Printer Version  |  Share This  

As we are heading towards the holy days of Atonement and Feast of Trumpets, we are to look at the scale of repentance God expects from his followers. Tearing one's clothes was the ancient custom (still around in some cultures) that showed great mourning and sorrow about loss or about the realization of a huge transgression. In our modern era, tearing one's clothing has lost its meaning, such as when it is used as a form of vanity like in torn clothing fashions or as a form of faux humility. We need to understand the context of how biblical characters used it to show the correct attitude towards repentance. Examples include the grief of Jacob in Genesis 37 at the loss of Joseph, and the tearing of Paul's clothes in Acts 14 when the people misunderstood the point of his message and ventured into idolatry. Now we are expected to apply the analogy to rending of the heart and striving for genuine humility at the understanding of the amount of how much God contributes compared to the small amount we do and the resulting repentance and change of behavior resulting from that realization.