“He locks the door behind us”

We are moving towards Yom Kippur in giant strides. The coming Shabbat is Shabbat Haazinu, and it is called Shabbat Shuva — after the first word of the haftara we shall read.

So the Shabbat carries the name of its haftara — and it carries the business of these days as well: teshuva, which is the return to Hashem. And always, always, we read Haazinu before Yom Kippur, just as we read Nitzavim before Rosh Hashana.

So we shall speak about Yom Kippur. But to understand what Yom Kippur is, we have to begin with Rosh Hashana.

If you pay attention, everything we do on Rosh Hashana has one object: to sweeten the dinim.

The holy Zohar asks: what is “and it was the day”? And it answers: that day is Rosh Hashana.

In other words: on Rosh Hashana the Satan too presents himself, in the upper worlds, among the sons of Elokim. And what does he come to do? The very worst thing there is: to bring the black list and read it out.

We know that this is the day on which the world was conceived, the day Adam was created, sinned and did teshuva. That is why it was fixed as the day of judgment: all who come into the world pass before Him like sheep being counted.

And since it is a day of judgment, a hard day, we perform all sorts of acts meant to soften its severity — or, put differently, to make the accuser give way.

The most obvious of these acts: the apple and the honey. May the year be sweet, may it be good and sweet. And see how it works — it sweetens the severities.

We also blow the shofar, we say Tashlich: all these acts have one purpose, to make the judgment give way, to make the one who tries to accuse us give way.

But the most powerful instrument, the one with which we fight the Satan, is the shofar. Let us learn a little in depth, in a few minutes, how the shofar itself does the whole work.

We know that the four-letter Name is the measure of kindness, and that Elokim is the measure of severity. Why? Because El means a force, and Elokim, many forces: they are the forces that run nature.

And indeed ha-teva — nature — comes to exactly the same: eighty-six. These are the forces that drive nature. Now a force requires power, and power requires gevura: which is why the gevurot are the severities, and why they are contained in that Name.

Facing the five forces of kindness, then, there are five forces of severity. And the word Elokim can be read in several ways. Watch.

The first way is to write each letter out in full, what is called the milui. Aleph is spelled aleph-lamed-peh. Lamed is spelled lamed-mem-dalet. Heh is spelled heh-yod. Mem is spelled mem-mem. Yod is spelled yod-vav-dalet.

Aleph-lamed-peh: one, plus thirty, plus eighty — one hundred and eleven. Lamed-mem-dalet: thirty, plus forty, plus four — seventy-four. Heh-yod: five plus ten — fifteen. Yod-vav-dalet: ten, plus six, plus four — twenty. Mem-mem: forty plus forty — eighty.

Add them: eighty, plus twenty, plus fifteen, plus seventy-four, plus one hundred and eleven. You get three hundred.

Next, in the word shofar, we have the vav and the peh.

Eighty-six. What is eighty-six? It is Elokim in its plainest count: one, plus thirty, plus five, plus ten, plus forty.

What is left? The resh. The resh is two hundred. How do we reach two hundred?

The same way one says Na Nach Nachma Nachman: you advance one letter at a time. Aleph. Aleph-lamed. Aleph-lamed-heh. Aleph-lamed-heh-yod. Aleph-lamed-heh-yod-mem.

Two hundred. The resh.

There is something more in the shofar itself. Take its beginning: the shin and the vav — sho — that makes three hundred and six. And the one who blows holds the shofar in his hand. Yad, the hand, is fourteen.

Why is the hand called yad? We have learnt it already: because it has fourteen joints. Each finger has three — one, two, three. Four full fingers make twelve. And the thumb has only two. Total: fourteen.

The hand, which is fourteen, holds the sho: together we get three hundred and twenty. And what is three hundred and twenty?

We said there are five gevurot, five dinim. The word din is sixty-four. Sixty-four times five: three hundred and twenty. The one who blows, holding the shofar in his hand, reaches exactly the count of the five severities.

And see what is left: par. The peh and the resh are two hundred and eighty. What is two hundred and eighty? It is the value of the five final letters.

Mem, nun, tzadi, peh, chaf — the letters mantzepach. And those letters are severity. Why? Because everything that is final is severity.

Finally, just to open the ear, and with this we shall finish this chapter — because I think I have filled your heads well enough. The word sho, which is three hundred and six, has the same value as devash, honey.

This whole introduction I made in order to reach Yom Kippur. Let us now look for what we do on Kippur to sweeten the severities.

Honey? There is none. No food, no drink, no conversation, no sandal, nothing. So what sweetening of severities are we doing? There is no shofar.

The selichot, perhaps? But on Rosh Hashana, precisely in order to sweeten the judgment, we refrain from saying hatanu avinu pashanu. And on Kippur it looks as though we are stoking the fire instead: the selichot, and Vaya’avor said again and again.

Here is the surprise: there is no judgment on Yom Kippur.

