with man and walk with him, as He did with Adam in gan eden, the garden of Eden. Compare the picture of the earthly eternal reign of Yah in Revelation 21-22. One can see, then, that 'to inherit the earth' is the same as inheriting the kingdom of Yahweh, or experiencing His eternal rule. His kingdom is "not of this world", means that it is not of this 'worldly order' or of this 'age', but rather it 'of the age to come'.

To mourn = to hunger and thirst for righteousness

Again, another difficult blessing, "Blessed are those that mourn", but how can mourning for the dead be a 'blessed' or 'happy' state? It is a mistake and insensitive in the least to describe 'mourning' or 'bereavement' as such. Mourning in the Psalms (cf. Psalms 119:136; 42:9; 43:2; 38:6) was often associated with grieving over personal or national sin, over the oppression of an enemy, over injustice, or over lack of respect for Yahweh's Torah. In this context the corresponding parallel in the Beatitudes explains it perfectly, the mourners are 'those who hunger and thirst for righteousness', the coming of the 'reign of Yahweh' (the kingdom) will comfort and satisfy ('fill') them. 'Mourn' occurs 10x in the NT. Isaiah 61:2-3 refers to the comforting of the mourners but is not included in Yahshua's address to the synagogue in Luke 4:18-21, where he rolls up the scroll halfway through verse 2 indicating that only verses 1-2a were fulfilled in Him, verses 2b onward awaited a later time, that of the day of Yah's vengeance rather than the present year of acceptance (jubilee period when all debts were cancelled, all slaves set free, cf. Leviticus 25:8ff., Ezekiel 46:17). Isaiah 61:2-3 probably refers to mourning over the state and fate of Israel, i.e., over a nation and over their own sin, they will be 'comforted' or 'encouraged'. In fact, Isaiah 40:1-2 speaks of true comfort for Yahweh's people since "her warfare is done, her iniquity is pardoned". To "hunger and thirst for righteousness" is more than for personal holiness. As with Abraham, Moshe, David, Daniel and Jeremiah, etc., it is those who mourn over a nation's sin and oppression and desire to see righteousness and justice in the land, for "righteousness exalts a nation" (Proverbs 14:34).

Comforted = filled/satisfied

These mourners and 'hungerers' will be 'filled'. Perhaps a better translation of chortazô, 'filled', would be 'satisfied' as when justice is seen to be done, when the wicked no longer prosper and the righteous are not oppressed.

Merciful = pure in heart"

pure in heart" and "peacemakers" are both phrases that occur only here in the NT. The pure in heart according to Psalm 24:4 and Proverbs 20:9 are those without sin, i.e., the righteous. The actual phrase "pure in heart" occurs also in Psalm 73:1, cf. Psalm 34:19, but comes primarily from Psalm 24:3-4.

Peacemakers = persecute/pursue righteousness

The "peacemakers" shall be called "sons of the Most High". Two meanings may, either instead of each other or together, be taken from this. A son of Yahweh, according to Romans, is someone who has been adopted by Yahweh, note in Jewish families it was the son who inherited, hence to degenderize (out of political correctness) and translate as "child of Yahweh" immediately strips the phrase of any connotations of inheritance. A second meaning may be taken from the Hebrew underlying "son of . . .", which may also mean someone who acts according to the character of the attribute or person of which he is a son. Thus, a "son of peace" is a 'peaceful one', and "son of Yahweh", may be a 'righteous one'. Here Yah's character is that of a 'peacemaker' and the true disciple acts similarly and is called both a son of Yahweh and a son of peace. The only other place in the NT using a similar word to 'peacemaker' is Colossians 1:20 which refers to the making of peace between Yah and man, the reconciliation affected through Yahweh's mercy demonstrated on the execution stake.

