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Noaḥ was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. Noaḥ walked with Elohim.
Genesis 6.9
Therefore, be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect.
Matthew 5.48
For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray for: your perfection.
2 Corinthians 13.9
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2017 was a year I’ll never forget, not because it was full of celebration, but because it was the year I broke down; the year when my scattered inner world came crashing in on my outer one. I was suffering from regular anxiety attacks, sudden waves of panic and internal chaos that would hit without warning. I’d be at work, around others, or even alone, and my breath would shorten, my thoughts would spiral, and my heart would feel like it was racing toward some unnameable dread.
I was a hyper-emotional mess and would just break down crying uncontrollably for seemingly no reason at all. Prior to this, however, I was an emotionless automaton, moving subconsciously in a relapsed state of mind back to my collegiate days. It was as if the numbness I had perfected over years of suppression had cracked open, and all the pain I had never processed was flooding out at once, without warning, without filter, without control. My thoughts were jumbled. My spirit felt scattered. My soul couldn’t find rest. Though I was in need of this release, I was absolutely not ready for it. Clueless to what I was experiencing, I was left in the dark wondering what I was experiencing, and more importantly, what was causing it?
Fragmentation.
At the time, as the father of three sons with three different mothers, I was feeling overstretched and inadequate. I didn’t have my cubs with me daily, so I couldn’t be the steady presence I knew I needed to be in their lives. Despite that, I made it certain that every night we would check in and have prayer, which we still do to this day. But to make matters more intense back in ’17, I was involved in a recycled, long-distance, trauma-bonded relationship with one of their mothers. The dynamic was volatile, and though love and good intentions were there, so were old wounds, abandonment patterns, and unresolved pain.
All of it, my role as a father, the relational chaos, the emotional stress, manifested as a storm in my spirit. My mental health suffered. I was irritable and unfocused. I was dragging myself to perform at work, spiritually dull, emotionally exhausted. Even my sons began showing signs of distress, as children are spiritual mirrors for the inner worlds of their parents. That’s when I knew, I had to get it together.
One night in particular, after picking up both my boys from my mother’s spot while driving home, I felt my shell just starting to crack. I held it together for as long as could and when I got in the door of our house, I just folded like some wrinkly clothes. I sat down on the sofa with two of my three boys and just sat there stunned, embracing me and asking me what was wrong. Honestly, I didn’t have a clue what wrong, but the tears started pouring even more when my firstborn started praying and was like, ‘abba, I don’t know what you’re going through, but whatever is, we’re going to get through it together. And that, we did all praises to the Most High!
Even though I’m not entirely whole yet, I’m currently at much better place. Where I’m at now wasn’t an overnight experience, and in fact, there’s been moments setbacks even in the past few years when I’ve experienced emotional breaks. But like Ya’akov wrestling with the angel at the ford of Yabbok, I’ve spent and even spending long, quiet nights alone, battling with the version of myself I had created through poor choices, fragmented focus, and misguided loyalty. But eventually, I know I have no choice but to surrender. What I will say is that I’ve finally learned to accept the lot I had shaped for myself, and in doing so, I’ve began to gather the fragments into one. That turning point was the beginning of me walking b‘tamim, or what in Hebrew would be the principle of walking in wholeheartedness.
Tamim (תמים) is one of the most powerful and misunderstood words in all of Torah. It’s often translated as “perfect” or “blameless,” but it doesn’t mean without flaw, it does, however, mean whole, complete, aligned, and fully present.
Let those terms marinate and absorb in the essence of your soul, beloved reader, because that is what we have to accomplish in order to experiece true healing and wholeness. These principles are what our ancestors well perceived and achieved when they walked with Elohim in Spirit and Truth. They all went through the dark night of the soul to get to the dimension of light that emanates from their inner being. This, too, is what is required of us to become who we were created to be in YaH.
When YaH spoke to Avraham in Bereshit (Genesis) 17:1, He said:
“Walk before Me and be tamim.”
YaH wasn’t telling him to be self-righteous or holier than though, but It was calling him to be blameless, undivided, fully integrated, true in heart and deed, and without spiritual schizophrenia. This results from making Torah based decisions so that our conscience won’t feel the constraints of guilt and shame.
The sages in the Talmud (Shabbat 105b) speak about the heart being like a scroll: if one letter is missing, the whole is invalid. Likewise, a person who is not tamim is like a torn scroll, fragments of truth scattered, unable to carry the full Word. Tamim is the spiritual integrity that allows the Shekinah presence of YaH to rest in and flow through us.
Deeper insight of this profound word can be found when we break down the Hebrew letters of tamim (תמים):
- Tav (ת) – Truth, covenant, completion.
- Mem (מ) – Flow, water, revealed and hidden wisdom.