The whole reason we have to sweeten the severities is that there is someone — that fly buzzing endlessly around the courtroom, trying to accuse Israel. Who is it? The Satan. And what happens to him on Kippur? He is suspended. There is no Satan on Yom Kippur.

There are three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and he has three hundred and sixty-four. He arrives on the eve of Kippur, he comes to the courtroom, and he is told: off you go, today you are on leave, we do not need you here. The Holy One blessed be He judges Israel alone, and settles with them one to one.

One might ask: why take that particular day away from him?

Because on that day, thank God, we are all righteous. Who says so? The angels. They say to the Holy One blessed be He: look at Israel, they are exactly like holy angels. They do not eat, they do not drink, they are dressed in white, they stand all day long as the angels stand. No marital union, no conversation, no food, no drink: all of them in prayer.

Everyone tends to think it is because on that day the Holy One blessed be He said to Moshe salahti kidvarekha, “I have forgiven according to your word”.

You remember: after the sin of the calf, Moshe Rabbenu went up a third time and came down with the second tablets in his hands. On what day did he come down? The tenth of Tishrei. Rashi says so at the opening of Vayakhel: “Vayakhel Moshe — this teaches that it was the day after Yom Kippur, when he came down from the mountain.” So the fortieth day was indeed the tenth of Tishrei, and on that day Hashem said salahti kidvarekha.

Where do I bring this from? I am inventing nothing, God forbid. Let us go to psalm one hundred and thirty-nine, where David Hamelech speaks of his own unformed substance — and, in truth, of the first man.

Look at the word velo: there is a keri and a ketiv here. It sounds the same either way, but there is a version velo with an aleph — “and not one of them” — and a version velo with a vav — “and to Him, one among them”.

Rashi brings both in the name of the midrash. According to the written tradition, with an aleph: in the end, many days were destined to be created, and not one of them had yet been created. And according to the reading, with a vav: “days were formed” — the Holy One blessed be He showed Adam the days that were to come, and He set one of them apart for Himself. Which? The day of Shabbat. Another explanation: it is the day of Kippur.

Let us take one more point, and then we shall put it all together. How many mitzvot do we have in the Torah? Six hundred and thirteen: three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions and two hundred and forty-eight positive commandments.

Now: how many of those six hundred and thirteen did the Holy One blessed be He give us Himself, and how many did Moshe Rabbenu give us in His name? It is easy to remember, from the verse: “Torah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha kehillat Yaakov”.

The word Torah is six hundred and eleven. That is what Moshe commanded us. And the other two? They are the two words spoken from the mouth of the Power itself, at Mount Sinai: Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and lo yihyeh lecha elohim acherim al panai.

Remember: at the first word their soul flew out of them; He let fall upon them a dew of resurrection, and they rose. He said the second — lo yihyeh lecha elohim acherim al panai — and again their soul flew out, and again the dew. Then they said to Moshe: you speak with us, and we shall listen; let God not speak with us, lest we die.

When I say three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions, and I also say three hundred and sixty-five sinews, I hear the number three hundred and sixty-five and I cannot help thinking of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year.

So we have three hundred and sixty-five days facing three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions. Which day, then, among those three hundred and sixty-five, carries the prohibition “you shall have no other gods before My face”? Yom Kippur.

And why does this matter? Because there is a principle. The Holy One blessed be He gave us the Torah — but He Himself is bound to keep the Torah He gave us. I bring it in the language of the Jerusalem Talmud:

A king of flesh and blood does as he pleases: he forbids you to cross on red, and he will cross on red as often as he likes, because he is the king. The Holy One blessed be He is not so. If He says to keep Shabbat, He keeps Shabbat Himself, if one may speak that way. He is a King who honours the Torah He gave.

One might object: does that mean that on other days there are other gods? God forbid. Let us put this in order.

The four-letter Name is oneness: one, and His Name is one. But Elokim means many forces. The Holy One blessed be He appears in the world through several forces: there is a force called by the four-letter Name, a force called Elokim, a force called Shaddai, there is Tzevakot, there is Ado-nai. These are the forces through which He appears in His world.

But know this: Hashem, He is Elokim. Do not think that the Elokim you see — in brackets: nature — is some power or entity of its own. It is not. That too is Him. Hashem is the Elokim who rules everything, because He is one, unique and alone.

This glass stands here and does not move: you will call it gravity, Newton, all sorts of forces and all sorts of explanations from the scholars of nature. But what holds the glass standing here, now, is the Holy One blessed be He. That is clear; that is simple.

A second point I want to draw from all this. We said the six hundred and thirteen mitzvot correspond to the three hundred and sixty-five sinews and the two hundred and forty-eight limbs. So which sinew, among the three hundred and sixty-five, corresponds to “you shall have no other gods before My face”?

One might say the sciatic nerve. Perhaps. But it emerges from the holy books that the sinew corresponding to that prohibition — the one that is the root of all roots — is a sinew found in the heart. In the heart itself.