Peacemaking was not only a NT concept, just prior to Yahshua's ministry Rabbi Hillel had said, "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace" (Abot., 1:12). Peace makers or peace pursuers would be rodphe shalom in Hebrew. To 'pursue peace' occurs in the NT at Romans 14:19; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 3:11. "Persecuted for righteousness sake" may also be translated from the Hebrew background as "those that pursue righteousness". This comes from nirdephe tsedeq in the Hebrew of similar sound to the rodphe shalom 'peace pursuers' above. To 'pursue righteousness' occurs in the NT at Romans 9:30; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22.

Righteousness and peace are parallel terms in the following verses: Psalms 72:3; 85:10; Isaiah 32:17; 48:18; 60:17; Hebrews 7:2.

Conclusion: "and then there were four . ."

Given the parallelisms outlined above we can see that Yahshua was saying not 7, 8 or 9 sayings but 4 principles each expounded in a pair of complementary phrases. Further, whilst Yahshua's Beatitudes may appear spontaneous and original they are actually steeped in Old Testament allusions and quotations, and Hebrew poetic parallelism. As Professor David Flusser has written "these are not a spontaneous outbreak of prophecy, but a profound message founded on a complex network of biblical reminiscences and midrashic exegesis."

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Repentance, internal or external?

Repentance, by definition, means literally to think differently. Thus when I say I am going to repent of my sins, I mean that I am going to think differently in regard to my sins. My new thinking is that I am sorry that I committed that sin, and I do not want to commit it again. This new way of thinking will then lead to a new kind of action. So, repentance is both internal and external. Internally I change my way of thinking; externally I change my way of acting. The one, thinking, leads to the other, acting. The parable of the two sons in Matt. 21:28-32 is an excellent example of this.

Yahshua told a story about a man who had two sons. He said to the first, "Go, work today in my vineyard." The first son said he would not work in his dad’s vineyard, but Jesus said he later repented and went. What did this boy do when he repented? He simply changed his mind. Yahweh wants us to change our minds about sin and our participation in it. That’s what the Bible is talking about in commanding all men to repent.

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A Prodigal Teshuvah

The weekly sermon by a rabbi to his congregation is a comparatively modern custom. In earlier times a rabbi's role was not pastor of a congregation, but spiritual judge of the community. He was expected to deliver rulings in Jewish law, not homilies. There were two exceptions—two Sabbaths when the rabbi would address the congregation.

The first was Shabbat haGadol, the Sabbath before Passover. At that time the rabbi would explain the intricacies of the dietary laws pertaining to the Passover season so that no one would transgress the law through ignorance.

The second was Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The rabbi would explain the meaning of teshuvah (repentance) and exhort the congregation to repent. He would take his text from

Hosea 14:1:

O Israel, return to Yahweh, your Elohim, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.…

As taught in the Hebrew portion of Scripture, teshuvah contains a positive as well as a negative aspect. Teshuvah means "turning." The negative aspect focuses on turning away from our sinful actions. However the positive aspect focuses on the concept emphasized in Scripture—turning to Yahweh. In repentance one seeks reconciliation with the Holy One.

In addition to turning, returning or repenting, teshuvah also has the connotation of responding or giving an answer. Teshuvah is our response to the realization of who Yahweh is and what He has revealed to us about His character.

In Yahshua's parable about the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) He taught the meaning of sin, repentance and our Father's love for sinners. The prodigal demanded his inheritance prematurely and went off to a distant country, where he lived wildly. He squandered one third of the wealth his father had saved throughout a lifetime. When a famine occurred, the young man had no resources left. Impoverished, humiliated, working as a slave to feed pigs, he was hungry. When he came to his senses he thought, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'"

That is teshuvah from the sinner's point of view. We see teshuvah from Yahweh's point of view in the rest of the parable. While the young man was still a long way off, his loving father saw him, felt compassion for him and ran to embrace him.

The essence of teshuvah is found in the words of the young man when he said, "I will arise and go to my father." Or in the words of the Hosea passage, "O Israel, return to Yahweh your Elohim."

Repentance is a turn toward our Creator. It so conceived is the substance of Yahshua's moral teaching and the purpose of our lives on earth. Repentance is the key to making sense of the Bible.

