The Heart of the Matter

On November 1, 2025, I had a heart attack. In hindsight, I started to have symptoms of a heart attack several weeks earlier during Sukkot. If I had known the many signs of a heart attack, I may have recognized them. However, I didn’t know the signs, except for possibly bad chest pain. Because I had never had a heart attack, I never considered that I would ever have one. This was something that I thought happened to other people. In my mind, I was too young to have a heart attack.

Initially, I had muscle tension in my neck and shoulders. At times, I had small discomfort going down my left arm. However, it wasn’t perpetual discomfort, so I ignored it. A couple of times, I had some small pain in my chest, but it was not severe. Like many people, I dismissed the signs that I was having. I thought the signs that I was having indicated that I just had muscle tension in my back. As a result, I tried to find somebody at Sukkot who could give me a back rub to alleviate the muscle tension. When others heard about my situation, they wanted to help. After Sukkot, a friend of mine was thoughtful and concerned enough about my situation that they bought me an electric back massager.

I had my heart attack while driving on I-4 from Orlando to my home in Davenport, Florida. While driving, I was in burdensome pain. I drove with the pain for about 45 minutes because I wanted to get home. I had pain in my neck, shoulders and left arm, as well as my chest. This time the pain was severe. While driving home from Orlando, I prayed and asked the God of Israel to help to alleviate the pain and to help me to safely get home. In doing so, I confessed Isaiah 53:5, that by the stripes of Yeshua I am healed through Him shedding His blood for me and dying on the tree.

The God of Israel was gracious and kind to me. He helped me to safely get home. When I got inside my house, the pain continued. As a result, I decided to take an ibuprofen pill. When I did, the pain stopped. Logically, the pain should not have stopped the moment when I took the ibuprofen pill. It takes longer than that to ease the pain. Once again, the God of Israel was gracious and kind to me by stopping the pain.

While I was in my house, and before the pain stopped, I had severe pain in my left arm from the heart attack. It reminded me of the left arm pain that my mom experienced many years ago. From that pain, my mom had a blockage in her heart. She needed to have balloon surgery to expand her damaged blood vessel to let the blood flow get to her heart better. While it should have been obvious to me that I was having a heart attack, I was blind, ignorant and naïve about the situation. Because what happened to my mom (pain in her left arm) was happening to me, I decided to go to the hospital. I did know that this kind of pain was not normal.

The hospital was only five miles down the road. I didn’t have any pain while driving to the hospital. I told the hospital that I was having chest pain. As a result, they did different kinds of tests including blood tests. The blood tests revealed that I had an elevated level of troponin. Elevated troponin is a classic sign that a person may have had a heart attack. Prior to this, I had never heard of troponin. After all of these things were happening to me, I still never considered the thought that I had a heart attack. Because of the elevated levels of troponin, I was admitted to the hospital.

Eventually, the hospital decided to do a heart catheterization. The heart catheterization revealed that I had one heart vessel 95% blocked and six or seven others which were around 70% blocked. As a result, the cardiologist gave me a choice: I could either have stents put in to expand my blood vessels or have open-heart surgery. If I did nothing, the cardiologist said that I would eventually die of a heart attack. To me, only one solution made sense. I needed to have open-heart surgery.

I ended up having triple bypass open-heart surgery. When the many brethren in the faith heard about my situation, they poured out their hearts to the God of Israel that I would make it safely through the operation without any complications and I would be fully healed. I heard from many that they believed that my time and mission on the earth was not yet completed and that the God of Israel would heal me and allow me to complete His plans and purposes for my life. Thankfully, the prayers of the many brethren in the faith were answered by the God of Israel.

I made it through the surgery and the recovery in the hospital with virtually little or no pain. I was told by the hospital staff that 99% of people complain of pain from the surgery and need to take extra pain pills. I didn’t ask for any additional pain pills. The hospital staff thought that this was a miracle. As a result, I am ever so thankful and grateful to the God of Israel for His grace and mercy unto me to help me through the entire process of having a heart attack and being with me during the triple by-pass open heart surgery, as well as the time of recovery. I am also ever so thankful and grateful to all the people who faithfully prayed for me and who showed me so much love. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

After I came home from the hospital, I began to reflect upon my experience. In my mind, I began to consider that what I just experienced physically has a spiritual parallel in the Bible regarding the relationship of the God of Israel to His people and that what I just experienced could be used by Him to help many people in the faith. Among the various people who came to visit me during this process were Monte and his wife, Reeda. As a result, I shared these thoughts with Monte and Reeda, and asked Monte if I could write a Yavoh article on the subject of “spiritual heart surgery.” Graciously, Monte agreed that I could do so. As a result, I am writing this article. So, how is it that what I experienced physically with my heart attack, and the resulting open-heart surgery, has spiritual parallels in the Bible regarding the relationship of the God of Israel to His people? Well, let me explain how I see this to be so.

