Atonement - Mercy and Truth

Repentance Seen As Sacrifice

The Talmud teaches, here in the place where it quotes this verse that now that the Temple is destroyed, one who brings a broken heart and spirit before God is regarded as having brought whatever sacrifice is needed in their life. The Christian asks how this claim of Judaism is possible. If one does not look up to the one lifted up on the pole, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Christian asks, how can that person's repentance be complete?

In order to begin to understand this matter we must look deeper into this verse of the Psalms: As the Temple has been broken and crushed, so must the heart and spirit be broken and crushed by the word of God. No repentance that has been invented by one’s heart and spirit from some other source can even be considered. The sacrifices of the Temple, which the Talmud speaks of as being in this period of time replaced by the repentance of a broken heart and spirit before God, were not sacrifices of the heart that were invented by human beings, for such sacrifices would have only been sacrifices of idolatry. Yet even though the sacrifices of the Temple were appointed by the commandment of God they could be misused, either by hearts and spirits that were not right before God, or by uncorrected unintentional error. Even while the Temple stood, therefore, one who brought a sacrifice was only fully received when they brought it with a heart and spirit so crushed that it was as if the Temple had been destroyed before them on account of their sins and transgressions.

HaRav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal zt”l, in his book Eim Ha Banim Semeichah, speaks of the belief that the Eternal Temple of God will descend from heaven and rest upon the third Temple which he anticipates will be built by the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Furthermore, allusion is made to the first and second Temples being incorporated into the third Temple. This image of the Eternal Dwelling Place of God descending in the immensity of its glory upon a Temple made with hands might be interpreted as picturing the process of acceptance that takes place when God accepts the sacrifice that is made in accordance with His commandment. This process of acceptance might be seen to be portrayed in a picture just like that when a fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifices offered by Elijah on Mount Carmel. Human repentance, as an effort of obedience to the commandment of God, like a true sacrifice, is crushed and consumed and caught up in the act of God’s acceptance.

For as it must be acknowledged that it was never within human power to destroy the Temple, and that it was by the Hand of God that not one stone was left ​standing upon another, so also the spirit that is broken and the heart that is broken and crushed are broken and crushed together with God’s Temple by the word of God and not by human power. When a spirit and a heart that are crushed by the word of God are brought before God, this is a repentance that is accepted by God. It is not despised. It is the preparation for a new and eternal Temple.

While giving this teaching of Yehoshua ben Levi on Psalms 51:17, the Talmud goes on to also give his teaching on Psalms 50:23. The Talmud’s reading of this verse is this: “Whoever appraises his ways in this world will merit to witness the salvation of the Holy One, Blessed is He.” We are told that this reading is brought out by reading ‘vesham’ (one who appraises), instead of ‘vesam’ (one who sets). Rav Shlomo Alkabetz is recorded in this place in the Talmud to apply Proverbs 21:3 – “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to HASHEM than sacrifice.” This is another version of the statement given in Hosea 6:6 and is a major theme of the Bible. It is also the theme that Yehoshua (Jesus) presented in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7 as describing the essential nature of his mission on earth. What is the meaning of this teaching? We are told that we must rightly appraise our way in this world and not merely set it in a right order. We are reminded by this statement that even if we set our way right, obeying commandments and offering sacrifices correctly according to the best form, if our actions do not arise from a heart that has been made truly repentant by the word of God, we will not be shown the salvation of God. A heart that has been made right and truly repentant by the word of God is a heart that has been crushed and destroyed by the word of God, like the Temple, and has been rebuilt by the mercy of God..

There is a corollary between the teachings of Yehoshua ben Levi on Psalms 50:23 and Psalms 51:17 and the teaching of Yehoshua of Nazareth when he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit," (Jn. 12:24), and "Truly, truly I tell you that except a person is born from above they cannot see the kingdom of God.” In both the Psalms and John's Gospel a repentance is being referred to that is worked in the human heart by the Hand of God from above. In that repentance, all trust in the form of sacrifice and in one's understanding of sacrifice is as broken and crushed as the Temple itself. There is no power left. There is nothing in reserve. Deuteronomy 32:36 is being fulfilled. Nothing is left but the final appraisal of life in this world that there is nothing to hope or trust in but the mercy of the God of Israel alone.

Bring a soul to this place of appraisal and you have set it on the right way, you have prepared the way of the Lord in that soul. For, to the soul that makes the appraisal of life in this world that there is nothing to hope or trust in except the mercy of the God of Israel, the one true God, God will give new life, in order that this soul may see His Kingdom of redeemed Israel and His salvation of all the world.

The first thing, then, that the teachings of these two different Yehoshuas have in common is an emphasis on the divine work and the divine spark that must be present in complete human repentance. Further examination of the common Scriptural theme represented by Psalms 51:19 and Hosea 6:6 will show that these teachings have even more in common.

