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Open for us the gate of prayer,
Even at the closing of the gate,
Even now that the day has declined
Gates, Locked and Unlocked
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 (Lamentations
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 (Psalms 39:13)...
Rav Hisda said: All gates are locked, excepting the gates [through
which pass the cries of those suffering] 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 Metziya 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 (Psalms 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
answered us in righteousness with wondrous works, O God of our salvation; You [who
are] the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the far distant seas (Psalms 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)
The matter
of Yom Kippur and Ne'ila is like a
parable: one makes a chest and closet; when they are completed a lock is made
for them to guard their contents.
(R.
Naftali Tzvi Horowitz's Zera
Kodesh, quoted by S.Y. Agnon in his Yamim Nora'im, pg.
362)
So very open that it will never close again, so
very closed that it shall never reopen...
Forget, remember, forget
Open, close, open
(From Y. Amichai's Patuah, Sagur, Patuah)
REMEMBER US FOR LIFE, O KING WHO DESIRES LIFE, FOR
YOUR SAKE, O LIVING GOD
On opening the gate
Were someone to ask me to create a symbol for the Days of Awe, I would vacillate between scales, which are, of course, the zodiac sign of Tishrei, and a gate. My final choice would be the gate. And then I would ponder which kind of gate; a gate with doors open and light streaming through, or perhaps a gate with no doors at all. The gates accompany me throughout my Days of Awe. There was a time when, during the month of Elul, I would peruse "Shaarei Teshuva" [Gates of Repentance], by R' Yonah of Gerona; a later period found me studying Rav Kook's "Orot HaTeshuva" [Lights of Repentance], on the binding of which was a magnificent picture of gates bathed in rays of the sun.
The climax of the Days of Awe is Yom Kippur, and its pinnacle is reached with day's end, during the Neila [closing of the gates] service. In contrast to other festivals, in which the intensity wanes as the day progresses, on Yom Kippur, as I experience it, the day's most powerful moment is when the sun hangs low in the sky, and through the treetops the sensation of fleeting time becomes stronger.
In the Jerusalem Talmud we read: Until when is Neila recited? Our
rabbis in
It is clear to all that Neila is the closing of a gate.
The question is which gates - the gates of the
There is more here than a halachic disputation. Between the lines hides a spiritual message: What is Neila, and upon what is it dependent?
In the Neila prayer, in the Ashkenazic poem Shaarei Armon M'heira
Tiftach - (Speedily open the
Open for
us the gate,
Even at
the closing of the gate,
Even now that the day has declined.
The day
has declined,
The day
has declined into sunset,
O let us
enter into your gates.
At the conclusion of Elul and Tishrei, the days of Awe, we face the gate closing before our eyes. Perhaps our great hopes will remain on the other side of the gate. We have one final hope: Let the gate not close for us. This is the powerful experience of Neila.
The experience of teshuva, repentance, is to pass through the gate, to leave behind a world and to enter a new world.
This passage is not easy, for two main reasons:
The first, separations are not easy. Often we are enamored of our weaknesses; we are aware that they are problematic, but even so our failings find favor in our eyes and it is so difficult to part with them.
The second reason is that the new world, too, is not at all simple. Beyond the gate lies another difficulty, the fear of the new; the questions "What will be?" and "How will it be"? are frightening thoughts.
Rav Nachman of Breslav (Likkutei Moharan
Tenina Torah 63) deals with the question "How can
one merit repentance." He paints a beautiful description of fifty gates of
repentance; forty-nine gates are for us humans, one for the Holy One,
Blessed Be He. The Holy One, too, returns to us, as is written: "Return
to Me and I will return to you. (Malachi 3).
Every person has his own gate, and only through it can he change. I cannot repent the same way as my good friend, even though we are true friends, partners in our path.
Repentance is the most personal thing one can do, and therefore one cannot share his gate of repentance with another, regardless of how close to him he may be.
Rav Nachman continues: "For there may be one who is not at all aroused to repent, or even who has been aroused to repent but does not merit reaching his omen and his personal gate to repentance, or he may even have reached the gate but finds it shut, and because of all this, the person does not achieve teshuva. But by reciting Tehillim [Psalms], even one who has no inner arousal to repentance is aroused to teshuva, and by virtue of Tehillim he merits reaching his gate and his omen, and he is able to open the gate."
R' Nachman
describes the beginning of the process, the first stage in which one is not
certain that he wants to change, or if there is any reason for change. Then the
question is raised: How does one reach the gate. Even if I want to change, a
serious question is posed: Why do I want to change, and through which "gate"
do I enter - which is my gate? What is suitable for me... not what
attracts me. And then there arises an additional
difficulty: The gate is shut! Not always is the gate open, but there
exists a possibility of a key - song. A single song, properly
tuned, has the power to open the gate. Perhaps one's finding his verse
in Tehillim, that verse which arouses him is the key to the gate
through which the desired change is effected. Then will he merit teshuva.
The process described calls to mind Kafka's famous story "Before the Gate of the Law" (it is interesting to note that Kafka published this work in the Rosh Hashanah edition of Czechoslovakian Zionist weekly in 1915. It seems to me that the Jewish place and the period, Rosh Hashanah eve, are not coincidental). Kafka places his amazing parable in the mouth of a priest addressing his church congregation (HaMishpat, Shocken p. 220)
"The man" remains passive, facing the gate of the law, he does not attempt to breach it, he believes, and he obeys the Tatar guard. So his entire life passes before the seemingly open gate. Only in old age, as his strength wanes, does he detect the light. "... Finally his eyes grow dim, and he no longer knows whether it's really getting darker or just his eyes that are deceiving him. But he seems now to see an inextinguishable light begin to shine from the darkness behind the gate of the law".
