{"id":3249,"date":"2013-06-13T22:55:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T22:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2013-06-13T22:55:52","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T22:55:52","slug":"jewish-teshuvah-and-mesa-az-irs-tax-lien-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/jewish-teshuvah-and-mesa-az-irs-tax-lien-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Teshuvah and Mesa AZ IRS Tax lien Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
We all make mistakes and one of the hardest things is to forgive ourselves. \u00a0Making amends for mistakes and moving forward is explained beautifully with the Jewish belief in Teshuvah or repentance. \u00a0Hopefully this subject matter is not so much about a religion as it is about resolving past mistakes. \u00a0IRS tax lien problems in Mesa AZ are serious but with proper professional assistance, it is a \u00a0matter that can be resolved and settled. \u00a0Call Scott Allen E.A. for a free initial consultation regarding your Mesa AZ IRS tax lien problem today at 480-926-9300. \u00a0He offers a free initial consultation and will make that day a great day for you.<\/div>\n

And now you can learn a little about Jewish Teshuvah<\/p>\n

Jewish Teshuvah (Repentance)<\/div>\n

Repentance to the Jew is called teshuvah. \u00a0 Teshuvah literally means \u201cto return\u201d or \u201cto respond.\u201d \u00a0To return to a place you have been to or to respond to someone who had been speaking to you. \u00a0 In Rabbinic Judaism, the idea of repentance or teshuvah is the central concept of Rabbinic Judaism, because Rabbinic Judaism emerges after the Second Temple has been destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD. \u00a0One of the primary functions of the Temple was to achieve atonement for one\u2019s sins by bringing an animal sacrifice to the priest and the priest would serve as an intermediary and the priest would slit the throat of the animal. \u00a0Then you would pledge not to do whatever you had done before\u2014but it was that animal sacrifice that effected atonement.<\/p>\n

Once the Temple had been destroyed, the location for atonement no longer existed. \u00a0So how do you get clean? \u00a0How do you get pure before God from those transgressions that we all commit? \u00a0The idea of teshuvah becomes absolutely central in the Rabbinic mind and in Rabbinic religion.<\/div>\n
Teshuvah\u2014return or responding is the idea of returning to be in a right relationship with God and responding to God\u2019s call for us to heed the divine commandments that were revealed at Mount Sinai. \u00a0These commandments subsequently went through a process of interpretation that was passed down by the Pharisees and the scribes and finally re-interpreted by the Rabbis.<\/div>\n
The Rabbis say that teshuvah preceded creation. \u00a0In other words, the world could not exist without some way for the people that inhabit this world to rectify their transgressions, or feel as though they are now back again in a right relationship with God. \u00a0So before even creation, the world could not exist without teshuvah.<\/div>\n
Repentance preceded creation because whenever we inevitably falter or stumble, we need a way to right ourselves and a method to accomplish this. \u00a0Jews believe that God wants us to right ourselves by doing teshuvah.<\/div>\n
The noun form teshuvah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, only the verb. \u00a0Jews believe that the primary biblical character to exhibit the characteristics of teshuvah \u00a0was King David. \u00a0King David had an affair with Batsheva. \u00a0He sees her from his rooftop. \u00a0Batsheva\u2019s husband is away at war. \u00a0He has Batsheva brought into his house where they engage in sexual relations which is a capital crime. \u00a0It is adultery because she is a married woman. \u00a0She gets pregnant and has a child that ends up dying as a punishment for Batsheva and King David.<\/div>\n
King David is confronted with what he has done by Nathan his prophet. \u00a0All the kings had prophets. \u00a0Back then prophets tell the king what the king needs to hear in order to keep him on the straight and narrow. \u00a0So when Nathan challenges King David\u2019s behavior with Batsheva, King David immediately confesses, \u201cI stand guilty before the LORD.\u201d \u00a0He took responsibility for his actions and regretted what he had done. \u00a0To the Jews, David is the model of teshuvah. \u00a0King David is the ancestor of the Messiah. \u00a0The Messiah is going to be part of that lineage. \u00a0So here in the Hebrew Bible, there is a connection between teshuvah and redemption\u2014redemption that only the Messiah can bring.<\/div>\n
Leviticus 4 and 5 contain lots of examples of different kinds of sacrifices that the person who has transgressed is responsible for bringing to the priest. \u00a0In Leviticus it is not the Temple that the sacrifices are brought to, but the Tabernacle or forerunner of the Temple. \u00a0The Tabernacle is a portable Temple that the Israelites used in the desert. \u00a0Later on one would go to the temple in Jerusalem and bring an animal sacrifice.<\/div>\n