The God of Israel, through Yeshua, wants to have a personal relationship with His people. This relationship is expressed in the form of a marriage relationship. At Mount Sinai, Yeshua gave the Torah to the nation of Israel. In doing so, a marriage relationship was established between Yeshua and His people who would be His Bride. The Torah was seen as the “Ketubah” (the marriage contract describing the terms and conditions of the marriage) by which the foundation of the marriage would be established and the way in which she would show her eternal love for Him.

Yeshua wanted His Bride to be completely devoted and committed to Him in this marriage relationship. Yeshua wanted a loyal and passionate relationship wherein His people, His Bride, would love Him with all her heart, so much so that she would be so satisfied in this relationship that she would never have a desire for any other husband. Furthermore, Yeshua wanted a Bride who would be so loyal, committed, dedicated and passionate about Him that she would love and serve Him with her entire heart for all eternity. This is the basis for the greatest commandment in the Torah. In Matthew 22:36–38, it is written:

Master (Yeshua), which is the great commandment in the Torah? Yeshua said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.

This marriage love for Yeshua is expressed by keeping the Torah of Yeshua. In John 14:15, it is written:

If you love me, keep my commandments.

When Yeshua said these words, He was referring to the commandments given at Mount Sinai. In Exodus 20:6, it is written:

And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Yeshua defines heart love for Him by being faithful to the marriage covenant terms (the Ketubah) and by being faithful in following His Torah. In Deuteronomy 10:12–13, it is written:

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes …

In Deuteronomy 11:1, it is written:

Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments always.

Being faithful in keeping the Torah (the Ketubah – the terms and conditions of the marriage) is the way in which Yeshua’s Bride loves and serves Him. In Exodus 3:12, it is written:

And he (Yeshua) said, Certainly I will be with you (Moses); and this shall be a sign unto you (Moses), that I (Yeshua) have sent you: When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God (Yeshua) upon this mountain.

In Deuteronomy 10:20, it is written:

You shall fear the LORD your God; him shall you serve, and to him shall you cleave, and swear by his name.

In Deuteronomy 13:4, it is written:

You shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

In Deuteronomy 30:20, it is written:

That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days …

The God of Israel doesn’t want a “part time lover,” like the song made famous by Stevie Wonder. He wants an absolute single-minded, fully devoted and dedicated commitment from the heart. This is what it means to “cleave” unto him. It is intended to be the mindset of a married couple. In Genesis 2:24, it is written:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The Bride of Yeshua, His people, serving other gods or desiring other relationships above Him, or seeking her own will above His, is a “heart blockage.” It is a violation of the marriage covenant and the terms of the Ketubah (marriage contract). In Deuteronomy 11:16, it is written:

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them

In Deuteronomy 8:19, it is written:

And it shall be, if you do at all forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

The Bride of Yeshua served Baal and Ashtaroth (Ishtar). In Judges 2:13, it is written:

And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

It was both the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom who broke the marriage covenant with Yeshua. In Jeremiah 11:10, it is written:

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel (Northern Kingdom) and the house of Judah (Southern Kingdom) have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

In serving other gods, the Bride of Yeshua had a heart problem. She had a “heart blockage”. In Ezekiel 16:29–30, it is written:

You have moreover multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet you were not satisfied herewith. How weak is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman

Torah comes from the Hebrew word, ‘Yarah’, which means, “teaching or instruction”. The Torah (teaching or instruction) is broken into two major categories. They are called statutes and judgments. Statutes are decrees by someone in a position of authority who makes declarations from being in a position of authority. An example of a person being in a position of authority is a king, a president, or a governor. Judgments are decisions that a person makes. Yeshua wants His Bride to make decisions based upon His Torah. Therefore, following Torah is keeping both the statutes and judgments of Yeshua, the Lawgiver. In Leviticus 26:46, it is written:

These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

In Leviticus 18:5, it is written:

You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

In Romans 10:5, Paul referred to Leviticus 18:5 in keeping the statutes and judgments of the Torah as the “righteousness of the Torah”. In Romans 10:5, it is written:

For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the Torah, That the man which does those things shall live by them.

