How do you say ‘better late than never’ in Hebrew?
I surmise that most of my (Christian) readers are unaware that we are presently in the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days, and are largely uneducated about the religious traditions and holidays currently being participated in by our Jewish counterparts. I am no exception and am grateful to Trento for the spurring on.
Last Saturday, September the 23rd was ‘Rosh Hashanah’ (beginning on the evening of the 22nd), which marks the 1st day of the Jewish new year. ‘Elul,’ the sixth month of the Jewish calendar, marks a time of repentance in preparation for RH. This six month period of repentance culminates in a day of introspection, looking back over the year and repentance in preparation for change in the upcoming year. This practice tends to remind me of some of our Christian ideas about repentance, and even our secular “New Year’s” practices. However, the six month prep period is a rather striking practice in comparison with (what has been in my experience) momentary and occasional attempts at repentance. Also, compare RH, which is a full Sabbath, meaning no work of any kind, to our usual New Year’s or even our normal Sunday practices.
RH marks the first day of the ten “Days of Awe,” which culminate in Yom Kippur. These are days of introspection, prayer and good deeds which are understood to atone for sins before God. Christians believe we have received our atonement in full in the person, death and resurrection of Christ, however I believe this atonement can lead us to readily forget our need to introspect–to reflect on our deepest and perhaps ugliest self–and to truly be convicted by the ways our sin still works in our lives, relationships and world. Christ’s atonement should not lead to self ignorance or to a singular devotion to an optimistic/triumphalistic view of self and the world. Rather, Christ’s atonement frees us to view clearly and without fear the truth about self and world. When our true nature is brought to light, God begins healing work on it.
During the Days of Awe, Jewish people often make efforts at atonement with one another, confessing their sins and asking forgiveness. (Quick aside on the definition of atonement: Atonement is a combination of the three words at-one-ment, literally to make at one). As I understand things, this practice is one to which Christians are to be devoted. We have no calendar season set aside for such a practice, as we are meant to do it all year, however without a time set aside I find that rather than continually making at-one-ment with others, I never do so. Hmmm.
So, kosher food for Christian thought: How can we integrate practices of introspection, self-awareness, repentance and atonement more fully into our spiritual rhythms and everyday lives? How can we submit more deeply to the discipline of humility which all of these practices require? What are outward acts Christians could use to signal the inward practices they experience? I think I’ll begin treating the Jewish tradition like the wealth of instruction it is in hopes of learning live out my own faith more seriously and completely.
Yom Kippur begins on the Evening of October 1st, and I’ll post about it then.
September 27th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
I have always had a hard time with repentance. not in that i don’t want to atone and repent…but that the word “repentance” carries with it feelings of shame and guilt because of the sins which have brought about the need for repentance in the first place. it’s almost like it’s a bad word. and we like to just steer clear of the whole subject. repentance, atonement, introspection…i think we just sort of put our blinders on and try to forget that we need to atone for anything.
lately, though, i’ve begun to see repentance in a different light…
i’m sure you’ve probably heard the illustration for repentance being like you’re walking down a road, and you find yourself in the midst of sin, so you turn around and walk back the other way…
I’m reading this book called “Jesus, Mean and Wild,” by…somebody…and, well, he suggests that repentance doesn’t have to be a thing we do after we have sinned. we don’t have to wait until we’re in sin to repent. we can be walking down that road and see sin a long way off and choose to turn around and walk the other way before we even get there…so repentance is more like an offense against sin than a defense…and we can make the choice every day to repent; to change our direction so that we are walking in God’s direction…and then we won’t be associating “repentance” with guilt or shame…and it won’t be such a bad word. i like that.
October 1st, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Wow, thanks for the info and the perspective. Lots of new stuff I never knew.
Its a little sad that my spurring on was a showing of my ignorance. “It was some Jewish holiday. Apparently South Torrance is very Jewish.”
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:32 am
The post was definitely not meant to chide you, as my knowledge was scarecely better than your own. I find something very affirming in researching the ways God’s people have been honoring him–gives me a since of the history and trajectory in my own faith, and reminds me Christianity is not the beginning of God’s work.