{"id":41380,"date":"2026-08-19T15:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=41380"},"modified":"2026-08-19T16:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T23:07:17","slug":"2026-change","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2026-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Change Is Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last month, many Jewish people around the world observed\u00a0<em>Rosh Hashanah<\/em>,\u00a0the Jewish New Year.\u00a0I love this time of the year.\u00a0It\u2019s a time of hope and a time of reflection.\u00a0According to Jewish tradition, the days leading up to and following the Jewish New year are conducive to change as we let go of the past and embrace a better version of who we can be.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41381 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rosh-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But change is hard, as most of us have learned.\u00a0How many times have we tried to adapt new habits, only to fail a few weeks later?\u00a0However, a teaching in this week\u2019s\u00a0<em>Torah<\/em>\u00a0portion encourages me and inspires me to make the most of these last\u00a030\u00a0days of the Jewish year.<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s portion contains the laws regarding a beautiful woman taken captive in war.\u00a0If the war was fought in accordance with God\u2019s will, an Israelite soldier is permitted to take the woman to be his wife, but first, he must wait 30 days.\u00a0There are many reasons suggested for the 30-day waiting period.\u00a0One of them suggests that it takes\u00a030\u00a0days to change a habit, and so the woman would need 30 days to purge herself of her idolatrous ways until she could marry into God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41382 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/THE-CAPTIVE-WOMAN.jpg 526w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>What a useful bit of truth!\u00a0According to this teaching, it takes just\u00a030\u00a0days to make a significant change.\u00a0If we can stick to something for just one month, we can positively affect the rest of our lives.<\/p>\n<p>This idea,\u00a0first declared\u00a0by the\u00a0Jewish sages thousands of years ago, was echoed in a lecture I once heard about the\u00a0\u201c30-day challenge.\u201d\u00a0The idea was to encourage people to try something new for\u00a030\u00a0days in order to create a significant change in their lives.\u00a0As the speaker demonstrated,\u00a030\u00a0days is long enough to produce real and lasting change, but short enough that the goal is attainable.<\/p>\n<p>I want to encourage us all to pick one aspect of ourselves that we would like to improve upon and commit to a change for the next\u00a030\u00a0days.\u00a0I believe that we have the ability to change for the better, and with God\u2019s help, we can grow into the person He created us to be.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41383 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rosh-2-e1787180550648.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1066\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-41304\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/unnamed-300x66.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"66\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/unnamed-300x66.png 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/unnamed.png 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Last month, many Jewish people around the world observed\u00a0Rosh Hashanah,\u00a0the Jewish New Year.\u00a0I love this time of the year.\u00a0It\u2019s a time of hope and a time of reflection.\u00a0According to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-41380","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41384,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41380\/revisions\/41384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41380"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=41380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}