Preparing Hearts for the Fall Feasts

Intro

Today is the 20th day of Elul on the Jewish calendar, meaning we are 12 days from the beginning of the Fall Feasts, which starts with Rosh Hashana or Yom Teruah.

The month preceding the fall feasts, this month of Elul, is traditionally a time of introspection. It is a time to take stock. It is a time to review one’s deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming “Days of Awe” from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur. One 16th century Jewish sage, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague said, “All the month of Elul, before eating and sleeping, a person should look into his soul and search his deeds, that he may make confession.”

One need not be Jewish to understand the importance of spiritual introspection or review of the past year. It is a good thing to put a critical eye on whether or not one is drawing closer to God, stagnating, or regressing over a period of time. And doing so on a regular interval, such as annually, as we do during the month of Elul, is a good practice. There is nothing magical about doing this annually. You could do it more often, but I don’t think I’d recommend it less often.

When I am advising my employees at work, I suggest that they write up a short weekly review at the end of each week, then at the end of each month they write up a short review of that month, using the weekly reviews to help. Then at the end of each quarter they write a review using three monthly reviews, and subsequently at the end of the year, they write a full review of the year using the four quarterly reviews. It is a system that works well and helps to document progress in my employees’ abilities and accomplishments of goals.

Having some sort of a note-keeping system helps tremendously for something like this. It could be a journal or notebook, or a digital version of the same. This works both in business and in your spiritual introspection. The goal for spiritual introspection is twofold, both internal and external. Internally it is an examination of how your personally relationship with Yeshua has changed, and in what ways, and what God is doing in your life. Externally it is an examination of what God is doing all around you and in your community.

I’ll be the first to admit that while I have an excellent system for review that I employ at work, this is something I have long struggled with spiritually. I have done this intermittently at times in the past, but have lacked any meaningful consistency. I need to practice what I preach! When we do not force ourselves to reflect and to write this down we tend to drift aimlessly in a spiritual morass. It doesn’t mean we won’t end up with spiritual growth, but the odds of it happening significantly decrease.

It would be like me trying to have a garden and orchard in which I planted it and then left it to itself all growing season and then returned at the end of the season to see what I can harvest. I might get some produce, but the chances of me getting a meaningful harvest are much smaller than if I had tended to the plants and trees on a regular basis, examining them to ensure they are getting adequate water, protection from weeds and bugs and critters, and so on.

And to extend the gardening analogy further, a good gardener will not only do those things, but they will keep notes on when they planted things, what the weather was like, how well things grew, and how their management techniques worked, so that the following season they can grow an even more bountiful garden.

A spiritual review works the same way. It helps to ensure that spiritually speaking you are moving towards God and not away from Him. It helps you chart areas you are growing in and areas you are struggling, areas that you are overcoming and areas that are being attacked. It can document people you are ministering to and those ministering to you. It can note God’s miracles and victories. And that points to the ultimate goal of this spiritual review, and that is to give glory to God in all of these areas.

Torah Portion

That goal leads us to this week’s Torah portion. Turn to Deuteronomy 26.

This week’s portion is titled Ki Tavo. As all weekly torah portions are titled, this comes from the initial verse where we read in chapter 26:1, “V’ha-yah ki tavo al ha-eretz asher Adonai elohecha notain l’cha nach’la ve’reshav’ta ba.” “Now when you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it.”

This opening statement tells us that Moses is passing down instructions from God to Israel as to what they are do until entering the land. What was it that God directed them to do? They were to bring a tithe of the first fruits of the land.

How does one bring a tithe? Verse 12 says, “when you finish tithing the full tenth of your produce.” One brings a tithe by gathering one 10thof the produce. How can you determine how much is 1/10th of the produce? You can only do this by taking stock of, or reviewing, the entirety of the harvest. And the point of this tithing exercise was twofold. First, it was a hands-on way of physically returning to God a small amount of what He had provided and acknowledging and praising God for His provision. Second, it was a way in which God was helping Israel ensure they were providing mercifully for those that were unable to provide for themselves. Notice the rest of verse 12. Who was the rest of the tithe given to? The Levite, the outsider, the orphan, and the widow. None of these had land of their own on which to grow food. God was creating an essential part of the overall maintenance of the community.

Giving Words for Praise

Regarding the first reason for the tithe, to return praise to God: Have you ever been in a time of prayer, perhaps community prayer, when the direction was to offer prayers of praise to God, and in that moment, you lacked words other than perhaps vague or generic words such as “hallelujah” or “praise you Father!” It is not that these words are bad. I would never discourage someone from uttering them. However, I believe it is better if we can be specific in our praise to the Father.

It is just the same as if someone offers you a vague thanks or a vague apology. It is always better if someone gives some specificity to that gratitude. Vagueness can be shallow. Specific details give depth. Specifics give meaning.

In our Torah portion God helped the Israelites by giving them specific words of praise for Him. “Adonai listened to our voice” “Adonai saw our affliction” “Adonai brought us out from Egypt” “Adonai’s mighty hand, outstretched arm, signs and wonders” “Adonai brought us to this place” “Adonai gave us a land flowing with milk and honey.” These words give details that spell out the breadth and depth of what God has done.

