Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Psalms 51:19: “True sacrifice to God are broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O’God, you will not despise.”
The word for sacrifice is zivechi. This is an amazing word. The sages formed this word with a combination of zayin, beth and chet. In it’s prime state it represents an involvement with God through a struggle in your heart which ends with being bonded to God. Simply put, it is making a choice for God over something that is very important to you. That choice may result in a broken spirit. The word broken is shavar which is a breaking like waves breaking against a rock. Once that powerful wave hits a rock, it’s force and fury ends, it is contrite. Spirit here is ruach. Ruach is often referred to as the Spirit of God, but when used in reference to man, it reverts to it’s prime state representing pleasurable smells, touch, that which feels joy and delights in. The drive to experience pleasure can be like a forceful wave. Ever try to go on a diet and you just begin to lust after rich, fatty, foods. Oh, to just enjoy that moment of pleasure of biting into a Big Mac. This mighty wave of pleasure in you, this ruach driving you to that driveout window, suddenly strikes the rock of Jesus Christ and is broken like a wave against the Rock. Like a wave breaking against a rock your desire for that Big Mac becomes contrite. Such a thought gives new light on the idea of fasting.
But soft, there is more. God will not despise (bazah) or condemn a heart that is shavar or contrite. Some people think that in the midst of sorrow, or suffering you must stand up, declare victory, walk with your head high, while inside your heart is shavar and dekah (broken into pieces). I have heard of churches which disassociate themselves from people who go through a divorce, or an illness that is not healed. They avoid those who are not walking in “victory,” It is said that the Christians are the only ones who shoot their wounded. But God promises that he will not condemn you. For to him it is a true sacrifice. In the Gematra, the numerical value of sacrifice, zivech, is 17 which is the number for victory. Victory is pretending you do not have a broken heart, not pretending that you are happy when everything in you cries out in pain. Victory is when you allow that wave of suffering, pain, and torment to strike against the Rock of Jesus.
The Talmud teaches on Leviticus 6:21 in Pesachim 30b: “If only the heart were a vessel of copper, that requires scrubbing and rinsing to become pure. For, unfortunately, an earthenware vessel does not release its impurities and must be broken.”
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