Take THIS 30-Day Challenge to Real and Lasting Change
Where exactly are you in your spiritual journey? Just like any journey we begin, if we don’t take some time to pause and reflect on where we are headed, we may find ourselves completely lost. In today’s podcast episode, host Yael Eckstein walks us through an ancient biblical Jewish practice – one Jesus likely participated in – that happens during the Hebrew month of Elul, which begins this month. During Elul, the Jewish people prepare themselves spiritually for High Holy Days, which begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and concludes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Jews take this yearly 30-day challenge to lay the groundwork for real and lasting change by doing an intense spiritual checkup. As Yael shows us, it takes a full 30 days to connect with God, nourish our souls, and make spiritual changes that last. As we’ll learn, this Jewish version of a “30-day challenge” can set us up for a successful year to come as well as a blessed life ahead. Listen now to this inspirational teaching from Yael.
Episode Notes:
The Bible verses that host Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, focuses on for today’s podcast come from Deuteronomy 21:10-13:
“When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.”
Of course, these laws don’t apply to us in the way that they once did, since we don’t take women captive in war anymore. But God’s Word is eternal, which means that there are still meaningful lessons within these verses that are relevant to our lives today. Yael explores the reason why the 30-day waiting period was necessary from the time a woman was captured to the time that the Israelite soldier could marry her. Why is a month, or 30 days, so important?
As we’ll learn in this episode, true growth is a gradual process – a process that happens over time. You need more than a day or an hour to make meaningful changes. That’s why the Jewish people take the full month of Elul to lay the groundwork for real and lasting change. You can join the Jewish people this month – or whenever you are listening to this – and heed this call.
Learn more about the High Holy Day by visiting our Learning Center.