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Rectifying Our Knowledge of God

“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Yehoshua quoted this verse twice in Matthew’s record (9:13 and 12:7). In chapter 9 he tells those who question his allowing publicans and sinners to eat with him to go and learn what these words from Hosea mean. From the literal sense of the words it can seem that they simply mean that God desires people to act with mercy or loving-kindness toward one another instead of sinning against the Torah by failing to do this, and then having to bring sacrifices to make atonement for their failure. Yet the second part of the verse forces us to think deeply about what mercy or loving-kindness fully means when the verse says to us that God desires knowledge of Him more than burnt offerings.

We are forced to ask how the bringing of burnt offerings indicates a lacking in the knowledge of God. If there were complete knowledge of God, would there never be any sin or transgression?

Yehoshua of Nazareth indicated the meaning that he intended when he said, “I have not come to bring the righteous but sinners to repentance.” This indicates that Yehoshua saw in Hosea’s statement something other than a simple statement that God desired people to be perfect and to never sin.

A Quote from Targum Yerushalmi

The teaching of Yehoshua ben Levi found in Sotah 5b, which begins with an exposition on Psalms 51:1, is brought in the context of a prolonged discussion in the Gemara on the importance of not having a haughty spirit. Indeed, these teachings of Yehoshua ben Levi are used like a capstone there to the discussion. The discussion begins at the end of page 4b around the verse quoted from Proverbs, “By means of a prostitute” nothing is left but “a piece of bread: and the adulteress ensnares the precious soul” (Proverbs 6:26).

R’ Chiya bar Abba reads this verse to say that someone with a haughty spirit can fall into adultery with a married woman. Rava answers this by saying that instead of a “precious soul” the verse should then read a “haughty soul,” and should also have been written to say that it is the haughty soul that does the ensnaring. Rava himself sees in this verse the teaching that no matter what the level of Torah Scholarship or holiness that a person may have attained, adultery with a married woman “will ensnare him into the judgment of Gehinnon” (purgatory).

It is from here that the Gemara begins its discussion of “the evil nature of arrogance”. In the ensuing discussion, a haughty spirit is compared with idolatry, with denial of the existence of God, with committing all of the abominations of the Canaanites and with setting up a false religion – creating an altar for one’s self. All of these together suggest the same concept as is portrayed by the Mystery Woman, Babylon, the Great Harlot, in the Book of the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach.

It is possible to understand from this that if one is spiritually haughty, arrogant, ​or self-righteous, one can only be serving the kingdoms of this world, which keep Israel in captivity. Through practicing religion with an unregenerate spirit one is having “an affair” with false religious leaders who collaborate with the kingdoms of this world: Babylon, Persia, Greece, etc., to keep Israel in captivity. The concept of the captivity of Israel is seen in this way as a fundamentally spiritual concept, with the political situation only being the expression of that underlying spiritual condition. What stands out is that it is not the disobedient collaboration on Israel's part alone which keeps Israel in captivity to the gentile empires but it is also the practice of unregenerate religion among the nations.

The Talmud in Sotah 4b proceeds in its discussion of haughtiness of spirit to examine Proverbs 16:5, “Every haughty heart is an abomination of Hashem, hand to hand he will not be exonerated. Rava’s teaching cited above is also applied in relation to this verse, that is to say, “hand to hand” means that even if one lifts up their hand, “to Hashem, God, the Most High,” as Abraham did, if they commit adultery with a married woman they will not be spared from the judgment of Gehinnon,” (Purgatory).

On this expression, “hand to hand,” in Proverbs 16:5, the Vina Gaon’s reading (following R’ Yonah) was “measure for measure.” That is, one who has a haughty, arrogant, self-righteous spirit will be judged by a strict judgment, measure for measure. This can be seen to be a teaching often emphasized by Yehoshua of Nazareth.

It should also be seen that the next verse, Proverbs 16 verse 6, says: “Through kindness (mercy) and truth, iniquity will be forgiven, and through fear of Hashem one turns from evil.” We can see in this the instruction of the apostle Peter, “Above all have charity among yourselves, for charity will cover the multitude of sins.” This brings us immediately back to the teaching of Hosea 6:6 and to Yehoshua’s teaching about this in Matthew, as well as to Yehoshua ben Levi’s teaching on this same subject from Psalms 51:17.

In summary of Yehoshua ben Levi’s teaching on this subject we have, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” One whose attitude is humble, Scripture regards him as though he brought all the various offerings. And not only that but his prayer is not despised, as it is stated: “A broken and crushed heart, O God, You will not despise.”