Kafka's story ends with
a terrible tragedy: "…Nobody else could have entered this way, as this
entrance was meant only for you. Now I'll go and close it'."
Rav
Nachman and Kafka, each in his own way saying the
same thing, as the ancient proverb has it, will we live or die? Will we refashion
our lives or remain as we were?
Kafka's admonition is multi-faceted. It reverberates inside me for many years, especially during these days. Therefore I will not remain standing before the gate with longing alone; I will try to enter through the gate to new life.
This is the hour of change - mute we stand
On the border of light
To where will our heart turn?
Will we return, my brother,
Will we cross over?
(Leah Goldberg, On the Border of Light)
This moment of Neila, too, as we stand facing the gate before God of Tremendous Deeds, is part of the poem.
May it be His will
that during the hour of the closing of gates, the gates close behind us, as we
enter better and more meaningful new life!
Rabbi
So Moshe wrote down this song on that day, and he taught it to the Children of Israel.
(Devarim
31:22)
"This
song" - From "Haazinu hashamayim"
(32:1) through "effecting atonement for the soil of his people."
(Rashi
on 32:22)
This refers to the Torah, for we have already learned that the Torah is called "song".
(Haamek Davar, ibid.)
It is important to understand how it is that the Torah can be called "song" - after all, is it written in the style of song?!
However, you must admit that it has the nature and virtue of song, in that it uses figures of speech. For it is known to all who have studied that the language of metaphor differs from prose in two respects:
A. In poetry - unlike in prose - matters are not clearly explained. There is need for explication, - this verse refers to this event, and this passage alludes to something else. This is not drush - hermeneutical explication - this is very essence of poetry, even poetry penned by unprofessionals. Another axiom is that one well versed in the subject which produced a particular metaphor, is capable of much greater and more joyous appreciation of the language employed than is one who is ignorant of the subject matter and tends to a more literal reading, thus possibly reaching false conclusions which were never the intention of the poet. This is the nature of the entire Torah - the text is never clearly understood, and notes and explanation of the literary devices are necessary. This is not called "drush"; this is the plain meaning - pshat - of the text. Another axiom is that one cannot completely comprehend the word of God unless he refers to some Halacha or ethical teaching and Aggada which have come down through tradition from Chazal - for such a person, the light of exact meaning is exceedingly sweet.
B. Song has the virtue of embellishment by allusions which are not relative to the subject matter of the song, for example, having the lines arranged alphabetically, or providing an acronym of the name of the poet - this is common to poetry but not to prose narrative. This trait sometimes forces the author to sometime 'bend' the language… This is quite common to all the Torah, for in addition to the plain-reading of the text, there are many secrets and veiled matters, and therefore the language of Scripture is not always precise.
(From
"Kidmat Haemek" -
The Netziv's introduction to his commentary on the
Torah")
The Gates of Tears are not Locked
I further observed all the oppression that goes on under the sun. Here are the tears of the oppressed, with none to comfort them. Power issues from 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)
The thirteen attributes are a program for action, not only for
recitation
"The Lord passed before him and proclaimed" - Said Rabbi Yochanan: Were this not actually written, it could not have been said. It teaches us that The Holy One, Blessed Be He, wrapped himself as a shliach tzibbur - a cantor - and showed Moshe the order of prayer. He said to him: Whenever Israel sins, - let them do this order before me, and I will forgive them. "The Lord, the Lord" - I am He before man sinned, and I am He after man sins and repents. "A compassionate and gracious God" - said Rabbi Yehuda: A covenant was made promising that the Thirteen Attributes will never go unanswered, as is written, (Shemot 34), "I hereby make a covenant."
(Bavli,
Rosh Hashana 17b)
There is no magical power in turning to the Thirteen Attributes of God; like every promise given in the Torah, the only significance of the Thirteen Attributes is the demand made of man so that he be worthy of this promise.
Regarding the custom of reciting the Thirteen Attributes in "Selichot", and during most of the year during the Tachanun prayer, the Alshich (Rabbi Moshe ben Hayyim, disciple of Rabbi Yosef Karo, 16th cent.) wrote: The Talmud does not say "Let them say this order before me," but rather "Let them do this order before me." Forgiveness is effected not by the saying but by the doing. The meaning of the words of Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Yehuda is that when a person does, i.e., makes his personal attributes similar to those of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, as per the recommendation of Chazal - Just as He is called 'merciful', so you shall be merciful, just as He is called 'compassionate', so shall you be compassionate, just as he is called 'slow to anger and abounding in kindness' so shall you be slow to anger and abounding in kindness - only then will your transgressions be forgiven.
That covenant made over the Thirteen Attributes is not a prescription for forgiveness of sin, but it is a program for human behavior. Whoever is acquainted with Maimonides's writings, knows of the doctrine of "negative attributes". No description has any validity with regards to God. These attributes point to man's obligation to emulate ... living according to these attributes is both the repentance and the atonement.
'...How often do we see that we are wrapped in our prayer shawls and recite the Thirteen Attributes, yet we are not answered. But the meaning is that whenever Israel does according to this order of attributes which the Lord does, having mercy and being gracious to the poor, being slow to anger and doing kindness one to the other, waiving demands for rightful satisfaction, as in the words of Chazal: If one waives his demands for rightful satisfaction, his sins will be forgiven, then they (Israel) are assured that they will not remain empty-handed; but if they are cruel, and act immorally, certainly they will be condemned by their recitation of the Thirteen Attributes' (Sefer Yereim).
In other words, not only are the Thirteen Attributes not a magic means for atonement of sins; the mention of The Holy One's attributes by one who makes no effort to observe them calls attention to his sins. Not only do they not provide a remedy for man, they become a pitfall.
(Y. Leibowitz, Discussion
on the Festivals and Appointed Times of Israel, pp. 184-185)