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Yamim Noraim Tefillot

NEIL A

The Human Gates of Neila

Rabbi Moshe Taragin

he Neila experience is domi- me, I’ll go one step further. I’ll stick my That door is not the gate of heaven, but
nated by a sense of forebod- hand through the door. Just take my rather the gate of the human heart –
ing and last-minute urgency. hand.” Finally, the woman awakens. the only gate whose key Hashem does
TFour tefillot have already been Slowly, she gets up to open the door, not possess. For Him to enter and create
completed throughout Yom Kippur: her hands filled with the aroma of that rendezvous, a human being must
Ma’ariv, Shacharit, Mussaf and Mincha. perfume, and her fingers on the lock let Him in. The goal of Neila is not to
At this stage during Neila, the gates are of the door. look towards heaven, to try to halt the
closing. Our tefillot may not ascend and closing of the gates of tefilla. It is a time
may not penetrate Shamayim in time. This interaction is a parable for our of internalization, of looking into our
people’s relationship with Hashem.
There’s an urgency to daven furiously Hashem pursues the Jewish people, own hearts, of trying to open our hearts
and desperately to assure that our tefil- to allow Hashem to enter.
lot do indeed ascend at the last minute asking us to open the door to let Him in.
Slowly, lethargically, the Jewish people
before the gates slam shut. The Midrash teaches us that the true
arise, attempting to open the door for drama of Yom Kippur is not whether
Over the years, before Hashem. our tefillot will or will not be accepted,
Neila, Rabbi Yehu- “I rose up to open to my beloved; my but whether we will become one with
dah Amital related Hashem. Hashem is trying to open
the following hands dripped with myrrh, and my the door. He’s on the other side of the
fingers with flowing myrrh, upon the
r e v ol u tionary handles of the door” (Shir Hashirim entrance of the human heart, trying to
perspective:
5:5). The Midrash likens this scene to enter. He’s our ally. He’s cooperating.
Shir HaShirim the sequence of prayers on Yom Kippur. Will a rendezvous occur? This is the
describes a court- The woman’s rising is Shacharit, her drama of Neila; it is our attempt to pry
ship between a man “hands full of myrrh” refers to Mussaf. open the gates of the human heart and
and a woman, which “My fingers with flowing myrrh,” as allow Hashem to enter.
is meant to capture the she draws ever closer to her beloved, May we open the door and let Hashem
courtship between Hashem, is Mincha. And finally, when she takes into our hearts!
the man, and the Jewish people, the the door to open it - this is Neila. Slowly
woman. Throughout history we have but surely, Yom Kippur culminates in  Adpated from a shiur given as part of the
sought each other, trying to unite, Neila as the Jewish people respond to ‘Rabbi Moshe Taragin on Rav Amital z”l’
trying to rendezvous. In the Megilla, Hashem’s call and open the door to series.
when the man seeks the woman, allow G-d in.
Hashem is looking for us; when the
woman seeks the man, we are looking Traditionally, Neila is understood as
our attempt to keep the doors of heaven
for Hashem.
open, to allow our tefillot to ascend. In
In chapter 5, the courtship reaches a this Midrash, however, the door we Rabbi Moshe Taragin has taught at Yeshivat
critical point. The man solicits the love are trying to open is not the door of Har Etzion since 1994. He previously taught
of his beloved in a direct way, knocking heaven, potentially blocking our tefil- Talmud at Columbia University and Yeshiva
on her door – kol dodi dofek! He pleads lot. It is the door that separates man University, and served as Assistant Rabbi at
with her to open the door, but she is from woman, the door that separates the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. Rabbi Taragin
A member of indolent. “I’m already in my pajamas, Hashem from His people and the door is the author of the popular online shiur
the Mizrachi it’s too hard to wake up. I’ve already between Hashem and our own heart. “Talmudic Methodology” and he co-wrote
Speakers Bureau washed my legs, I don’t want to dirty This is the door that we have tried to the commentary for the The Krengel Family
mizrachi.org/ them.” At which point, the man says: open through all of Yom Kippur and World Mizrachi Edition of the Koren Yom
speakers “Well, if you can’t answer the door for hopefully can pry open during Neila. HaAtzma’ut Machzor.

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