Teshuvah or repentance is a challenge to all of us. Whatever our failures were yesterday, nothing can stop us from turning completely to Yahweh today. The opportunity afforded us by teshuvah is an obligation we cannot safely pass by. We cannot write off anyone as unredeemable, because they may still repent. Because of repentance, we cannot write ourselves off. If we will turn to Yahweh, He can change us.

In 1978 Rabbi Wiener of Temple Israel in New Jersey brought a message so unusual that it was quoted in several Jewish newspapers around the country. He said that with all the attention in the media at that time about born-again Christians, he wanted to talk about the Jewish way of being born again—teshuvah. His statement was widely quoted. He came very close to the truth.

The idea, which is mentioned in the Tanach and called teshuvah, is the root idea Yahshua developed when he said, "You must be born again." However, the rabbi's concept of teshuvah was not the concept of teshuvah that we find in the Jewish Bible. He saw it merely as a decision to live a more Jewish life and to do more good deeds .

In The Condition of Jewish Belief, Rabbi Wiener wrote, "Most often and basically, I think of the mitzvoth [good deeds] as the visible extensions of the Jewish soul. They are the means by which a Jew can connect himself with this soul and through this soul with the wellsprings of life, ultimate reality, G-*-d, or whatever you want to call it."

No disrespect intended, but Yahshua did not come to bring us into a relationship with "whatever you want to call it." The goal of repentance is reconciliation with a person—the personal, holy Elohim who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures and in the Messiah Yahshua, not a mystical god or a god of our own imagination, however we choose to conceive him.

Repentance is not a New Year's resolution to change this or that particular thing we do not like about ourselves. That would be a completely negative view of teshuvah. Repentance is a whole-hearted turning from self to the Almighty Yahweh of the Bible. Without faith in Him, repentance in the biblical sense is impossible. Hebrews 11:6 says, "…he who comes to Elohim must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." It doesn't matter if your faith in Him is as small as a mustard seed. Yahweh will receive you if you come to Him. But a New Year's resolution, or a search for enlightenment, or an attempt to find "whatever you call it," or a Jewish person trying to be more Jewish, does not constitute repentance.

First and foremost, true repentance as spoken of in the Bible is a positive step, not a negative one. It is an approach to our Father—our response to the reality of His person. Yet repentance does involve turning from sin.

This aspect is illustrated by the young man in Yahshua's parable. When he came to his senses, he realized that his basic problem was not the famine, or that he had mismanaged his money. His basic problem, the root of all his problems, was that he had alienated himself from his father. If he had a right relationship with his father, his other needs would take care of themselves.
If we are going to turn from our sin, first we must realize the true seriousness of sin. Sin at its root is alienation from "our Father". Its cause is our pride and self-will—our desire to live for ourselves and be our own g-o-d. The various actions we call sinful are merely manifestations of our condition of being sinners. The young man in the parable could never have demanded his inheritance from his father and left home if he had the slightest respect for his father's feelings. Likewise, all the sins we commit show our basic disrespect for the honor of Yahweh. We commit sins because we are sinners. We commit acts that displease our Father because we are alienated from Him.

Sometimes people complain because Yaweh doesn't take a more liberal attitude toward sin. They say, "If Yahweh is loving, why doesn't He just overlook our sins? Why does He demand that we repent and receive Yahshua?"

Imagine this question in the context of Yahshua's parable. What if, when the son demanded his inheritance from the father, that father had actually followed his son into the distant land? What if he had followed his son everywhere he went, just to be physically at hand in case his son needed anything? Would the alienation in that family have been in any way ameliorated? No. The son chose alienation, and there was nothing the father could do until the son chose to repent. Yahweh cannot reconcile us to Himself without our repentance. Unrepentance is proof that we do not want to be reconciled.

Do you want to believe that there will be stealing, lying or greed in heaven? Do you think there will be gossip and unkind speech in heaven? If we will not repent of these things, how can Yahweh receive us into His presence? Sin is the cause of our alienation. Yahweh could not remain righteous and have a different attitude about sin.