The right religious behavior was a required element of teshuvah. \u00a0It was not enough to just bring the animal to be sacrificed. \u00a0If you brought them with dirty hands, then that was not good teshuvah. \u00a0You had to still bring the animal sacrifice, but you also had to change your evil ways. \u00a0When we move into the Rabbinic period, the question then becomes \u201cWhat do we do? \u00a0We can change our evil ways, but we can not bring back animal sacrifice because we no longer have a temple. \u00a0The early Jewish Christians answered that problem of not having the Temple anymore through the vicarious atonement of Christ, who died on behalf of their sins. \u00a0That was not available to the Rabbinic Jews.<\/div>\n

Let me read to you from Moses Maimonides. \u00a0He summarized Rabbinic Judaism\u2019s approach towards teshuvah when he said the following:<\/p>\n

At the present time, when the Temple no longer exists and we have no altar for atonement, nothing is left but teshuvah. \u00a0Teshuvah atones for all transgressions.<\/div>\n
\u201cTeshuvah atones for all transgressions.\u201d \u00a0In Rabbinic Judaism there are two different kinds of transgressions. \u00a0You have those between me and other human beings. \u00a0And you have transgressions between me and God where other human beings are not involved. \u00a0The Mishnah writings from the first, second and third century of the Common Era which was after the destruction of the Second Temple says that when you harm someone, you need to make restitution, in order to effect teshuvah that involves a transgression with another person\u2014YOU CAN NOT JUST SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO TESHUVAH. \u00a0If you have wronged someone, you need to apologize. \u00a0If you have stolen from someone you need to restore their lost property. \u00a0In other words, you need to provide restitution for the transgression so that no one else is holding on to bad feelings.<\/div>\n
The Rabbis developed this idea of teshuvah. \u00a0The Rabbis distinguished teshuvah from fear and teshuvah through love\u2014love of God and wanting to do right, as opposed to fear of punishment in the afterlife.<\/div>\n
What the idea of teshuvah is for the Rabbis, is not necessarily or not primarily<\/div>\n
a return to God, as we saw in the Hebrew Bible, but a return to God\u2019s will as expressed through Jewish law. \u00a0So there are specific lists of things that we are not supposed to do and specific lists of things that we are supposed to do. \u00a0When we violate either of those lists, whether it refers to God or refers to other human beings, in order to do teshuvah we must right our ways. \u00a0It is about deeds, rather than about devotional posturing or piety in God\u2019s presence.<\/div>\n
Once the Temple was destroyed, it was no longer about being in God\u2019s presence. \u00a0The Temple was God\u2019s address, but for Rabbinic Judaism it is more about following God\u2019s ways or following God\u2019s will. \u00a0The emphasis is on deeds and what people should be doing to maintain themselves in a right relationship with God.<\/div>\n
One of the statements in the Talmud about the power of teshuvah is as follows:<\/div>\n
Where a b\u2019al teshuvah (one who is engaged in teshuvah) stands, a totally righteous person [who has not transgressed] cannot stand.<\/div>\n
I can not stand there because what the b\u2019 al teshuvah has gone through, someone who has never succumbed to temptation can not possibly know. \u00a0The person who is completely righteous and who has never transgressed does not know the exhilarating thrill of giving in to sin or evil, whether it is to women or men or drugs or any other vice, there is a kind of pleasure to it. \u00a0If the person who is completely righteous has not experience that temptation, then, according to the Talmud, they are on a lower level. \u00a0The person who has experienced that temptation and is strong enough to know that thrill and to overcome it, and manifest self-restraint and self-control\u2014for the Rabbis, they are at a higher level.<\/div>\n
Another statement of the Talmud, by Resh Lakish, is that \u201cteshuvah is so great that premeditated transgressions are accounted in the great ledger of your deeds as though they were merits,\u201d that premeditated sins in the past, once that person has done teshuvah, are accounted as though they were merits.<\/div>\n
This doctrine is transformative in that a person who has gone through the process of teshuvah can help others benefit from that experience. \u00a0Not only am I stronger, but I can help other people who have not yet gone through the process of teshuvah. \u00a0I can shepherd them through the process, because I have more credibility in their eyes than the person who has never transgressed.<\/div>\n
