{"id":75534,"date":"2020-06-03T13:54:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75534"},"modified":"2020-06-03T13:54:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:54:55","slug":"wanted-real-teshuva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wanted-real-teshuva\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: Real Teshuva"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75534","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37561,"related_cahpter":"495","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Remorse, repent, return - then rebuild\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you were an archivist in an ancient library of Jewish texts, you would not be blamed for thinking this chapter fell out of the Exodus box and into the Ezekiel box. Most of the chapter is concerned with construction specifications for a new Temple, to replace the one God destroyed. But there is a little clue in the chapter that something about this time around is completely different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In verses 10-11, God insists that the Israelites must feel ashamed of their sins before they can know God\u2019s instruction on how to rebuild the Temple. Compared to earlier chapters, where God seems to claim that the Israelites will be restored for God\u2019s sake, this chapter presents the idea that the Israelites themselves must engage in true <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">teshuva<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, repentance and return, in order to merit the rebuilding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Jewish idea of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>teshuva<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is core to this chapter. The Hebrew word \u201cteshuva\u201d literally means \u201creturn\u201d; Jews do repentance by returning to the site of our prior misdeeds or failures with a new intention. Maimonides wrote in his \u201cLaws of Repentance\u201d that true <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">teshuva<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> happens when a person returns to the same situation in which they previously sinned, has the opportunity to sin again, and does not do so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we near the end of the book of Ezekiel, it seems clear that God believes the Israelites to be capable of <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">teshuva<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The sins committed in the Temple precinct were a major cause of the expulsion and destruction of the Temple that we read about at the beginning of Ezekiel. Now, God wants the people to build another Temple, very much like the first, with trust that they will not again be led to sin there. How does God know that the people will merit to rebuild the Temple? Because they have to do real <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">teshuva<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; they have to feel the weight of their actions and feel remorse for them. God is willing to forgive our sins, it seems, as long as we are willing to do the work of improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75535,"id":75535,"title":"ez43-change","filename":"ez43-change.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wanted-real-teshuva\/ez43-change\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez43-change","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75534,"date":"2020-06-03 10:54:43","modified":"2022-08-23 15:20:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1396,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-218x300.png","medium-width":218,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-745x1024.png","medium_large-width":745,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-745x1024.png","large-width":745,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change.png","1536x1536-width":1117,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change.png","2048x2048-width":1396,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-873x1200.png","post_full_size-width":873,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez43-change-305x420.png","home_baner-width":305,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Wanted: Real Teshuva","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Remorse, repent, return - 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