The spiritual review culminating in the month of Elul will you specific words. It will give you the details you need as you come before God. And your specifics are going to be different than mine. It doesn’t just give specific words of praise, but also specific words of repentance.

Words for Repentance

The month of Elul that we are in the midst of is seen as a most opportune time for teshuvah, or returning to God. It has been likened to a time when “the king is in the field” and, in contract to when he is in the royal palace, “everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all.”

Suppose that image of God as king was true and you were going to meet the king. Wouldn’t you want to give specifics to your words of praise, or words of repentance? I will tell you that God as king is ready and waiting for you.

Read Isaiah 55:6-7

The Lord is near and at hand. Now is the time to turn away from the ways you have been straying. Now is the time to repent of unrighteousness in both thought and deed. The Lord is faithful in His mercy, and He will have compassion on you. He will abundantly pardon!

But how will you return to the Lord, how will you repent, if you have not done the work of introspection, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the areas that you need to confess before the King?

Sometimes when we approach this, we don’t know where to start. I’d like to offer you a suggested starting point today.

Read Psalm 139

When we begin, we acknowledge that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He has known us since He knit us together in our mother’s womb. Nothing we do is outside of His presence. Nothing we think is hidden from Him. And because of this we ask that God would search us, know our hearts, examine us and know our anxious thoughts, and see if there is any offensive way within us.

Some Jewish communities, during the month of Elul, include the tradition of daily sound of the shofar as a call to repentance. I do suggest you get permission from your family if you are going to do this in your own house, or wait until no one else is home. But regardless of actually blowing the shofar or not, we should all be encouraged towards this season of repentance, just as Yeshua told us in Luke 15:7, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. And we should remember what the Scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas world grief produces death.”

Selichot (Penitential Prayers)

As we examine ourselves, we do so individually, but as we approach God in humility we do so not just individually, but also in community. When we gather together for a service, such as today, and we say prayers such as Avinu Malkenu, we are communally asking God for his mercy in our lives, given our sinful state we find ourselves in.

There is one prayer that is traditional in this season called Master of Forgiveness, which proclaims God’s mercy and character traits. It reads:

Master of pardons, Discerner of hearts, Perceiver of submerged thoughts, Proclaimer of charities; We have sinned in front of You, have mercy upon us.

Glorified by wonders, Ancient One of consolations, Rememberer of the forefathers' covenant, Examiner of [consciences]; We have sinned in front of You, have mercy upon us.

The Good who bestows good on the creatures, Knower of all concealed things, Suppressor of iniquities, Wearer of righteous acts; We have sinned in front of You, have mercy upon us…

Notice that three times it ends with a petition for mercy. And it brings to mind “the 13 attributes of Mercy,” which God revealed at Mt Sinai after the sin of the golden calf when Moses went back up the mountain and to plead with God for forgiveness.

In Exodus 34:6-7, as Moses called on the name of Adonai it says, “Then ADONAI passed before him, and proclaimed, “ADONAI, ADONAI, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, showing mercy to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means leaving the guilty unpunished, but bringing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

As we read and pray verses like this, not only are we reminded of God’s mercy, begging him for it, but at the same time, we are also reminded of the need to be merciful to others.

Matthew 18:21-35

The parable of the unforgiving servant highlights the mercy of the king (God) to a servant (us) who had an impossible debt to pay. And that servant who receives incredible mercy unbelievably fails to pass that mercy on to others. I say unbelievably, but the reality is that it is very believable. We do this all the time. We are masters of holding others to a much higher standard of deserving our mercy than we hold ourselves.

During this season, and in every season, but especially right now, I want to remind us that we are a people who extend God’s mercy that we have received on to everyone around us.

As you spend time in introspection, consider those that may have an offense against you or those that you have been offended by. Prayerfully and humbly seek them out to begin the process of repentance and merciful grace, depending on what your situation should merit.

Closing

Elul is a month to prepare for the fall festivals. For those of us that know Yeshua as our Messiah, remember that these fall feasts are a rehearsal for the coming of the Mashiach to reign among us.

I would encourage you this week to read and pray Psalm 139. Allow the words of David to be your words as you open yourself up in humility before your king. He is in the field waiting for you with a smiling face and open arms, ready to receive you. It is not a time to cover up flaws, but a time to let God work through them. It might be painful, but it is necessary and worth it. God loves us enough that we can be vulnerable and honest both with ourselves and with him.

Come to God with specific words of both praise and repentance. Take time for introspection to give you those specific words. Remember that all good things we experience are a gift from God and we need to return thanks to him.

Lastly, though every season appropriate to extend mercy to others just as God had been merciful to you, this season is especially appropriate do so.

As I close, if you have never accepted the offer of forgiveness from God, there has never been a better time. You can do that today, and I’d love to walk you through it. And on Monday the 22nd we can lead you into the waters of the mikvah as we celebrate Rosh Hashana at the park.