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 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 (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 [return or repentance] into order, making it relate to the realm 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 [atonement] and tahara [purification].

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 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)

 

Conciliation Is A Complex Process and Does Not Take Into 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 between man and God are atoned for by Yom Kippur; sins between man and his 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 [for reconciliation]. On Yom Kippur Eve, Rav said: "I will go to him myself to appease him."

[On the way] Rav Huna met him and asked: "Where is the master going?" He replied: "To reconcile with so and so". He said: "Abba is going to commit murder." He went anyway. The slaughterer was seated, hammering an ox head. He raised his eyes and saw him. He said to him: "Abba, you? Go away. I have nothing in common with you!" At that moment, a bone broke loose, lodged itself in his throat, and killed him.

(Yoma 87a)

 

"Rav once had an altercation with a slaughterer of livestock". The text does not tell us who was right or who was wrong. The commentators unanimously agree that Rav was in the right. But the butcher did not come on Yom Kippur eve to ask forgiveness of Rav. Rav therefore felt it was his duty to bring forth this demand for forgiveness, for the sake of the offender: he decided to appear before the person who insulted him. Here we have a reversal of obligation. It is the offended party who worries about the forgiveness that the offender does not concern himself with. Rav goes out of his way to provoke a crisis of conscience in the slaughterer of livestock. The task is not easy!

Rav's disciple, whom he meets on the way, is aware of this. This disciple, Rav Huna, asks: "Where is the master going?" "To reconcile with so and so." To which Rav Huna replies, without illusions: "Abba (familiar name of Rav) is going to commit a murder." Rav Huna is convinced that the slaughterer will not be moved by Rav's gesture; fault of the slaughterer will only be aggravated. Excessive moral sensitivity will become the cause of death... The game of offense and forgiveness is a dangerous one. But Rav ignores the advice of his pupil. He finds the slaughterer at his professional occupation. He is seated and hammering an ox head. He nevertheless raises his eyes to insult once again the person coming humbly toward him. "Go away, Abba. I have nothing in common with you."

The expression is marvelously precise and underlines one of the essential aspects of the situation. Mankind is spread out different levels. It is made up of multiple worlds that are closed to one another because of their unequal heights. Men do not yet form a single humanity. As the slaughterer keeps strictly to his level, he keeps on hammering the head; suddenly a bone breaks loose from it and kills him. It is certainly not of a miracle that the story wants to tell us, but of this death within the systems in which humanity closes itself off. It also wants to speak to us of the purity which can kill, in a mankind as yet unequally evolved, and of the enormity of the responsibility which Rav took upon himself in his premature confidence in the humanity of the Other.

(From E. Levinas: Nine Talmudic Readings, translated by Annette Aronowicz, pp. 22-23)

 

 

 

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