Saving The Soul of The World

It is not only this concluding teaching by Yehoshua ben Levi that gives us understanding of how complete repentance is associated with mercy and atonement for sin, but also, in the very midst of this Talmudic discussion on the haughty spirit, Rav Avira expounded on a teaching which he received on Job 24:24, which says, “They are exalted, [then they] decrease [and] are crushed like all that scurry away, and they are snapped off like the top of a stalk.”

Rav Avira related: “Any person who possesses a haughtiness of spirit will ultimately be diminished. But perhaps you will say (yet he) exists in the world – the verse states: ‘and then they are gone.’ But if he repents he will die at his time as did our father Abraham.” Thus, here a teaching is given which speaks ​directly of the possibility of repentance from haughtiness of spirit or spiritual self-righteousness which is equated with desecration of the name of Hashem. And this is brought out especially here in the tractate of Sotah.

As we read in Proverbs 16:6, “Through kindness and truth iniquity will be forgiven,” the teaching of Proverbs 10:2, “Charity saves from death,” is evoked. This also is the teaching: “Charity covers the multitude of sins.”

The ArtScroll Commentary on Proverbs 16:6 states: “…although Eli’s family was guilty of behaviour that, in effect, desecrated Hashem’s name, (see 1 Samuel 2:30), the family was able to atone by engaging in acts of kessed and emet, kindness and truth, חסד ואמת, (Shevet Mi Yehudah).

It goes on to quote Meiri as teaching that, “Solomon (is) speaking not about the kindness and truth of man but of God.” (God’s) kindness “because without it… regret should not suffice to undo sin committed of one’s own free will.” And (God’s) truth because “there is still an element of truth involved, since man’s tendency to sin can be somewhat excused by his inborn nature to rebel.”

The most common Jewish term for charity is not kessed, kindness, but tzaddikah, an extension of the word, “righteousness.” When we think of acts of charity as acts of kindness, we blend these concepts. The concept of mercy overlaps with the concept of charity. Although we often associate the concept of righteousness with a measure that satisfies perfect justice, it is only the judge who could call for strict justice according to the letter of the law who has the authority to show mercy. Charity is involved in mercy because it entails a gift which cannot be deserved. If we think of the charity involved in mercy as tzaddikah (“righteous giving”), we are alluding to a righteousness based in an authority that transcends the letter of the law, and a righteousness that is greater, therefore, than the righteousness that can only satisfy strict justice.

What is the nature and meaning of substitution in the act of sacrifice? For instance if a lamb is sacrificed on account of someone having sinned? Some would say there is no actual substitution. It is only a living demonstration being performed of the consequences of sin, a picture meant to influence the sinner to repent. While there may be this aspect, from the lamb's point of view there is a substitution. The one who sinned is standing there unpunished and it is being killed. Even if we are only looking at the the sacrifice as a demonstration or picture we must not ignore that it is picturing this substitutionary experience from the lamb's point of view.

The act of legal sacrifice can be understood as meeting the demands of strict justice, as in an eye for an eye, life for life. It can redirect the consequences of transgression and sinful violence back upon the perpetrator or representative of the perpetrator. But only in the sense that not only the victim but also the perpetrator shares in receiving the impact of the violence. And there it ends. Everything ends. Nothing new is created or generated by the legal act of life for life. And just the same, nothing new is created or generated by the legal sacrifice that is required alone.

Sacrifice, practised aright, is not just measure for measure justice. It is a prayer. It is the acknowledgement of sin with the hope of redemption. It is not itself the answer to the prayer, as it might be thought that strict justice is. The ground is laid by the measure for measure sacrifice for possible redemption but nothing by this alone is redeemed.

Nothing can be redeemed by the penalty of destruction being applied to one who has caused destruction. If a representative is sacrificed in the place of the perpetrator nothing more has happened than that the perpetrator has been accounted as legally destroyed while being, at least temporarily, formally preserved alive. But if their formal destruction has, as punishment, been enacted upon a substitute, legally, they are no less destroyed. The legal transaction of substitution has by itself created nothing new. No redemption has taken place.

If, instead of someone being destroyed by strict justice, a lamb is destroyed in their place, it might seem that this was an act of mercy toward that person, but in truth this alone is not mercy, for while the sin has been covered in this way, by the demand of strict justice being met, the person has not been redeemed from their (blood) guiltiness. Rather, their (blood) guiltiness has been completely established.

Having to live with such guilt may be a worse punishment than dying for it - even if one is truly repentant for the sin. Only a higher righteousness than the righteousness of strict justice, however, the righteousness of the tzaddikah and mercy of the judge could ever alleviate the guilt. By the mercy of the judge alone can the life of the blood-guilty transgressor be justified. The justification of life for the sinner is hidden within the mystery of a just mercy. And this justification cannot occur without a new ​creation.

