Rabbi Eliezer said: Since the

destruction of the Temple, the gates of prayer are locked, for it is written, Also

when I cry out, He shuts out my prayer (Eikhah 3:8). Yet though the gates of prayer

are locked, the gates of tears are not,

 for it is written, Hear

my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry, hold not your peace at my tears

(Tehillim

39:13)…

Rav Hisada said: All gates are

locked, excepting the gates [through which pass the cries of the] wrongs, for

it is written, Behold the Lord stood by a wall of wrongs, and in his hand

were the wrongs (Amos 7:7).

(Bava Metziyah 59a)

Rabbi Hanina bar Papa asked Rav Shmuel bar Nahman: What is the meaning of the verse, But as for me,

let my prayers be unto You in an

acceptable time

(Tehillim

69:14)?

He replied: The gates of prayer are sometimes open and

sometimes closed, but the gates of repentance always remained open.

He then asked him: Whence [do you know this]?

[Rav Shmuel

replied:] Because it is written, You

seas (Tehillim

65: 6). Just as the

ritual bath is sometimes open and sometimes closed, so too are the gates of

prayer sometimes open and sometimes closed; but as the sea ever remains open,

so is the hand of God ever open to receive the penitent.

(Devarim Rabbah 2:12)

Return from… and Return to…

Shemuel Reiner

The RaMBaM's Hilkhot Teshuva has

always attracted much study during the days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur, and it still does so today. In

that work, the RaMBaM set the commandment of Teshuva

of transgressions, defining it as Teshuva from transgressions.

The RaMBaM begins Hilkhot Teshuva

with these words: "Hilkhot Teshuva: [Containing] one positive commandment, which

is that a sinner should repent from his sin before God and confess."

Hilkhot Teshuva contains laws for

sinners. If someone were a righteous man in the land who did not sin, he

would be exempt from this commandment of teshuva,

since he would have nothing from which to repent.

The RaMBaM remains true

to this introduction, so that all of Hilkhot

Teshuva deals with sinners and with confessions

that can only be made by sinners; with the test a person must pass in order to

be sure that his repentance is genuine; with determining when repentance comes

easily, when it is difficult, and when it is impossible. Since it only treats

people addressing their failures and missed opportunities, people walking in

abject awe of the Lord of Hosts (Malachi 3:14), this

kind of teshuva is accompanied by hard

feelings of shame, frustration, and pain. Upon studying Hilkhot

Teshuva from beginning to end, it becomes clear

to us that teshuva is not a momentary affair,

but rather a long and difficult process, perhaps even an impossible task for

the average person.

In essence, the RaMBaM conceives of teshuva as something concerned with the past. One

who does teshuva does indeed make resolutions

for the future, but he is mostly concerned with the world that was rather than

the world that shall be.

There can be another conception of teshuva, one which takes the future, rather than the

past, as its Archimedean point. This teshuva

is essentially different from the RaMBaM's, since it

turns towards God rather than away from sin.

The author of the Tanya Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Ladi, known as the AdMor

HaZakein of HaBaD,

distinguishes between two different categories of teshuva:

teshuva tata'a

and teshuva ila'a,

which is to say, a low and a high teshuva (Iggeret

HaTeshuva, chapter 4).

Teshuva tata'a addresses a person's

sins and transgressions, while teshuva ila'a brings a person to concern himself with his

connection and nearness to the Holy One blessed be He.

This notion of teshuva involves two aspects or

levels.

It invites various interpretations: One possible

explication refers to cause and effect. A person's poor standing vis-a-vis God in his world and life is the cause of

all his failures. Thus, the teshuva must

be a return to God that will return Divinity to the center of the picture. By

treating the cause, the effect will also change.

It appears that the notion of two kinds of teshuva implies a more significant claim. Indeed, teshuva exists in two separate plains: teshuva as return to God does not address a person's

sins and failings. Rather, it is the human longing to live life in God's world

and not in the arbitrary reality visible to bodily eyes. Human beings seek a

life offering insights into that which is above and beyond; a life in which one's

existence and actions bear significance and value.

