opening doors

 1) One of the local business in the neighborhood that sells appetizing has the following sign on their door (apologies for the poor quality):

 

The business wants people to place orders for their break fast food ahead of time, and chastises people not to wait until the last minute to do so.  You know Y"K is coming, you know what you want to order and place the same order every year, so why wait -- call ahead of time!

 

When I walked past and saw that sign, I thought to myself that Hashem must have meant this to be put up as a message for aseret y'mei teshuvah. 

 

We all know Y"K is coming.  We do this every year.  We all know what we need to do to clear our slate.  Why wait for the last minute -- for erev Y"K, or for kol nidrei, or for the avodah of mussaf, or for neila, and for those who are real stragglers, for "Hashem hu ha'Elokim" and that last shofar blast?  Take care of things now!

 

Fortunately, Hashem will not slam the door in your face no matter when you decide to contact him, but more on that a few paragraphs from now.

 

2) In haYom Yom for 3 Tishrei the Rebbe quotes from R' Zusha of Anapoli that teshuvah can be broken down to 5 components, with each letter of the word teshuvah corresponding to a pasuk that reflects that component:

 

ת ־ תמים תהי׳ עם ה׳ אלקיך

שׁ ־ שׁזיתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד

ו ־ ואהבת לרעך כּמוךּ

ב ־ בּכל דרכך דעהו

ה ־ הצנע לכת עם אלקיך

 

R' Leibele Eiger quotes a different pasuk for that last letter.  He understood  that the letter  ה is, as Rashi explains in our parsha, as ה״י לשון תימה.  For that letter hei he quotes a pasuk from our parsha: 

 

ה לה׳ תגמלו זאת עם נבל ולא חכם

 

When a person realizes that he has frittered away his time, wasting the potential that Hashem gave him, he is filled with remorse.  He can then come to the next ה, which is at the conclusion of that pasuk, and is also a question:

 

הֲלוֹא־הוּא֙ אָבִ֣יךָ קָּנֶ֔ךָ ה֥וּא עָשְׂךָ֖ וַֽיְכֹנְנֶֽךָ

 

Hashem is our father, who provides everything for us.  How can we not want to return to Him and do what is right?  That thought takes you back to the beginning of the process, to ת ־ תמים תהי׳ עם ה׳ אלקיך.

The process is circular, drawing a person constantantly closer to Hashem.

 

3) Coming back to signs on doors and not being turned away: On leil Yom Kippur after we say the pasuk ויאמר ה׳ סלחתי כדברך, and next comes the recitation of the bracha of she'hechiyanu.  The Lev Simcha explained that the bracha is not just on the kedushas ha'yom of Y"K.  The Rambam describes a person who does teshuvah (7:6) אמש היה זה שנאוי לפני המקום משוקץ ומרוחק ותועבה. והיום הוא אהוב ונחמד קרוב וידיד.   A baal teshuvah is like a new person.  The old self is gone, and this is the new me.  When Hashem says סלחתי כדברך and accepts our teshuvah, we then say she'hechiyanu on ourselves, on our new identity.  

 

I want to suggest a different answer, also based on Gerrer torah.  We say Hashem is פּותח שׁער לדופקי בּתשׁובה.  Knock on the door, and He will let you in.  Sefas Emes asks: the Midrash tells us (Devarim Rabbah 2:12)

 

רבי חנינא בר פפא שאל לרבי שמואל בר נחמן מהו דכתיב ואני תפלתי לך ה' עת רצון אמר לו שערי תפלה פעמים פתוחים פעמים נעולים אבל שערי תשובה לעולם פתוחים

 

The door for teshuvah is always open, so why do you need to knock?

 

What's the big deal of Hashem opening the door when it's never closed anyway?

 

There are people who want to do teshuvah, but they can't even find the door.  They don't even know how to begin, where to find ruchniyus, where to find themselves.  The door is open, but they keep banging on the walls, the floor, the ceiling, trying different things, looking in different places.

 

Hashem tells such people, "Don't worry -- you can knock on the wall, you can knock on the floor, you can even knock on the ceiling.  Even if that's not the door, even if you're knocking in the wrong place -- for you, I'll make a door.  I'll be ּפּותח שׁער even if that is not the שׁער and show you a way back."