And that has an enormous consequence. We are always looking for the Jewish spark, are we not? A Jew as far away as can be, who left everything, who keeps nothing, who went off to India, tattoos, earrings, whatever it may be. Or, in the terrible times, Jews who had abandoned everything and had no connection left to anything at all.

And now a sefer Torah is unrolled before such a man, and he is told: you belong to nothing, tread on it. What is it, at that precise second, that makes him refuse and say: I am ready to die, but I will not tread on a sefer Torah?

And now the verse reads in its plainest sense.

What does that mean? We know where a brit mila is performed. What has the heart to do with it? It is that there is in the heart that inner point, and that it has become covered with an orla. And what is the orla? The layers.

So what does the Holy One blessed be He do when you do teshuva? He performs the brit: He cuts away the orla of the heart and lays bare that inner point, the one that joins us back to Him.

And the ears? The ears have an orla too. They are covered with all the grime that keeps us at a distance from the Holy One blessed be He. The moment the heart is uncovered, the ears open and you become able to hear.

And since this is so, here is the key to Yom Kippur. When you come and say, at the opening of Kippur, Kol Nidrei — what exactly are you saying?

You are saying: everything I vowed, all of it — when I vowed it I was not in my right mind. Had I known, had I known that what I am doing is not right, I would not have vowed. Had I known that the transgressions I commit are so grave — then why did you commit them?

I am not a sinner: I do foolish things. Because truly, truly, in my real inner point, I want to be joined to the Holy One blessed be He; I do not want to think of anything else at all.

To finish, I want to repeat something I have said in previous years. Neila. What picture does every Jew have of the Neila prayer, at the moment the heichal is opened?

The picture is this: the Holy One blessed be He is about to lock the gates. It is the hour of closing. And what must be done before the gates are shut? Get in as many prayers as possible, as many blessings, speed up, slip in as much as we can before they close.

That is the picture we have, is it not? Do you agree with me? We imagine the courtroom, the King seated on a high throne, and ourselves standing before the heichal, one minute before closing — and afterwards there is nothing left to ask for.

And what are we, inside? Nothing but us and Him, one to one. And if there are still accusers left, or any who would like at the last moment to say something about His children — the gates are locked. They cannot come in.

In other words: the hour of Neila is a very, very high hour. If until now we were with the Holy One blessed be He one to one, we are now in complete intimacy.

And what do we say to Him? We say: ein od milvado, there is nothing besides Him. And what does He say? He says: there is nothing besides them. These are My children, and there are no others. Anyone who wants to come and accuse and say something is outside, behind the door. He has nothing to look for here.

Now we understand why our Sages chose to end the prayer of Yom Kippur as they did. How do we finish Neila? Shema Israel, Hashem Elokenu, Hashem echad. Baruch shem kevod malchuto. And Hashem hu haElokim, seven times.

And who is it that cries out that cry? In the beit haknesset, at Neila, you see people you have not seen all year — who have not seen themselves all year. With a kippa, without a kippa. It makes no difference. All of Israel. Look at what happens at the Kotel from Rosh Chodesh Elul: fifty, sixty thousand people every night. You bring the camera close and you ask: where did they even come from? What connection do they have? They are connected, and how.

What moves them? That sinew, the one in the heart, the one that heard at Sinai directly from the Holy One blessed be He: Anochi Hashem Elokecha, lo yihyeh lecha elohim acherim al panai. When it wakes, it wakes — and it wakes at the hour of Neila.

Stop him and ask: what are you saying there? He will answer: it is clear to me that Hashem is Elokim. But you do not keep the mitzvot. Do not confuse me: I have only just come to this awareness. What happens to me afterwards, Hashem will help me. But right now, ein od milvado. That is clear. That is perfectly simple.

And pay attention to what happens to the Satan. We said he is suspended: he is three hundred and sixty-four, he is one short, there is one day in the year on which he is not on duty.

Let us step into his head for a moment. He is told: off with you, today you are not working, you have nothing to accuse, I and My children are one to one. What do you suppose he goes off to do? Take a holiday, go sunbathe at the beach? We are on Kippur with the Holy One blessed be He — and he, what is he doing?

And what is he looking for now? There it is, it is starting: lashon hara. That one thought of nothing but food all day. That one is running. The confusion during arvit. “Leave me alone, I have prayed all day, let me get home, I am hungry.” He is looking for them, all those actors who a minute earlier were shouting Shema Israel, Hashem hu haElokim. Let us see you now, he says, a minute later.

That is why the halacha tells us what to do the moment Kippur goes out: go home, eat, drink, and start building the sukkah right away. Give him no opening, do not occupy yourself with things he would have something to say about. For we now have four days to prepare the sukkah and bring the Shechina into it — and to create an unbroken continuity of unity and attachment to the Holy One blessed be He.

It is with that feeling, God willing, that we must enter Yom Kippur — and come out of it.

May we be written and sealed for a good life and for peace, we and all Israel, for good tidings and good decrees, for the fulfilment of all the desires of our heart for good and for blessing; and may we merit to learn always, and to make the Torah great and glorious.