Rabbi Nahaman of Bratzlav tells a popular folktale called "A Story of

Two Painters." A king builds himself a palace and asks two people to

decorate one of its walls. Each is given one wall to work on, and the two walls

faced each other… One of them went off to study art, and after some time he

painted a wondrously beautiful picture on the wall. At first, the other person

did not concern himself with the king's command, wasting his days away on

frivolous things. When the time drew near for the exhibition of their works,

the second person realized that he had not prepared anything,

he had not even learned to paint. What did he do? He set up a mirror facing the

first person's painting, so that it was reflected in it. Some versions end this

tale with the king beheading the second man for not having performed his task. Some

versions have the king handing a reward to the first person, while letting the

second person see the reward reflected in the mirror – poetic justice. Rabbi Nahman ends his tale with an unexpected conclusion: "…and

so all of the wonderful objects that the king brought into his palace could

also be seen on the wall set up by the second person; this pleased the king…"

The second person won the contest. This is a problematic

notion; he had not made any efforts, and had done nothing original. The second

person merely copied the work of the first. Why, then, did he win? How was it

that despite his sins he found his way back into the king's heart? The mirror

was not the secret of his charm; his personality was. He was a special person,

one who could think of using a mirror and of pointing to the mirror's advantage

over reality. The first person won his standing through his work, while the

second did so thanks to his personality. This time the king valued personality

over work, because personality has a future while the completed work will never

change, it bears no extra "secret" beyond that, it is motionless. In

contrast, the mirror belongs to the world of infinity.

There is another difference: The first person went

off to learn art from others, while the second person was self-tutored. The

second person had something more authentic about him. He did not deserve to

win, but he was the one the king loved. Teshuva back to God deals less with sins and the past, teshuva ila'a, as

the author of the Tanya would put it. This teshuva

involves a person's attempt to gain favor in God's eyes through religious

honesty.

Our spiritual world is composed of various

emotions and mindsets. It is a spiritual world that tries to encompass the

world and all that is in it. Our teshuva

must include both paths, both the teshuva away

from sin as well as the teshuva towards God. There

is a feeling that teshuva which only

addresses sins is missing something of the depth of God's service, while teshuva towards God is not sufficiently

grounded in normative responsibility. Teshuva

must include both elements.

It appears that in his book Al HaTeshuva, Rabbi Soloveitchik,

ztz"l tries to find both of these dimensions

in the words of the RaMBaM when he speaks of both kapara

Religious society today needs to find a balance

between these two models. Rabbi Nahman's celebrated

dictum says that teshuva itself requires teshuva. Perhaps this year our teshuva will be to grasp both ideals at once.

Rabbi

Shemuel Reiner is a Rosh

Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKibbutz

HaDati at Ma'alei HaGilboa

The Gates of

Tears are not Locked

I further observed all the oppression that goes on under the sun. Here

hand of their oppressors – and there is none to comfort them.

(Kohelet 4:1)

Rav Rahumi used to spend

his time in Rava's presence in Mehoza.

He would return home to visit every Yom Kippur eve. Once he became involved in

his studies and remained where he was. His wife looked forward to his arrival,

saying in her heart, "Now he will come! Now he will come!" He did not

come. She broke down and a tear dropped from her eye. Rav

Rahumi was sitting on the roof. The roof broke under

him and he died.

(Ketuvot 62b)

Our master [Rabbi Hayyim of Zans], once spun a parable:

A man had been wandering about in a forest for several days, not

knowing which was the right way out. Suddenly he saw a

man approaching him. His heart was filled with joy. "Now I shall certainly

find out which is the right way", he thought to himself. When they neared

one another, he asked that man, "Brother, tell me which is the right way.

I have been wandering about in this forest for several days."

The other said to him, "Brother, I do not know the way out either.

For I too have been wandering about here for many, many days. But this I

can tell you; do not take the way I have been taking, for that will lead you

astray. And now let us look for a new way out together."

(Darkhey Hayyim,

quoted in "Days of Awe" by Agnon)

Conciliation

Consideration "Who Is Right"

Yom Kippur does not atone for social

transgression until one placates his fellow – this is how Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya expounded

"Of all your sins before God shall you be cleansed" – Sins

fellow, Yom Kippur does not effect atonement until he placates his fellow.

(Mishnah Yoma 8:9)

Rav once had an

altercation with a slaughterer of livestock. The latter did not come before him