{"id":76830,"date":"2020-07-02T18:02:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T15:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76830"},"modified":"2020-07-02T18:27:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T15:27:56","slug":"rend-your-hearts-not-and-your-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rend-your-hearts-not-and-your-clothes\/","title":{"rendered":"Rend Your Hearts, Not (And?) Your Clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":"76830","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"516","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Inner transformation is the essence of teshuvah\r\n\r\n","content":"

When an all-devouring locust storm engulfs the land, Joel urges the people to fast saying: \u201cYet even now, says the Lord, turn back to me with all your hearts, and with fasting weeping and lamenting. Rend your hearts, rather than your garments, and turn back to the Lord your God” (2:12-13).<\/span><\/p>\n

Joel\u2019s call becomes a model for the Jewish fast days that respond to calamity. Fasts commemorating historic national disasters are fixed in our calendar, while the leaders of each generation may call fasts in the face of famine, war or plague.<\/span><\/p>\n

These verses crystallize from Joel the question of what fast days are for. Are they mainly days of mourning when we grieve our losses and mourn our misfortune? Or are fasts a time for <\/span>teshuvah<\/span><\/em>, to examine our actions, and resolve to do better in the future, so that God may take away our suffering?<\/span><\/p>\n

This issue runs through the rabbinic writings on fasts. Joel\u2019s words, \u201crend your hearts rather than your garments,\u201d are a paradoxical particular point of focus. On the one hand, \u201crending\u201d \u2013 <\/span>keriyah<\/span><\/em> in Hebrew \u2013 is a mark of mourning. The bereaved rends her clothing for close relatives who have died.\u00a0 The Talmud (Mo\u2019ed Katan 28a) reads our verse as teaching how much of your garment you have to tear \u2013 as far as your heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, we\u2019re supposed to rend our hearts, <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> our garments. The Mishnah in <\/span>Ta\u2019anit<\/span> (2:1) cites our verse as part of the exhortation to <\/span>teshuvah<\/em> <\/span>that was delivered on a public fast day: rend your hearts not your clothes; go through an inner process of change, don\u2019t just put on the outer trappings of mourning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A profound teaching from the Talmud <\/span>Yerushalmi Ta\u2019anit<\/span> interprets this verse to trace the common spiritual roots of both <\/span>teshuvah<\/em> <\/span>and mourning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi said, if you rend your hearts in <\/span>teshuvah<\/span><\/em>, you will not need to rend your clothes over your sons and daughters, but only over God. Why? Because he is gracious and merciful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Teshuvah,<\/em> <\/span>rending our hearts in inner transformation, will avert the punishment that may cause us to rend our clothing in mourning, says Yehoshua Ben Levi. But beyond that, <\/span>teshuvah<\/em> <\/span>is a rending of our hearts in grief at separation from God. Unlike the permanent loss of bereavement, the loss of closeness to God may be assuaged and overcome, because God is merciful.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":76844,"id":76844,"title":"joel2-rend_heart-statue2","filename":"joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rend-your-hearts-not-and-your-clothes\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"joel2-rend_heart-statue2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":76830,"date":"2020-07-02 15:27:41","modified":"2021-12-29 20:42:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2178,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-300x264.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":264,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-768x677.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":677,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-1024x903.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":903,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1354,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1805,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-1200x1058.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1058,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel2-rend_heart-statue2-1-476x420.jpg","home_baner-width":476,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"I\u2764Teshuvah-2","main_caption":"Rend Your Hearts, Not (And?) 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