Tamela Maxim

Rosh Hashanah begins the work and Yom Kippur seals it if you are willing to go deep. One of God’s names on Yom Kippur is Chacham Ha-Razim which means wise to the secrets. God knows everything about you, even your secrets, even things you have forgotten, even things you have lied to yourself about yourself. There is nowhere to hide from God. God wants us to be obedient. Consider Jonah. He took a ship to run away from God and was thrown overboard when a storm threatened to sink the ship if they allowed him to remain. Eventually, Jonah ended up where God wanted him – in Nineveh. Jonah also ended up doing what God wanted and was successful, even though he didn’t want to obey and he didn’t even like it when his preaching to the sinful people in Nineveh caused what God wanted – their true repentance. Jonah didn’t think the people in Nineveh deserved God’s forgiveness. He was angry that God forgave them. Jonah didn’t seem to realize how fortunate he was that God didn’t give up on him or ...