- Yod (י) – Humility, spark of divine potential.
- Mem (מ) – Repeated for emphasis: the continuation of divine flow and balance.
Taken together, the essence of tamim becomes: “When one walks in truth, guided by divine wisdom, and rooted in humility, the living waters of purpose and presence will continue to flow.”
This is not a surface-level concept; as being tamim is based on a lifestyle, a way of being that touches every relationship, every thought, every action.
A strange juxtaposition and tension is mentioned in the book of Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) that often trips people up; in Jeremiah 17:9, we read: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Yet, in Jeremiah 31:33, the prophet proclaims the promise of the Brit Chadashah, the renewed covenant: “I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.”
Now, how can the same heart be both deceitful and the new dwelling place of the Torah? The answer lies in the process of transformation. The deceitful heart is the uncut, untouched, and unrefined heart, raw with selfishness, trauma, ego, and generational weight. But the heart that is made ready, softened through struggle, broken through repentance, and surrendered through submission, is the tablet upon which YaH writes His truth.
We first see this pattern laid out when Moshe ascended Mount Sinai a second time in Exodus 34. After breaking the first set of tablets, Moshe is told to chisel out the stone himself, this time he had to prepare the tablets, while Elohim would inscribe the words. It’s a powerful symbol: we must carve space in our hearts, through repentance, discipline and devotion, and when we do, the Most High writes His Torah upon it.
This is the process of becoming tamim; wholehearted. It doesn’t begin with a perfect heart. it begins with a prepared one.
Torah teaches us that circumcision isn’t only physical, it’s also spiritual. Way back in the Law, Deuteronomy 10:16, we find that Moshe said “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.”
And again, way back inn the Law, Deuteronomy 30:6 said: “YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
In this context, circumcision of the heart means cutting away the spiritual blockages, ego, pride, stubbornness, bitterness, and trauma that prevent us from truly loving Elohim and walking tamim. It is the inner act of surrender that prepares the heart to receive the Torah’s instruction, not as external commands, but as internal conviction.
Let’s taken a moment right quick to square up with the fact that for us, being tamim is not natural. It’s, instead, the fruit of a circumcised heart. This is because we are first fleshly creatures, and if we undergo our rebirth and transformation, then we become spiritual. Rav Shaul, aka the apostle Paul, tells us that “the spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.”
As we undergo this rebirth, it is this level of inner covenant that leads to transfiguration, because when the heart is truly open and made clean, the light of the Torah shines from within. We begin to reflect not just commandments, but character and likeness of Elohim. Not just rules, but relationship, and resultingly, the image of Elohim. This is because you become like who you associate with.
This is what Messiah Yahoshua walked in and called us into, a renewed heart, inscribed with the Torah and circumcised of rebellion, ready to be shaped by love, refined by truth, and empowered by the Ruach to walk in the fullness of our heavenly calling. This is transfiguration; this is tamim.
So with all that laid out, how do we become tamim in this fractured age of distraction, addiction, and disconnection?
Some steps that I’ve found to be effective in my personal life on this journey include undertaking some of these disciplines:
1. Embrace Self-Inventory: You can’t repair what you won’t review. Sit in silence and allow the Ruach to reveal the areas of your life where you’re divided. Journal. Reflect. Fast. Adjust.
2. Root Yourself in Torah: Psalm 119:1 says, “Blessed are the perfect (tamim) in the way, who walk in the Torah of YHWH.” Torah is not just law—it’s light. It realigns us with what’s real.
3. Heal Your Relationships: Where possible, seek peace. As Messiah taught in Matthew 5:24, “First be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.” Tamim requires internal and external alignment.
4. Limit Distractions: Set boundaries with screens, shallow conversations, and time-wasters. Be intentional about what you consume, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. Psalm 119:36-37 reads, Incline my heart to Your witnesses, and not to own gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at falsehood, and revive me in Your way.
5. Serve with Sincerity: 1 John 3:8 says: “…let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Being tamim is not just about what we say, but how we show up and serve with integrity and compassion.
When we live tamim, we don’t chase perfection. We chase presence. We move from living in reaction to living in resonance with Heaven. We stop trying to manage appearances and begin cultivating inner wholeness.
That’s what transfiguration requires.
That’s what this movement is all about.
We are not just here to study the Word, we’re here to become the Word made flesh.
Not in fragments, but in fullness.
Not divided, but whole.
Not striving, but surrendered.
So here’s our call to action:
Let’s begin where we are.
Gather what’s been scattered.
Stand in the truth that we’ve been running from.
And walk, like Avraham, like Moshe, like Messiah, Yeshua, tamim before YaH.
Because it’s only in wholeness that we truly shine.
And the world needs our light.
And the light that we become will be because we have experienced the transfiguration.
Selah.
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