 The title of this lecture is Amazing Grace. Is it Jewish? And what I would like to do tonight is to give a brief background to the famous Christian hymn, Amazing Grace, and then look at the doctrine of grace in Christianity, and then look at the Jewish perspective of grace. You see, last week we discussed the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, pointing out that this was probably the biggest difference between Judaism and Christianity. This week we'll be looking at an issue which may in and of itself not be a major difference. However, the implications of the differences that exist between the Jewish view of grace and the Christian view of grace may have far-reaching implications. So I'd like to start with the following episode as described by a famous and prolific Christian author. His name is Philip Yancey, and it's in your first reference in your source sheets. So it reads as follows, During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation, other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection, again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. What's the rumpus about? He asked and heard and replied that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, oh, that's easy. It's grace. After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. So what we see from this is that from a Christian perspective, the issue of grace would be considered to be among the major differences that set Christianity apart from all other religions. And what's important for our discussion tonight, it set it apart from Judaism. So let's start with a brief background on John Newton, who is the author, the British author of this hymn, Amazing Grace. So John Newton was an Anglican clergyman who lived from 1725 to 1807. His father was a Catholic and his mother was a Puritan. However, she died of tuberculosis two weeks before his seventh birthday. His father came back from sea and very shortly after that remarried. He married this Italian woman and she was a very emotionally distant woman. And that's the way John Newton grew at. At the age of 11, he joined his father on a ship as an apprentice. And he joined the navy, then he deserted the navy. We're not going to get into all of it. But the bottom line is that Newton became involved in the Atlantic slave trade and he really stooped very low. He became a drunk, he was depraved, a morally decadent man. Now, without going into all the details of how depraved he was, he ultimately came to a point in his life where he decided upon making a change. What happened? In 1748, there was a violent storm which battered his ship so severely that he actually witnessed a wave come on deck sweeping away one of the members on deck and that man was never seen again. And they tried everything and it seemed like to be a hopeless situation. They felt that they were all going to die in that storm. Out of desperation, Newton called out to God and said, Lord have mercy, praying to God for the first time that God should help them and save them from this disaster. Miraculously, the ship was saved and they made it back to dry land. Now, Newton didn't radically change his life at that point. However, he did start to read his Bible and he started to make gradual changes in his life. He continued his slave trading career until around 1754 or 1755 when he decided to stop going out to sea altogether and he decided to start studying Christian theology. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and he became the parish priest of a place called Olney. It's about 60 miles from London and he started to write different hymns. Now, just a side issue about this John Newton to understand how his life completely changed and how he became a force for good. It's claimed that Newton was somebody who influenced a young man named William Wilberforce, the British member of parliament who led the parliament campaign to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire, which culminated in the slave trade act of 1807 and this was largely due to the influence of John Newton. And so this radical change in his life is something that was lived out by the way he chose to live his life for the rest of the duration of his life. And what happened was before New Year's Day of 1773, so this is in December 1772, he was trying to find a way of expressing what he wanted to deliver in a sermon on New Year's Day and he did it by writing this hymn, by writing Amazing Grace and what was it about? Basically what he wanted to do is he wanted to communicate to his parishioners something about his own life, something about how he would be able to demonstrate to them what he was talking about by writing about his own life. And so when you look at Amazing Grace, what you'll find is it's really a description of what happened to him and what it's based on is a passage in the Jewish Scriptures. It's based on a passage in 1 Chronicles chapter 17 where King David has his reaction to what he hears from the prophet Nathan. The prophet Nathan promises him that God will establish his line forever through Solomon and David feels very humbled by it and King David says, who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me this far? In other words, I was nothing. I'm really not deserving of everything that you've done for me. And so what John Newton really wanted to inspire within his parish is he wanted people to start thinking about where were you when God found you? What state were you in? And his answer to that was I was a wretch. That's where God found me. I was a wretch. And that's how we get to the song Amazing Grace. So you find in your source sheets, I put the song Amazing Grace or read it out, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. So again, this is Newton speaking over here. I once was lost, but now I'm found. This is like from the Prodigal Son, the story in the Book of Luke. It was blind, but now I see this whole notion of somebody who comes from so far and yet is brought so close. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. Again, why did this whole storm happen? It was God's grace in Newton's mind that ultimately got him to recognize that it was a wake-up call to call out to God. And grace, my fears, relieved. And it was because of God's grace that ultimately the storm subsided and he put his faith and trust in God. How precious did grace appear? The hour I first believed. In other words, he's going back to that first moment in his conversion. Through many dangers, tolls and stairs, we have already come. It was grace that brought us safe thus far and grace will lead us home. That's basically the gist of the song and that's basically the background of the story. Now, it's claimed that this song is sung around 10 million times a year. Okay, that's pretty big. And so that's where the song Amazing Grace comes from. But now what I'd like to do is to move on to the doctrine of grace. And what I want to just point out here is that there's more than one view in Christianity of grace. And I'm going to be speaking from one perspective within the Christian denominations, basically conservative Protestant evangelical Christianity. That's the perspective that I'm going to be speaking on when I speak about grace. So let's start with the definition of grace within this context. What does grace actually mean? So grace means unmerited favor, which means to say it's what God does for a person, even though that person is not earned that favor. Okay, does that make sense? In one of the most theologically important books in the New Testament, in the book of Romans, Paul lays out his understanding of God's grace as it relates to justification or salvation. And Paul explains that by the deeds of the law, meaning abiding by the commandments of the Torah, no man will be justified in Hashem's sight, in God's sight. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is in the book of Romans, right? According to Paul, the wages of sin is death, which that means separation from God for eternity. And so Paul explains that it's only by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus, whom God set forth as propitiation by his blood through faith, that one can actually be saved. What does that mean? What that means is that according to Paul, and his understanding of the world, through the sin of Adam, all of mankind fell. And now we're a fallen race. And because we're a fallen race, and because we're imperfect, and because everybody sins, there's no way we could possibly come into the presence of God. And so what we're left with is this problem that we are going to be forever separated from God. However, God wants to have a relationship with us. God wants to connect with us. And the problem is sin. The problem is our corruptness. So God in his infinite grace and kindness provided us with an atonement. And through that atonement, we are now able to come into God's presence, because now we have been imputed righteousness, and we are justified in God's eyes. And so now we can have this relationship with God. That's basically Paul's understanding of God's plan for this world, that this is how we were going to deal with the issue of sin. Paul sums it up, and you see this in the third reference on your source sheets, in Romans chapter 3 verse 28. He says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from deeds of the law. In other words, it's an act of divine grace that while all humans are sinners, they are still able to be justified before God and be in right standing with Him, not because of what they've done, not because you did an extra good deed, not because you prayed hard, not because of anything like that, but rather because of what God has done by offering His Son Jesus on the cross. That's how we understand it. That's how we understand grace, and that's how we understand justification. And so what comes out is that there's absolutely nothing that you could possibly do to save yourself from God's judgment or make yourself acceptable to Him, right? It's Jesus and His atoning blood sacrifice that is your only hope. All that's required from your part is to have faith in the provision made by God. That's Paul's understanding. Now, he goes so far as to say in the book of Galatians, and this is in your fourth source, Galatians chapter 5 verse 4, you have become estranged from Christ, that's the Messiah, you who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. In other words, what happened was there were many non-Jewish believers that came to faith in the message of the gospel, of the good news, of Jesus, etc., and they had people telling them that if you really wanted to find favor in God's eyes, what you need to do is you need to start observing the law. You need to be circumcised, you need to keep Shabbos, the Sabbath, the Cossian Dietary Laws, etc., and Paul was extremely upset because this goes counter to everything that he stands for, this goes counter to everything that he's been teaching. And so he writes to the Galatians basically admonishing them not to go back to the law of Moses to try and find justification. On the contrary, if you do that, then ultimately what you're saying is that you don't need Jesus, you don't need his atonic sacrifice, and therefore what you're doing is you are falling away from grace, you no longer see it as grace. Paul actually writes elsewhere that when you think about it, when a person works for something, right, then anything you receive for that work is not grace, it's not a gift, it's paying off a debt. I owe you, so if you come to work in the morning and I pay you your paycheck, right, I'm not giving you a gift, I'm paying what I owe you. And Paul's message is no, this was a gift of grace, so you can't earn it, right. This idea is confirmed in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, and Ephesians, there's also an explanation given. In other words, why is it so important to recognize that this is a gift and nothing to do with anything that you've done? So you see this in your fifth reference, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. In other words, if you were to assume and believe that you were saved because of something that you've done, so that would be a cause for you to boast and say, hey, look at me, I worked hard, I achieved, and that's why I'm saved. And this is exactly what Paul didn't want and this is exactly what he's trying to fight against. However, it's important to point out that from a Christian perspective, grace doesn't stop there. It's not as if grace, the death of Jesus, just stops by putting you into a right standing with God. In fact, it becomes the enabler for you to do good things, to live in the Spirit, as it's called in the New Testament. How does one live in the Spirit? How does