In Deuteronomy 4:5, 8 it is written:

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it … And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah, which I set before you this day?

Keeping the Sabbath, Festivals and dietary laws are regarded as being statutes given by the God of Israel to His people. Whether you observe these statutes is a heart test whether you love the God of Israel and respect His authority. In Deuteronomy 11:1, it is written:

Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, always.

Judgments are decisions that a person makes. Judgments are a category of Torah commandments regarding the proper way to treat other people. According to Torah, we are not to lie, steal, cheat or deceive other people. We are not to covet other people’s possessions. We are not to desire another man’s wife. The summary of these commandments is to love your neighbor as yourself. In Romans 13:9, it is written:

For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended (summarized) in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Yeshua wants His Bride to make decisions regarding how we treat other people based upon His value system which is His Torah. Regarding these matters, Yeshua wants His Bride to have a pure heart. Treating other people properly and doing so with a pure heart causes Yeshua’s Bride to spiritually ascend to Mount Zion. Mount Zion is the highest spiritual place in the Kingdom of the God of Israel. In Psalm 24 3–5, it is written:

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD (Mount Zion)? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Ascending spiritually to Mount Zion is dependent upon us treating other people according to the Torah. In Psalm 15, it is written:

LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in your holy hill? He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. He that backbites not with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honors them that fear the LORD. He that swears to his own hurt, and changes not. He that puts not out his money to usury, nor takes reward against the innocent. He that does these things shall never be moved.

In Isaiah 33:15–16, it is written:

He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell on high (Mount Zion) …

Yeshua taught that keeping the judgments of the Torah (treating other people properly) is among the “weightier” (most important) commandments in the Torah. In Matthew 23:23, it is written:

… the weightier matters of the Torah, judgment, mercy, and faith …

When Yeshua gave His statutes and judgments to His Bride on Mount Sinai, He expected her to keep them faithfully with a pure heart. However, when she got into the promised land, she treated other people improperly. In other words, she had a “heart blockage.” In Isaiah 5:1–2, 7 it is written:

Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes … For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

When you endeavor to keep the statutes of the Torah (Sabbath, Festivals, dietary laws), then treat other people improperly in how you live your lifestyle, then you have a “heart blockage.” This is being outwardly religious yet inwardly having a “heart blockage.” This behavior is unacceptable to Yeshua. It is a violation of His Torah. In Isaiah 1:2, 13–15 it is written:

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me … Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

We can see how being outwardly religious but treating other people improperly is a “heart blockage” in Jeremiah 7:4, 8–11 it is written:

Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor … Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not. And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD.

Believing in Yeshua and expressing your faith unto Him in “mixed worship” is a “heart blockage.” In the Bible, mixed worship is called baal worship. Mixed worship is called the “sin of Jeroboam.” This was the major sin of the Northern Kingdom. However, the Northern Kingdom “feared the Lord.” This is good. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In Psalm 111:10, it is written:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments …

The Northern Kingdom worshipped the God of Israel by “fearing the Lord”. However, they did so in “mixed worship”. In 2 Kings 17:32–33, it is written:

So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the LORD, and served their own gods (mixed worship), after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

The primary “heart blockage” of the Bride of Yeshua, who was given His Torah at Mount Sinai, is that she departed from His Torah. It manifested in a variety of ways. This included serving other gods, being outwardly religious but treating other people improperly and following Yeshua in mixed worship. If she didn’t change her ways, this behavior and lifestyle would be a “death sentence.” In Ezekiel 18:4, 11–13 it is written:

… the soul that sins, it shall die … And [the person] that … has eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbor’s wife. Has oppressed the poor and needy, has spoiled by violence, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination. Has given forth upon usury, and has taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.

Because of the various “heart blockages” of the Bride of Yeshua, who received His Torah at Mount Sinai but refused to follow it properly, she needed to have “open heart surgery.” The God of Israel needed to “bypass” her many “heart blockages” in order for her to live and not die. The hearts of the children of Israel were tested in the wilderness to determine if they would keep the Torah that Yeshua gave His Bride at Mount Sinai. In Deuteronomy 8:2–3, it is written:

And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.

The nation of Israel, the Bride of Yeshua, disobeyed Him as a corporate people ten different times in the wilderness. As a result, they had a “heart attack” and died in the wilderness. In Numbers 14:22–23, it is written:

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.