We cannot purge ourselves of our faults, but when we repent, we renounce our sin and allow Yahweh to begin to purify us. That is a lifelong work of repentance, which will only be complete when we are resurrected or rise to meet our Messiah in the air.

If not for the famine, that boy in the parable might never have been forced to face up to his wickedness. He might never have repented. It took physical hunger to make him realize that he needed to be reconciled with his father.

If I were that father, I might not be so compassionate. I might very carefully question the boy's motives for returning. Yet this father gladly received his lost son, as gratefully as though he had received him back from the dead. Likewise, Yahweh is not too proud to receive a sinner who comes to Him with less than ideal motives. If a person comes to Yahweh because loneliness, distress, financial reverses or other trials have shown him his need, that person will forever thank Yahweh for the trials that brought him face to face with reality.

If life is comfortable and we feel no need to reach out to Yahweh, He may show us mercy by bringing famine into our lives. He may remove the things that distract us from dealing with what is truly important. He may bring us to the place where we realize that our most basic need is to be reconciled with Him, where we say as the prodigal did, "I will go to my Father and say, 'I have sinned against You.'"

Some elements in the traditional Jewish High Holiday liturgy are very enigmatic. One, the Kol Nidre recited at the beginning of the Yom Kippur service, states that all of our promises of self-reformation are vain and worthless, and we ask forgiveness for our impulsiveness in making them. After this confession, you would expect that the tradition would offer us an alternative, but it does not.

The tradition does not know any alternative. The rabbis rejected the alternative of believing that the sacrificial principles of atonement taught in the Torah were fulfilled in the Messiah, Yahshua. Therefore there is nothing left but an attempt to do better. Yet a mere attempt to do better is not teshuvah. Saying we will do our best to change is a deception. We have trivialized that phrase. We really mean we will do whatever is convenient for us, whatever will ease our conscience. Few have any idea of what doing one's best really could mean. Only when we place ourselves completely in Yahweh's care can He take over and show us what our best can be.

Teshuvah is not self-reformation. Teshuvah means turning away from sin and toward the living Elohim.

The third aspect of repentance is illustrated in the part of the parable where the son determines, "I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants'." The son determined to return to the father on the father's terms. He did not return to gain favor while retaining his independence. Ready to be reconciled, he gave up any preconception as to what his relationship to his father would be. He trusted only in his father's mercy.

Teshuvah is abandonment of self into the merciful hand of a loving Father. In the parable we see the father coming out to meet his son while he is still a long way off. When we seek to reform ourselves but ultimately retain control of our lives, Yahweh cannot come in and transform us. But when we completely abandon our lives to the mercy of Yahweh through Yahshua, we have the promise that Yahweh's Set-Apart Spirit will come to live in us and give us the power to live a new life.

True repentance does not ask, "What am I prepared to do?" but "What am I prepared to let Yahweh do in me?" If there are any preconditions—things we will not allow Yahweh to do in our lives—if ultimately we wish to retain control while asking Yahweh merely to help us change certain things of which we are ashamed—we cannot expect His help.

Repentance means coming back to our Father without conditions. The prodigal completely abandoned himself to his father's mercy. If he had dispatched a message asking his father to send cash, it would not have been repentance. He would have been using his father. Likewise, expecting Yahweh's help to do what we want while we remain little lords in our own lives is not repentance.

It is more comfortable to observe a hundred rituals than to face our sin in all its ugliness and admit there is nothing we can do to earn Yahweh's favor. It is much easier to be very religious than to repent in the biblical sense. To repent is to abandon ourselves totally to Yahweh.

Yahweh's love for us is deeper than any human bond, and we owe Him our total selves in return. We may consider ourselves to be good, but if our relationship with Him has broken down we are not good. Hopefully it will not require a famine in our life to help us see that we need teshuvah.

If we say in our heart, "I will arise and go to my father"—if we desire to be reconciled with Him more than we desire anything else, and without conditions—the good news is that the Father is already coming out to meet us!

