Commentary: Days of Awe

#1399c
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 23-Sep-17; 12 minutes

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As you have already heard and know by your own knowledge, we are a week away from the Day of Atonement because we just observed the Feast of Trumpets two days ago. Trumpets is observed on the first day of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar, while the Day of Atonement falls on the tenth day of Tishri. We do not usually mark the days between Trumpets and Atonement in any special way, other than the fact that we are getting pretty excited that the Feast [of Tabernacles] is coming up and we are making last-minute plans.

But it is not that way to the most observant Jews. The ten-day period that starts the month of Tishri—from Trumpets to Atonement, or as they would say, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur—is called the “Days of Awe.” In Hebrew, they are called Yamim Noraim. They are also called “days of repentance,” which should give us a good idea about what they are all about. The Jews consider these ten "Days of Awe" to be a time of serious introspection, a time to reflect on their sins over the past year, and to repent before the Day of Atonement.

The Days of Awe, of course (if you know your Bible), are not part of the biblical record. There are no instructions in the Bible to observe these ten days in this manner. You go through an inspection of the Old or even the New Testaments and you will not uncover any commands, any comments, really any hint that we should be doing this sort of thing during this time—not to this extent, especially. But I thought it would be worthwhile to consider the Days of Awe, if only to see a different perspective on the importance and seriousness of the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of the year.

Of course, as with a great deal of Jewish practice, there is a bit (or even more than a bit) of traditional mysticism, or unfounded or unbiblical nonsense, mixed up in their practices. That is true with the Days of Awe, so I would like to get that out of the way first. They Jews believe that God has a book (or books) that He writes our names in. We know there are biblical references to a Book of Life, or a book of the living (as it says in one place), and Jesus even mentions that our names are being written in heaven, and that is what we should be joyful about (see Psalm 69:28; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; and Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15.). All those places have references to some sort of book, whether it is the Book of Life or however it is thus referred to, that God writes our names in. So that part is not nonsensical or unfounded. That part is true.

Here’s the unbiblical part: They believe that God (I guess in a great big heavenly ceremony) opens three books on the Day of Trumpets—the Book of Life, the Book of Death, and (this was s strange one to me) the Book of Intermediates—the book of people somewhere in between. That must be the Book of Pergatory or something. Anyway, when He [allegedly] opens these books on Trumpets, He notes who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a very bad, terrible life, for the next year. So when He does this, He is only looking forward to the next 365 days. Since there are not very many really righteous people, very few names are in the Book of Life. Since only a very few number of people are going to die in the next year, and the evil ones go in the Book of Death. So, most peoples' names go into the Book of Intermediates since they are neither really truly good or incorrigibly evil. They fall somewhere in between, so they go into the Book of Intermediates.

Jews believe that, if a person’s name is in this Book of Intermediates, his or her behavior during the ten Days of Awe can change God’s decree. If you were in the Book of Intermediates, and you do good things in the ten Days of Awe, God will erase your name from the Book of Intermediates and scribble it into the Book of Life. So, they think that if they repent, and pray, and do good deeds during the Days of Awe, before those books are sealed on Yom Kippur (this is what makes the Day of Atonement so important), then all they did in the past year—no matter how horrid their actions may have been—will be wiped clean and the next year will be a good one because God will have put their name in the Book of Life! So, good behavior during these ten days—the first ten days of Tishri—can wash away a world of sin, according to them! Their names will be moved to the Book of Life.

After the ten Days of Awe, because their name have been scribbled into the Book of Life, they can go back to being liars, cheaters, and otherwise horrible people for the next 355 days. All that counts are these ten Days of Awe. Ten days of good conduct will—they believe—wipe out 355 days of horrible conduct. All they need to do is concentrate on these ten days, because if they do it in these ten days their ticket to a good year will be punched. This is just madness!

Ten days of good conduct will not wipe out 355 days of evil, especially when their intent is to get around God’s judgment and to continue their wicked ways as soon as they can. It is this kind of attitude, I'm sad to say, that led to the fall of Jerusalem, both times! They thought they would just do something for a short period of time, or do it half-heartedly or whatever, and God would have to forgive them and they would be right with Him by doing some kind of ritual thing.

But there are some good things that come out of the Days of Awe, two things that I want to highlight, both of which are things we in the church of God normally do before Passover, not necessarily before Atonement:

First, as I mentioned earlier, it is a time of introspection that leads to repentance. The Jews see the Feast of Trumpets as a memorial of judgment upon the wicked, which it is in part. That is certainly part of it. It talks about the Day of the Lord and Christ's coming to bring judgment on those who have opposed Him and His people. Atonement, to them, is the great day God covering sin, which is also true, and God being reconciled to His people. They understand that much. So they understand Trumpets as a wake-up call to remind them that they are under judgment, and that they need to repent before Atonement. This is not wrong. The wrong part is in confining that impulse to these ten days alone. We should have an ongoing understanding of being under judgment all the time, and a year-round attitude of repentance, not to mention having deep gratitude for what Christ has done for us. So, it should not be confined to these ten days.

Second, it is customary for Jews to seek reconciliation with those they have wronged in the past year. The Jewish reason for this is that they believe—this is interesting—that Yom Kippur atones only for those sins that are between man and God, not those between people. They do not seem to understand the concept that all sins are against God, whether they are aimed at Him or whether they are aimed at somebody else. But their instinct to endeavor to right the wrongs they have caused in the past year is correct. Again, we should not restrict our attempts to live harmoniously with others to just ten days a year. That is rather hypocritical. It is something that we should be doing constantly. But maybe it is good to be reminded during this time of year.

While the Days of Awe may seem profound to some people—and they seem to be profound to those in the church of God who lean toward the Jewish Roots movement—they are not biblical. They are not inspired by God. At their best, they highlight repentance and reconciliation, which are very good. But the Days of Awe, at their worst, limit these good behaviors to just ten days, and the rest of the time, people can do as they please. As the called members of God's church, every day of being a child of God should be a day of awe, that He has chosen us to be among the firstfruits of His Family. And what a privilege that is.

RTR/aws/dcg