It is like someone who was arrested for breaking into a car. \u00a0He goes through the prison system and he repents. \u00a0He atones. \u00a0Then he becomes a locksmith and helps the auto industry figure out ways to make more ingenious locks that can not be picked. \u00a0He is helping other people in a roundabout sort of way by making it less likely they will break into a car.<\/div>\n
One of the greatest religious thinkers of the 20th century, Rav Joseph Baer Soloveitchik, said that \u201cTeshuvah is an act of creation, of self-creation.\u201d \u00a0Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist, said a similar thing: \u201cthat your future is virgin.\u201d \u00a0Your future deeds should not be predicated on your past deeds. \u00a0You always have an opportunity to recreate yourself. \u00a0Haven\u2019t we all moved to a new area or a new job where no one knows the problems of our past and felt that we could have a fresh start from the ground up. \u00a0That is the idea of recreating yourself. \u00a0So often we get stuck in a rut and do not take advantage of the principle of recreation. \u00a0As a non Jew I can say without reservation that too many of my fellow Christians who sin become so weighed down with guilt and remorse that they never recover.<\/div>\n
During medieval times Jews observed a code of law by Moses Maimonides. \u00a0He asks the question, \u201cWhat defines teshuvah?\u201d \u00a0His answer:<\/div>\n
When the straying one leaves his error and removes it from his thoughts, and resolves in his heart never to repeat it\u2026and he regrets it\u2026He needs to make oral confession and say that these matters are finished from his heart.<\/div>\n
To Jews it is important that it is done orally. \u00a0They feel a need to hear themselves say it for it to have maximum impact. \u00a0It is not just about thinking, but it is also saying it out loud. \u00a0It does not have to be an oral confession to someone else. \u00a0God created the world through his speech according to Genesis 1. \u00a0For the Rabbinic tradition, words are very powerful. \u00a0We need to hear those words that we are leaving this forever.<\/div>\n
Many early Zionists believed in the notion of return (teshuvah) to the Land of Israel as part of teshuvah. \u00a0Joni Mitchell, a popular singer put it this way in one of her songs:<\/div>\n
We are stardust.<\/div>\n
We are golden<\/div>\n
And we have to get ourselves back to the garden<\/div>\n
We are stardust.<\/div>\n
We are golden<\/div>\n
And we have to get ourselves back to the garden<\/div>\n
Is it the garden of goodness? \u00a0Is it the Garden of Eden? Is it the garden of teshuvah? \u00a0Or is it the garden of Palestine? \u00a0I believe she is referring to all of them.<\/div>\n

Jewish Teshuvah and IRS Problems
\nWe all make mistakes and one of the hardest things is to forgive ourselves. \u00a0Making amends for mistakes and moving forward is explained beautifully with the Jewish belief in Teshuvah or repentance. \u00a0Hopefully this subject matter is not so much about a religion as it is about resolving past mistakes. \u00a0IRS problems are serious but with proper professional assistance, it is a \u00a0matter that can be resolved and settled. \u00a0Call Scott Allen E.A. for a free initial consultation regarding your IRS problem today at 480-926-9300. \u00a0He offers a free initial consultation and will make that day a great day for you.
\nAnd now you can learn a little about Jewish Teshuvah
\nJewish Teshuvah (Repentance)
\nRepentance to the Jew is called teshuvah. \u00a0 Teshuvah literally means \u201cto return\u201d or \u201cto respond.\u201d \u00a0To return to a place you have been to or to respond to someone who had been speaking to you. \u00a0 In Rabbinic Judaism, the idea of repentance or teshuvah is the central concept of Rabbinic Judaism, because Rabbinic Judaism emerges after the Second Temple has been destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD. \u00a0One of the primary functions of the Temple was to achieve atonement for one\u2019s sins by bringing an animal sacrifice to the priest and the priest would serve as an intermediary and the priest would slit the throat of the animal. \u00a0Then you would pledge not to do whatever you had done before\u2014but it was that animal sacrifice that effected atonement.
\nOnce the Temple had been destroyed, the location for atonement no longer existed. \u00a0So how do you get clean? \u00a0How do you get pure before God from those transgressions that we all commit? \u00a0The idea of teshuvah becomes absolutely central in the Rabbinic mind and in Rabbinic religion.
\nTeshuvah\u2014return or responding is the idea of returning to be in a right relationship with God and responding to God\u2019s call for us to heed the divine commandments that were revealed at Mount Sinai. \u00a0These commandments subsequently went through a process of interpretation that was passed down by the Pharisees and the scribes and finally re-interpreted by the Rabbis.
