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<\/p>\nThere is a story told about a great rabbi who would address God every night and say: \u201cGod, I sinned today, but tomorrow I shall not sin again. I know I said this yesterday, but this time I really mean it.\u201d He would say this every single evening! Every time he said it, he meant it no less than the day before.<\/p>\n
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This story resonates with me as we complete the High Holy Days with the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Every year on this day, we repent for our past sins and determine to never repeat them. But who are we kidding? In all likelihood, we will probably repeat many of our misdeeds in the days and months ahead.<\/p>\n
Even God knows that we will sin again. Why else would He prescribe Yom Kippur every single year? If He really thought that we would stick to all of our resolutions, there would be no need for an annual day of atonement as prescribed by the Bible.<\/p>\n
King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, wrote in the Book of Proverbs, \u201cfor though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again<\/em>\u201d (24:16). Note that he did not say, \u201cIF the righteous fall\u2026\u201d He said, \u201cthough the righteous fall\u2026\u201d <\/em>In other words, the righteous will undoubtedly fall numerous times. However, that\u2019s not what counts. What matters most is that \u201cthey rise again<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n God knows that we will stumble\u2014year after year after year. Yet on Yom Kippur, we will rise again\u2014we will regret our mistakes and reaffirm our commitment to be better\u2014and that is what matters most.<\/p>\n As we have said, the Hebrew word for \u201crepentance\u201d is teshuvah<\/em>. However, teshuvah<\/em> can also mean \u201crepetition,\u201d because repentance is something that we do over and over. Every time we return to the Lord, we get closer to Him and He is that much more a part of our lives.<\/p>\n The message of Yom Kippur is an empowering one. It teaches us that it is ok to fall, so long as we get back up again. We do not need to be perfect, just perfectly dedicated to trying again.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.\u201d And it was done, as the Lord commanded Moses<\/em>. \u2014 Leviticus 16:34<\/p>\n There is a story told about a great rabbi who would address God every night and say: \u201cGod, I sinned today, but tomorrow I shall not sin again. I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-41776","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41776","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=41776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41780,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41776\/revisions\/41780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41776"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=41776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/rise-2-300x131.png\")
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