Therefore, the Bride of Yeshua, those given the Torah at Mount Sinai, died in the wilderness from a “heart attack” because they “erred in their heart.” In other words, they were disobedient to the Torah and the terms and conditions of the marriage at Mount Sinai given through the Ketubah. In Psalm 95:8–10, it is written:

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

In the wilderness, all the signs were present that the behavior of the Bride of Yeshua would cause her to have a “heart attack” from her “heart blockages.” However, she didn’t see it. She was ignorant and naïve of the signs of her disobedience. She thought that a “heart attack” would never happen to her. In Zephaniah 1:12, it is written:

And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil (judge our ‘heart blockages’ which is disobedience to the Torah).

If the Bride of Yeshua wanted to live, because of her “heart blockages” she had no choice. She needed to have “open-heart surgery.” This “open-heart surgery” would bypass the “heart blockages.” When the surgery was complete, the Bride of Yeshua would have a “new heart.” In Ezekiel 18:31, it is written:

Cast away from you all your transgressions (heart blockages), whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart (as a result from successful open heart surgery) and a new spirit: for why will you die, O house of Israel? (from your ‘heart blockages’ if you don’t have open heart surgery).

In Ezekiel 36:26–27, it is written:

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh (the ‘heart blockages’), and I will give you a heart of flesh (a new heart after by-passing the ‘heart blockages’). And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.

With a “new heart,” the Bride of Yeshua will repent of her ways (make a lifestyle change after open heart surgery) and follow His statutes and judgments in righteousness with a pure heart. In Joel 2:12–13, it is written:

Therefore also now, says the LORD, turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your garments …

In Isaiah 1:16–17, it is written:

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings (heart blockages) from before mine eyes; cease to do evil. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

In Jeremiah 7:5–7, it is written:

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt. Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

In Micah 6:8, it is written:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

In Amos 5:15, it is written:

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

In receiving a “new heart” from “open heart surgery,” the Bride of Yeshua removes the “heart blockages” (the desires of the flesh) and follows Torah with the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 6:12, it is written:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body (heart blockages), that you should obey it in the lusts thereof (refuse to have open heart surgery).

In Romans 13:14, it is written:

But put you on the Lord Yeshua Messiah (by having open heart surgery and receiving a new heart), and make not provision for the flesh (the ‘heart blockages’) to fulfil the lusts thereof.

When we follow the Torah of Yeshua through His Holy Spirit, we have a “new heart.” In Romans 8:4, it is written:

That the righteousness of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (a ‘new heart’ is following Torah by the Holy Spirit).

In Romans 8:14, it is written:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (been given a ‘new heart’)

On the road to Damascus, Paul had “heart surgery.” After Paul was given a “new heart,” he followed the Torah of Yeshua through the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 7:12, 22, it is written:

Wherefore the Torah is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good … For I delight in the Torah of God after the inward man (the one who had “heart surgery” and was given a “new heart” to follow the Torah by the Holy Spirit)

In conclusion, many of us are ignorant and naïve about our spiritual “heart blockages.” Even though we may be shocked when we initially learn that we have them, if we are willing to have “open-heart surgery” and by-pass our spiritual “heart blockages” and receive a “new heart,” we will be given a new lease on life. Even though the pain and recovery from the open-heart surgery may not be initially pleasant (because we have to “crucify the flesh” in order to have the “open heart surgery”), a longer and more productive life will be worth it. In being given this “new heart,” we will “overcome” the “heart blockages” and a likely future deadly “heart attack.” As the saying goes (paraphrased), “Wimps feed the flesh but real spiritual people in Yeshua allow Him to operate on our hearts so that we can have successful open-heart surgery and be given a ‘new heart’ in Him.” This has eternal reward!

After having heart surgery and being given a new heart, the Bride of Yeshua becomes an overcomer (she no longer is subject to her previous “heart blockages”) once she crucifies her flesh and her own will and desires. Her reward is that she will be able to live with Yeshua forever in her heavenly home which is the New Jerusalem. In Revelation 3:12, it is written:

Him that overcomes (those who have been given a new heart through having ‘open heart surgery’ to remove the ‘heart blockages’ of the flesh) will I make a pillar in the temple of my God … and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

In Revelation 22:14, it is written:

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

May we all be given a “new heart” through Yeshua (by allowing Him to spiritually operate on our hearts via “open-heart surgery”) so that we can spend eternity with Him in the New Jerusalem which is the city of His dwelling Bride. Amen!

Article written by Eddie Chumney.

Eddie Chumney is the founder of Hebraic Heritage Ministries International.

* Scripture references from the KJV