\nThe Rabbis say that teshuvah preceded creation. \u00a0In other words, the world could not exist without some way for the people that inhabit this world to rectify their transgressions, or feel as though they are now back again in a right relationship with God. \u00a0So before even creation, the world could not exist without teshuvah. \u00a0Repentance preceded creation because whenever we inevitably falter or stumble, we need a way to right ourselves and a method to accomplish this. \u00a0Jews believe that God wants us to right ourselves by doing teshuvah.
\nThe noun form teshuvah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, only the verb. \u00a0Jews believe that the primary biblical character to exhibit the characteristics of teshuvah \u00a0was King David. \u00a0King David had an affair with Batsheva. \u00a0He sees her from his rooftop. \u00a0Batsheva\u2019s husband is away at war. \u00a0He has Batsheva brought into his house where they engage in sexual relations which is a capital crime. \u00a0It is adultery because she is a married woman. \u00a0She gets pregnant and has a child that ends up dying as a punishment for Batsheva and King David.
\nKing David is confronted with what he has done by Nathan his prophet. \u00a0All the kings had prophets. \u00a0Back then prophets tell the king what the king needs to hear in order to keep him on the straight and narrow. \u00a0So when Nathan challenges King David\u2019s behavior with Batsheva, King David immediately confesses, \u201cI stand guilty before the LORD.\u201d \u00a0He took responsibility for his actions and regretted what he had done. \u00a0To the Jews, David is the model of teshuvah. \u00a0King David is the ancestor of the Messiah. \u00a0The Messiah is going to be part of that lineage. \u00a0So here in the Hebrew Bible, there is a connection between teshuvah and redemption\u2014redemption that only the Messiah can bring.
\nLeviticus 4 and 5 contain lots of examples of different kinds of sacrifices that the person who has transgressed is responsible for bringing to the priest. \u00a0In Leviticus it is not the Temple that the sacrifices are brought to, but the Tabernacle or forerunner of the Temple. \u00a0The Tabernacle is a portable Temple that the Israelites used in the desert. \u00a0Later on one would go to the temple in Jerusalem and bring an animal sacrifice.
\nThe right religious behavior was a required element of teshuvah. \u00a0It was not enough to just bring the animal to be sacrificed. \u00a0If you brought them with dirty hands, then that was not good teshuvah. \u00a0You had to still bring the animal sacrifice, but you also had to change your evil ways. \u00a0When we move into the Rabbinic period, the question then becomes \u201cWhat do we do? \u00a0We can change our evil ways, but we can not bring back animal sacrifice because we no longer have a temple. \u00a0The early Jewish Christians answered that problem of not having the Temple anymore through the vicarious atonement of Christ, who died on behalf of their sins. \u00a0That was not available to the Rabbinic Jews.
\nLet me read to you from Moses Maimonides. \u00a0He summarized Rabbinic Judaism\u2019s approach towards teshuvah when he said the following:
\nAt the present time, when the Temple no longer exists and we have no altar for atonement, nothing is left but teshuvah. \u00a0Teshuvah atones for all transgressions.
\n\u201cTeshuvah atones for all transgressions.\u201d \u00a0In Rabbinic Judaism there are two different kinds of transgressions. \u00a0You have those between me and other human beings. \u00a0And you have transgressions between me and God where other human beings are not involved. \u00a0The Mishnah writings from the first, second and third century of the Common Era which was after the destruction of the Second Temple says that when you harm someone, you need to make restitution, in order to effect teshuvah that involves a transgression with another person\u2014YOU CAN NOT JUST SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO TESHUVAH. \u00a0If you have wronged someone, you need to apologize. \u00a0If you have stolen from someone you need to restore their lost property. \u00a0In other words, you need to provide restitution for the transgression so that no one else is holding on to bad feelings.
\nThe Rabbis developed this idea of teshuvah. \u00a0The Rabbis distinguished teshuvah from fear and teshuvah through love\u2014love of God and wanting to do right, as opposed to fear of punishment in the afterlife.
\nWhat the idea of teshuvah is for the Rabbis, is not necessarily or not primarilya return to God, as we saw in the Hebrew Bible, but a return to God\u2019s will as expressed through Jewish law. \u00a0So there are specific lists of things that we are not supposed to do and specific lists of things that we are supposed to do. \u00a0When we violate either of those lists, whether it refers to God or refers to other human beings, in order to do teshuvah we must right our ways. \u00a0It is about deeds, rather than about devotional posturing or piety in God\u2019s presence.