 

The Yerushalmi tells the following story about Menashe:

 

כָּתוּב וַיְדַבֵּר יְי אֶל מְנַשֶּׁה וְאֶל עַמּוֹ וְלֹא הִקְשִׁיבוּ. וַיָּבֵא עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת שָׂרֵי הַצָּבָא אֲשֶׁר לְמֶלֶךְ וַיִּלְכְּדוּ אֶת מְנַשֶּׁה בַּחֹחִים. מָהוּ בַחֹחִים. בְּכֵירוֹ מָנִיקִיָּא. אַמַר רִבִּי לֵוִי. מוּלָא שֶׁלִּנְחוֹשֶׂת עָשׂוּ לוֹ וְנָתְנוּ אוֹתוֹ בְּתוֹכָהּ וְהָיוּ מַסִּיקִין תַּחְתָּיו. כֵּיוָן שֶׁרָאָה שֶׁצָּרָתוֹ צָרָה לֹא הִנִּיחַ עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה בָעוֹלָם שֶׁלֹּא הִזְכִּירָהּ. כֵּיוָן שֶׁלֹּא הוֹעִיל לוֹ כְּלוּם אָמַר. זָכוּר אֲנִי שֶׁהָיָה אָבִי מַקְרֶא אוֹתִי אֶת הַפָּסוּק הַזֶּה בְּבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת בַּצַּר לְךָ וּמְצָאוּךָ כֹּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד יי אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקוֹלוֹ. כִּי אֵל רַחוּם יְי אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא יַרְפְּךָ וְלֹא יַשְׁחִיתֶךָ וְלֹא יִשְׁכַּח אֶת בְּרִית אֲבוֹתֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לָהֶם. הֲרֵי אֲנִי קוֹרֵא אוֹתוֹ. אִם עוֹנֶה אוֹתִי מוּטָּב וְאִם לָאו הָא כָל אַפְּיָא שָׁוִין. וְהָיוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת מְסַתְּמִין אֶת הַחַלּוֹנוֹת שֶׁלֹּא תַעֲלֶה תְפִילָּתוֹ שֶׁלִּמְנַשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא. וְהָיוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת אוֹמְרִים לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא. רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁלְּעוֹלָם. אָדָם שֶׁעָבַד עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה וְהֶעֱמִיד צֶלֶם בַּהֵיכָל אַתָּה מְקַבְּלוֹ בִתְשׁוּבָה. אָמַר לָהֶן. אִם אֵינִי מְקַבְּלוֹ בִתְשׁוּבָה הֲרֵי אֲנִי נוֹעֵל אֶת הַדֶּלֶת בִּפְנֵי כָל בַּעֲלֵי תְשׁוּבָה. מָה עָשָׂה לוּ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא. חָתַר לוֹ חֲתִירָה מִתַּחַת כִּסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד שֶׁלּוֹ וְשָׁמַע תְּחִינָּתוֹ. הָדָא הִיא דִכְתִיב וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אֵלָיו וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ וַיִּשְׁמַע תְּחִינָּתוֹ וַיְשִׁיבֵיה

 

The angels did not want to accept Menashe's teshuvah.  Maharal (San 102) explains that based on what is just, Menashe did not have a leg to stand on.  However, Hashem doesn't just operate within the lines of justice and the law on the books.  There is pure chessed as well.  Even if every door is closed, even if you have a case where a person has sinned so much that they don't even deserve the door of teshuvah to be open, Hashem says knock anyway.  Knock and I'll make you a door leading right to my kisei ha'hakavod.

(Right at the beginning of Rabeinu Yonah's Shaarei Teshuvah he gives a mashal.  A king locked some prisoners away in a jail.  They managed to tunnel their way out and escape (Shawshank Redemption), with the exception of one prisoner who chose to remain behind.  That one prisoner was singled out for punishment afterwards.  "Why would you not seize the opportunity to escape from prison?!" demanded the king.  The nimshal is our opportunity to do teshuvah and escape the jail of our sins.  If we fail to take advantage, it only adds to our guilt.  My wife always points out that the mashal of a tunnel matches this story of the tunnel Hashem himself made for Menashe.)

 

סלחתי כדברך.  I said a pshat 2 weeks ago in the name of R' Simcha haKohen Kook, but I want to suggest a different pshat.  Most people use the main door.  Some people enter some other way. Your friend may have found a different door; you may have been brought up or learned in yeshiva about some other door.  However, when all is said and done, if none of that works for you, if you can't find or enter any of those doors, then Hashem says, "You use your door.  כדברך -- wherever you want or need the door to be, I'll make sure there is one there."

 

The she'hechiyanu that we say on the night of Y"K is a she'hechiyanu on those new doors, the doors that Hashem has created and opened for each of us. 

 

May each of us find our שׁער, and may Hashem always open all the doors ands gates for us that we need opened, and may this she'hechiyanu of Y"K be followed this year by a she'hechiyanu on bi'as ha'goel.