Hatikvah on the Shofar

Teshuvah Reflections

Teshuvah means both return and repentance, or perhaps return to Yahweh by means of repentance: making a serious examination of our past shortcomings and making efforts to improve, especially to improve our relationships with Yahweh, others, and ourselves.

During the month of Elul we have had the special opportunity to examine ourselves and return to a closer relationship with our Maker: to heal all our relationships by making necessary apologies or restitution, and to appreciate the relief that can come from getting rid of whatever it was we wanted to leave behind us when we cast our bread crumbs or pebbles into the Bay at tashlich.

But really, the opportunity to return to Yahweh is always ours. As our Yom Kippur prayerbook says, "Let us not blaspheme the Most High, by saying that there ever comes a time when sincere prayer is not heard, when sincere repentance is turned away. But if we cannot find prayer and repentance on this Day of Repentance, if we cannot make a start towards peace and wholeness before the sun sets on this one Day of Peace, then when shall repentance come?"

Teshuvah begins when we realize our need to act. If we sense that the distance between us and Yahweh has increased, He is not the one who has moved; we have.

On the bright side, to return to Yahweh does not require a vast journey. Towards the end of Deuteronomy, Moses talks of a time when the Israelites have turned away from their Elohim and been banished from the Holy Land, and the people "return to Yahweh your Elohim, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, then Yahweh your Elohim will restore your fortunes and take you back in love." And to perform this return is "not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. ... It is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it."

In fact, Yahweh will help us to return. At the end of the Torah service, we pray, "Hashiveinu Yahweh eilecha v'nashuvah." "Return us to you, O Yahweh, and we shall return."

Teshuvah is in our mouth and in our hearts: An examination of our hearts, to see where our distance from Yahweh is causing pain, to us and to those around us; then using our mouths to make apologies to those we've harmed and to Yahweh for our failures, and then making a renewed effort to live our lives as children of our heavenly Father. It can help us in this effort to remember that we were created in the image and likeness of Elohim, and that we have in us a “yetzer tov,” an urge towards doing good, in addition to the "yetzer hara," the urge towards evil.

Making teshuvah is a bit like doing meditation: we try to focus on a word or image, or our breath, and our busy minds continually present us with other thoughts and images and sensations. However, we don't stop meditating when our minds do that. We simply notice that we've lost our focus, and we gently and kindly return our attention to that focus. This practice strengthens our spirit and our ability to keep our minds from going places that will do us no good. When we're trying to return to Yahweh, and we notice that we've swerved away from Yahweh and towards something that is, as the Buddhists would say, less skillful, we don't give up on teshuvah. We simply notice that we've turned in the wrong direction and gently turn ourselves back towards Yahweh.

And so I'd like to end with a prayer that I wrote about our continuing efforts towards teshuvah:

In the Divine image You created us, Yahweh. We strive to measure up to that image, and we fail, and then we get up and strive again. Please teach us that we grow closer to Your image every time we get up again, and give us joy in that knowledge. Blessed are You, Yahweh, who lifts up the fallen.

The Tabernacle - Shofar sounding

Teshuvah

Teshuvah is commonly translated as "repentance," however the latter term carries a different meaning in Judaism than typically found in other circles, where it generally means "being sorry for something and trying not to do it again."

Teshuvah is properly translated as "return," thus indicating an active role for the person performing teshuvah, as well as having a goal in mind. The goal in this case is Elohim, or more precisely, the "image of Elohim" (or Messiah, who is himself in the image of Elohim), that we are to "return" to.

(i.e., Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 11:7, 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:4; Colossians 1:15, 3:10; Hebrews 1:3)

The active path of Teshuvah is three-fold:

1. Prayer and meditation (your heart/emotion)
2. Study of Torah (your soul/mind)
3. Performance of the commandments and acts of kindness toward others (your strength/resources)

The above "formula" is based on the "Great Commandment" of Deuteronomy 6:5:
You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Of the three paths of teshuvah, Torah study is considered preeminent as it reveals Who you are praying to, how to pray, what the commandments are, and the proper motivation for doing good deeds.

bruno tocando shofar