Repentance As The Only Act of Death That Brings Life

"Truly, truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain." John 12:24

We have seen the temple to have been destroyed as if it were itself a sacrifice. As if it were offered symbolically through its destruction to be consumed and so also redeemed in the form of the eternal temple. From this we may understand how that our repentance is itself but a prayer, and not our justification for life in and of itself. We must see our repentance fail in the face of death, that is, in the face of the immutable sentence of God passed upon our sin. We must see our repentance as the work of the rectification of the character and the soul of individuals who are on death row awaiting their inevitable execution. At the core of our repentance must be the acceptance of our sentence of death. Only in this way will our repentance be an act of death, that is to say, of dying, that brings life when it is consumed by the word of God, which brings death and brings the resurrection from the dead. For the word of God is able to swallow up death and extract from it eternal life.

We have seen that there will be a pruning of the heads of the nations (the empires) and we know that that pruning also is for the sake of the rebirth of the world. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch that does not bear fruit in me he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15: 1,2.

We know that there are two forms of mitzvot (commandments). There are the negative commandments and the positive commandments. There are the mitzvot not to do certain things and the mitzvot to do certain things. This is a reflection of the truth that it is necessary to be involved with two principles, to sustain the life of the world that already is and to give new eternal life to the world. For the word of God is able to create the world out of nothing. And the word of God is able to create new life out of death. One who obeys the commandments of the word of God is an agent of the word of God.

The negative commandments can only reflect the first principle. The positive commandments can reflect both the first and the second. It is possible to imagine a person being perfect in the law in all points that relate to not harming any aspect of God’s Creation without being even close to perfect in those points of the law that have to do with adding new life to Creation.

But does the creature really add life to Creation, even as an agent of the word of God? We know that only God, Himself, can add new life to the world. We must understand that creation was finished in a design that allows for the adding of new life to the world through obedience to certain, special commandments of God. This is the calling of Israel in her relationship with the God of Creation. For God adds new life through his joy in Creation. Creatures can only add new life through faith – giving God joy and celebrating his joy. This is done specifically through obedience to commandments of repentance and love, such as those found in the relationship of Israel and the Sabbath.

God has no joy where there is death. God’s Sabbath is God’s joy. The living God reveals himself to the dead to save the dead. Faith saves the world by acknowledging the Living God. The Living God reveals Himself as the God of Israel. And all of Creation is sanctified through Israel and through the redemption of Israel alone. A person redeems the time by acts of charity done ​in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, through faith in God, the Redeemer of Israel. Through the One who redeems all time God’s Sabbath joy is restored.

The redemption of time means the justification of life, which has been condemned through sin. Before the world could be redeemed it had to be sustained on the merit of the hope of redemption. For there was no merit in the sin that condemned the world to sustain it even for a moment. Rather, the promise of Israel's eternal redemption sustained life for time, and the fulfillment of the promise of Israel's redemption justifies life forever.

There is a correlation between those commandments which serve to sustain the world as it is, without being able to add any new life to it and the hope and promise of a redemption that can give new life to the condemned world. This correlation is the secret of Israel's beauty. If the nations learn to admire this beauty, let them then not become jealous of it in amazement. For, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:7

As King Hezekiah Destroyed the Serpent On The Pole...

Returning to the original question of this essay, while the understanding of the condemnation of the world and the redemption of the world in Judaism and Christianity differ in some ways from one another they agree that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says. One who brings a broken heart and spirit before God is regarded as having brought whatever sacrifice is needed in their life. What then is different and what is the same between Judaism and Christianity at the heart? Both of these Biblical expressions of faith are often understood in terms of covenant, and at the foundation of covenant there is sacrifice.

It is not that there are two covenants, one for Israel and the Jews and one for the nations and Christians, as is sometimes thought. Rather, it is only that there are two different givings of the one covenant and both givings of the one covenant bring regeneration to the heart and soul through the obedience of faith. Both givings of the covenant involve the sacrifice of a broken spirit. Both givings of the covenant are for the whole house of Israel, and the final giving is made so that all the nations may be brought into the blessing of God's one eternal covenant with Israel, the covenant that was made twice, given twice, that Israel's joy might be full and everlasting.

When the serpent on the pole from Israel's time in wilderness began to be treated like an idol, King Hezekiah destroyed it. If Christians truly desire to enter into a dialogue with Jews about the saving nature of God's covenant with Israel, if they are in danger of treating their theories of the atonement like an idol, they might do well to thoroughly re-examine their theories of atonement as made by or through Yehoshua. This essay has attempted to approach this by looking at necessary presuppositions for an understanding of corporate atonement in light of Yehoshua's quotation of Hosea 6:6. For without first having a clear understanding of the relationship of mercy and truth it will not be possible to have a clear understanding of corporate atonement for Israel and for Adam.

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First draft 2008; updated 2011; updated 2018