\nOnce the Temple was destroyed, it was no longer about being in God\u2019s presence. \u00a0The Temple was God\u2019s address, but for Rabbinic Judaism it is more about following God\u2019s ways or following God\u2019s will. \u00a0The emphasis is on deeds and what people should be doing to maintain themselves in a right relationship with God.
\nOne of the statements in the Talmud about the power of teshuvah is as follows:
\nWhere a b\u2019al teshuvah (one who is engaged in teshuvah) stands, a totally righteous person [who has not transgressed] cannot stand.
\nI can not stand there because what the b\u2019 al teshuvah has gone through, someone who has never succumbed to temptation can not possibly know. \u00a0The person who is completely righteous and who has never transgressed does not know the exhilarating thrill of giving in to sin or evil, whether it is to women or men or drugs or any other vice, there is a kind of pleasure to it. \u00a0If the person who is completely righteous has not experience that temptation, then, according to the Talmud, they are on a lower level. \u00a0The person who has experienced that temptation and is strong enough to know that thrill and to overcome it, and manifest self-restraint and self-control\u2014for the Rabbis, they are at a higher level.
\nAnother statement of the Talmud, by Resh Lakish, is that \u201cteshuvah is so great that premeditated transgressions are accounted in the great ledger of your deeds as though they were merits,\u201d that premeditated sins in the past, once that person has done teshuvah, are accounted as though they were merits.
\nThis doctrine is transformative in that a person who has gone through the process of teshuvah can help others benefit from that experience. \u00a0Not only am I stronger, but I can help other people who have not yet gone through the process of teshuvah. \u00a0I can shepherd them through the process, because I have more credibility in their eyes than the person who has never transgressed.
\nIt is like someone who was arrested for breaking into a car. \u00a0He goes through the prison system and he repents. \u00a0He atones. \u00a0Then he becomes a locksmith and helps the auto industry figure out ways to make more ingenious locks that can not be picked. \u00a0He is helping other people in a roundabout sort of way by making it less likely they will break into a car.
\nOne of the greatest religious thinkers of the 20th century, Rav Joseph Baer Soloveitchik, said that \u201cTeshuvah is an act of creation, of self-creation.\u201d \u00a0Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist, said a similar thing: \u201cthat your future is virgin.\u201d \u00a0Your future deeds should not be predicated on your past deeds. \u00a0You always have an opportunity to recreate yourself. \u00a0Haven\u2019t we all moved to a new area or a new job where no one knows the problems of our past and felt that we could have a fresh start from the ground up. \u00a0That is the idea of recreating yourself. \u00a0So often we get stuck in a rut and do not take advantage of the principle of recreation. \u00a0As a non Jew I can say without reservation that too many of my fellow Christians who sin become so weighed down with guilt and remorse that they never recover.
\nDuring medieval times Jews observed a code of law by Moses Maimonides. \u00a0He asks the question, \u201cWhat defines teshuvah?\u201d \u00a0His answer:
\nWhen the straying one leaves his error and removes it from his thoughts, and resolves in his heart never to repeat it\u2026and he regrets it\u2026He needs to make oral confession and say that these matters are finished from his heart.
\nTo Jews it is important that it is done orally. \u00a0They feel a need to hear themselves say it for it to have maximum impact. \u00a0It is not just about thinking, but it is also saying it out loud. \u00a0It does not have to be an oral confession to someone else. \u00a0God created the world through his speech according to Genesis 1. \u00a0For the Rabbinic tradition, words are very powerful. \u00a0We need to hear those words that we are leaving this forever.
\nMany early Zionists believed in the notion of return (teshuvah) to the Land of Israel as part of teshuvah. \u00a0Joni Mitchell, a popular singer put it this way in one of her songs:
\nWe are stardust.We are goldenAnd we have to get ourselves back to the garden
\nWe are stardust.We are goldenAnd we have to get ourselves back to the garden
\nIs it the garden of goodness? \u00a0Is it the Garden of Eden? Is it the garden of teshuvah? \u00a0Or is it the garden of Palestine? \u00a0I believe she is referring to all of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all make mistakes and one of the hardest things is to forgive ourselves. \u00a0Making amends for mistakes and moving forward is explained beautifully with the Jewish belief in Teshuvah or repentance. \u00a0Hopefully this subject matter is not so much about a religion as it is about resolving past mistakes. \u00a0IRS tax lien problems in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,67],"tags":[86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}