Hearken Klal Israel!
Posted by Aryeh ben Avraham | Labels: Ba'al/Ba'at Teshuvah, Davening, Judaism, Mitzvah, Psalm 81, Yom Kippur | Posted On Sunday, 23 September 2007 at 19:18
PSALM 81:
9. Hearken, My people, and I shall admonish you, Israel, if you hearken to Me.
10. No strange god shall be within you, neither shall you prostrate yourself to a foreign god.
11. I am the Lord, your G_d, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I shall fill it.
12. But My people did not hearken to My voice, neither did Israel desire to [follow] Me.
13. So I let them go after their heart's fantasies; let them go in their counsels.
14. If only My people would hearken to Me, if Israel would go in My ways.
15. In a short time I would subdue their enemies and upon their enemies I would return My hand.
16. The enemies of the Lord would lie to Him, and their time would be forever.
17. Then He would feed them with the fat of wheat and I would sate you with honey from a rock.
Just a few words for us to ponder on regarding the above Psalm.
YOM KIPPUR has just passed. These coming days let's not revert being our old selves and really start making a change this year.
Let's do the effort and get up earlier, in order to recite the Morning Prayers (Shajarit), also we should try to take some minutes before lunch, time to Daven (Minja) and at night when we get home, instead of sitting in front of the box, eating sandwiches, let's seclude ourselves and pray (Maariv) the night prayers. Let's go out of our ways to do Mitzvot.
I know I'm probably making some of us uncomfortable, but please bear with me and be patient. I know that it's very difficult to break habits acquired during years but don't ever forget your holy inheritance and the fact that your soul is holy and according to Rabbi Nachman, Jews are Tzaddikim, therefore it's not really difficult for us.
Let's try our very best and be ba’al/ba'at teshuvah, there is a maximal, “exemplary” form of teshuvah,” concerned with the correction or even perfection of the individual’s personality, the removal or reversal of the “stain” left on the person’s character by sin. The true concern of the process of teshuvah is character building, the constant growth and perfection of personality, what the classical Musar writers (Hebrew ethicists) refer to as tikkun hamiddot (“correction of the [character] traits”), which is ultimately a life long project. It is in regard to this latter standard that Rambam articulates the concept of Teshuvah Gemurah—the quest for true, total, full repentance.
Let's start changing in order to cling to Hashem and receive all the Blessings He has for us.