one go about living in accordance with the way Paul expects them to live, the way Jesus had told them to live? The only way to do it is by God's grace working in you. It's God working in you, it's not you working yourself, it's God working in you. And that's the notion of grace in Christianity. Now, I want to read to you from a popular charismatic Christian pastor. His name is Joseph Prince. This is in your sixth reference. Listen to what he has to say. When you think, here he's trying to explain what grace is and how to understand it. When you think that it is by your efforts and obedience that you receive God's blessings, you become like the Pharisees. They believed that their lawkeeping justified them and ensured that God would bless them. But the truth is that when you believe like them, he's quoting from Paul, you have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace. This means that you are cut off from Christ, who is your salvation, redeemer, healer and provider. Christ has become of no effect to you. In other words, the Messiah and the blood of the Messiah and so on and so forth has become of no effect. And this is what Joseph Prince says. Now, you need to understand that it's not Joseph Prince alone who views the Pharisees, but by extension all of Judaism as being super legalistic and very dependent on our works in order to be able to be blessed by God. That's the way many Christians view Judaism and our view of our salvation, how we will be saved, how we will be blessed. Often people see people within the Jewish community so committed to following God's commandments to the T, to every letter of the law that they believe that these Jews are doing that because they hope to find favor in God's eyes through performing these commandments. The question we need to ask ourselves for tonight is, is this true? Is that really how we view it? Do we believe that we are justified by our good deeds? And how do we view our blessings in our lives? In order to be able to explain this, I want to read to you a couple of passages from the Jewish Scriptures which will really put things into perspective. Now, most people who take this view of Judaism often have never opened up a Jewish Sidor, a Jewish prayer book. They've never looked at some of the prayers that we pray daily to God. For had they opened up the Sidor, had they opened up the prayer book and had they read some of the prayers that we recite daily, they would recognize that there's absolutely no truth to any of this. That's not how we view our salvation. That's not how we view our blessings, et cetera, et cetera. Now, let's start with the seventh reference you have. It's from the first book of Chronicles chapter 29, starting verse 10. This is something that we read every day in our dawning. I remember in school we had a teacher and we were young and so you could fool us. And so he says there's a special passage that we read every day. It's the story about the binding of Isaac. So he asked all of us in class, he says, who knows which day of the year we don't read this? And so we're sitting there and one guy says Yom Kippur, the other guy says Tish Abab, and everybody's trying to guess, you know, the 9th of April, which is a very sad day, and Yom Kippur, the day of Atomuch, it's a very special day. And he's sitting there smiling and he says, no, the day you don't say it is the day you don't pray. So the day we don't say this is the day we don't pray. We pray this every day. Before David blessed the Lord before all the assembly and David said, blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, O God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. Before who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly at this, as this. For all things come from you and of your own, we have given you. What's the context of this passage? The context is where the Jewish people are coming and they're offering up gold and silver and all these kinds of special things for the building of God's temple. And one could think that a person would walk away saying, look how much I donated to the temple. It's such a great thing. David comes to warn against that and he says everything belongs to God and everything that we give is all from your hand. In other words, how do we perceive our contribution to society, our contribution to the community, our contribution to God. We see it all as coming from God. These are all gifts that God has given us and nothing that we do or anything that we give is our own. It's all from God. You have spiritual talents that are given to you by God. You have riches, you have wealth. It's all given to you by God. There's nothing that we earned on our own. So there's nothing really to boast about, right? On the contrary, notwithstanding everything that we do according to what God has commanded us to do, nevertheless, if you look at your eighth reference, we say to God and we plead with God in Psalm 143 verse 2, do not enter into strict judgment with your servant for no living being will be vindicated before you. In other words, we all recognize our frailties. We all recognize our imperfections and we recognize that if God were to throw the book at us, no one would make it out alive, right? If God were to have strict judgment, there's no way. And therefore, we continuously ask God for his mercy. We recognize something which is so beautifully summed up in Psalm 103, which is in your ninth reference. We read in Psalm 103 verse 10, he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west so far, has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our nature, he remembers that we are dust. Frail man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he sprouts, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them. What is this telling us? What this is telling us is that we know our place, we know who we are, we're not trying to fool ourselves or fool God, we know that we are frail and we recognize that if God has not brought down judgment upon us for something that we've done, it's because of his grace, his long-suffering, his patience and his mercy that God has upon us every day, like a father has mercy on his children. However, at the same time, we recognize that notwithstanding God's grace, it doesn't let us off the hook. We are still obligated to live our lives in obedience to God and that's what we read over here in Psalm 103, that yes, God is merciful, God is kind and God doesn't punish us according to our deeds. He removes our sins from us, but at the same time, who does he do this for? He does it for those who fear him and those who remember his commandments to do them. Another thing we read every day in Davening, it's right at the beginning of our prayers. This is referenced from the book of Daniel chapter 9. We quote from it and we say, for we do not pour out our supplication before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great compassion. What does that mean? This is verse 18. What does this mean? It means that we view everything in this world as an expression of God's grace, right? We don't see anything that happens to us as something that we have earned, something that we have done, we've been smart or anything, but rather it's all God's grace towards us. Do we ever consider our deeds or our attempts to be obedient to God to somehow diminish our appreciation of and our reliance on God's mercy? Certainly not, certainly not. We believe that God, in his infinite kindness and grace, sent Moses down to Egypt to take a nation out of Egypt. He brought them through the sea, saving them from those who wanted to oppress them, the Egyptians. He brought them to Mount Sinai and at Mount Sinai, God sends the following message to the Jewish people. It's actually from this week's Torah portion that we read in Shul on Shabbos, in the synagogues this coming Sabbath. It's Exodus chapter 19 verse 5, to your 11th source over there. It says as follows, So this is God telling Moses to tell the Jewish people that if you agree and you actually follow through and keep my commandments and I'm about to give you, then you will be a special and holy nation. This is what God is telling us. In Leviticus chapter 26 verse 3, and I've only quoted a couple of sources, but this is repeated over and over and over throughout the Jewish scriptures, is that if you walk in my statues and keep my commandments and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce and the trees of the field shall yield their fruits. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 25, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us. And then in Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 23, again I couldn't quote all the verses because they're just too many, but in Jeremiah 7 verse 23, he says as follows, but this is what I commanded them saying. Again, this is Jeremiah speaking on behalf of God, telling them about what God had commanded our forefathers going out of Egypt. I commanded them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk in all the ways that I've commanded you that it may be well with you. So clearly, God tells us about the concept of reward and punishment for obedience and disobedience. This is not something that Jews made up. This is something that God tells us explicitly time and time again throughout the Jewish Scriptures. However, notwithstanding the fact that we acknowledge that there's a concept of reward and punishment in the Bible, in the Jewish Scriptures, and God is the one who tells us about these rewards and punishments, nevertheless we recognize and we believe that no matter what we have done in obedience, it is an act of grace on God's part that He blesses us. Where is this expressed in a beautiful way? In Psalm 62 verse 12, King David says, and to you, O Lord, belongs kindness, for you repay to each one according to his deeds. Now, this can be understood in two ways. Number one, it could be understood that David, who's continuously being persecuted by those who wish to destroy him, God will repay them what they deserve for persecuting David. But on the other hand, we could understand this as saying, we recognize that even when God repays us for doing anything good, it's not as if he's paying a debt, but rather it's his kindness and his grace that God blesses us at all. When we look at the issue of repentance, which we consider to be one of the greatest expressions of grace, we find the same thing, that it's all stemming from God's goodness and his kindness that he actually accepts our repentance. So you look at Ezekiel 33 verse 14, and when I say to the wicked, you shall surely die if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he will surely live, he will not die. None of his sins, which he has committed, shall be remembered against him. He has done what is lawful and right, he shall surely live. And then when we move on to the next source, Isaiah 55 verse 7, you'll see something interesting. He says as follows, let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our Lord for he will abundantly pardon. Before we move on to verse 8, what you see over here is that the whole premise of repentance being effective is God's mercy, God's grace. In other words, why does God forgive us? Because we impressed him. Because we did something and now he feels better about things or is it because this is God's grace? This is God recognizing our frailty, recognizing that we are born with the capacity to sin and we are born with a nature that draws us after things that are selfish and things that are not in accord with what God wants. God recognizes that and in his grace and in his kindness allows us for a way back. It doesn't make sense. Well, God says in verse 8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So to summarize, Judaism recognizes that God can owe man nothing. He doesn't owe us a thing. The fact that God allows us to serve him and to follow his commandments is the greatest privilege that God granted to his creations. The fact that we can be called by God to so to speak be partners in creation to make a difference. That is God's grace and that's the way we view it. We don't view it as a burden. We don't view it as the most difficult thing ever or a curse or some of the other fanciful language that Paul uses in the New Testament. On the contrary, we view it as an expression of God's kindness and his grace. It is never on the basis of our deeds that we pour out our supplication before God. It's always on God's mercy that we rely. It's interesting that in Partius Ve'eschanon, it starts out this is in Deuteronomy chapter 3 verse 23, it starts out Ve'eschanon el Hashem and I entreated the Lord at that time and this is where Moses is begging God to allow him to cross over the Jordan and enter the promised land. He's begging God but the Torah uses a very specific term Ve'eschanon and the root of that word comes from the Hebrew word chein, which is grace. What he's asking God is for a gratuitous gift. Moses could have come to God and said, God, I have suffered so much from your people. I stuck my neck out for you. These people wanted to kill me. I went through fire and through water for your sake, God. There was nothing in it for me. I'm asking you, for all the good that I've done for you, please let me into the land. I haven't asked for anything and yet, no, Ve'eschanon el Hashem I asked for a gratuitous gift. I've asked you God based on your mercy and your kindness to allow me in as an unmerited favor. That's what he's asked and that's where we learn our concept of how we are supposed to come before God. We never come before God and say God, look what I did yesterday. I gave so much charity. I helped the poor and I learned with this person and I did something else for the community and therefore I deserve. No, we say God in your mercy because you are my father. That's why I'm coming to you and asking you to please grant me what it is I'm lacking. One of the consequences of teaching about grace apart from the law is the direction in which the church ultimately took. Christianity went in a particular direction as a result of Paul's teachings. Now I know that today especially in the messianic world where you have Jewish believers in Jesus who are trying to go back to Torah observance and they're trying in all kinds of ways to show that Paul doesn't teach against the law etc. But nevertheless history is very clear about the direction that the church took based on their understanding of Paul. Based on their understanding of the writings of Paul. Those who followed Paul reading passages like Galatians 2 21 which is on your sheets which says as follows I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died in vain. What that means is as far as Paul's concerned if you think that you can by in any way reach salvation or justification through your works through following the Torah then Jesus died in vain. There was absolutely no reason for Jesus having to die because after all if you can work your own salvation out who needs Jesus. And then in Galatians 3 verse 23 but before faith came we were kept under the guard by the law. Kept for the faith which would come afterward which would afterward be revealed therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ to the Messiah that we might be justified by faith but after faith has come we are no longer under a tutor. Now somebody reading that would have a right to assume that what Paul is teaching over here is that there's no longer a need for the Torah. There's no longer a need to follow the commandments of the Torah. It's now you put all your faith in Jesus and that is what's going to ultimately save you. Romans chapter 4 verse 1 this is an interesting one because Romans chapter 4 verse 1 Paul goes to the story of Abraham in order to be able to support his claim. Let's read what he says. Romans chapter 4 verse 1 what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God for what does the scriptures say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness. What this means is Paul's basically saying when we see that God accounted righteousness to Abraham based on what? For what reason did God account righteousness to Abraham? Is it because of some of the good things that he did? Clearly not because the Bible says it was Abraham believed and it was accounted for righteousness, right? It was basically if you put your faith in God's provision and God's promises that's what's accounted for righteousness and that's how God's grace really works and therefore if you try by your own means to attain that grace it's not grace it's a debt God is paying you and that's not what salvation is all about and so what happens historically is that James or the author of the book of James has a problem because people are running around claiming to be Christians claiming to be followers of Jesus and they're claiming that all you need to do is put your faith in the death and the resurrection of Jesus and that's enough to start from the law you don't have to keep the Torah anymore and so James in his in his book in his epistle chapter 2 verse 21 he goes to the same story in the Torah of Abraham and he uses it and shows how on the contrary faith alone is not enough so let's read what it says verse 21 was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone and so what we see over here is that irrespective of whether or not James and Paul were together or they were really saying the same thing it's clear to James and it's clear from James that this was a problem way back when that people were walking away with this idea that you no longer have to keep the Torah and it's enough to have faith in the death of the Messiah from a Jewish perspective there's no contradiction between our faith in God our belief in his grace and our reliance upon God and God alone and our observance and obedience to the Torah and to the will of God I want to conclude with a teaching from the Medrash the Medrash says as follows Reblevi in the name of Reblechanina says I'll call Neshimo Neshimo I'll call Neshimo I'll call Neshimo for every single breath that a person breathes I'll call Neshimo I'll call Neshimo I'll call Neshimo a creator my timer what's the reason or where you getting this from what's the scriptural support that you should thank God for every breath that you take so he quotes from Psalm 150 verse 6 it says call Hanashama to Hallelujah that what? that every soul should praise God and he says that although it's read Hanashama you could read it as Hanashima. Call Hanashima every breath. Nishima meaning breath. For every breath I praise God and this is Judaism's view of God's grace. It's not as if that there's just one issue being salvation for which we need to rely on God's grace but it's for every breath that we take, every breath that comes to us from God. It's something that we view as a gratuitous gift from God and we thank him for it and through doing that, through blessing God and praising God etc. we ultimately are able to become a light to the nation's teaching the world what it really means to have amazing grace, amazing grace from God in every breath that we take. Thank you.