a pre-Yom Kippur Ne'ilah thought

A Yom Kippur thought (really about the Ne'ilah service but I'm putting it out there nowbecause the point is not to wait until the gates have closed). Inspired and driven by the words of Rabbi David Sher.

There is a commonly quoted idea about the month of Elul and the days of repentance -- these are days when we can approach God because, as the phrase says, the king is in the field. God is available, not in his palace, guarded by layers of intermediaries, but wandering among us, willing to meet us with a smile whenever and wherever we make any attempt to reach him. It is a nice thought.

I see the metaphor as more than that. We don't just see the king in the field and shout "Hey, Mr. King, I need a ______" or "I'd like to _____" and let him walk away while we go back to our business. We, realizing the unique opportunity, leverage the moment to walk with the king. We are elevated by his presence and we bask in that, hoping to eke out a little more of his glow by increasing our time with him. We pray longer and harder, with words that underscore his position and our realization of it. Daily, for more than a month we meet the king in the field, accompanying him on a long walk during which we relish the chance to discuss our dreams, our fears, successes and failures.

Then we realize that we have wandered with him on his long path back to his palace. By the afternoon of Yom Kippur we have made it all the way to the gates. At this point, the king walks in and we, stopped by his guards, can only address him from across the threshold. We take the last opportunity to make our case, and show who we are, who we have become and who we can still turn in to. The gates are closing -- the Ne'ilah service is that shutting of the gate. God will not be inaccessible but he won't be right there -- we will have to go through channels for the next 11 months. So we take those final moments to shout to the king through the slowly closing gate. We know the gates can be opened through tears and prayer, but the prayers will still have to wend their way to the king. Our walk is over. Time to go home and get back to the way things were before.

So while the king is still in the field, or on the road, or in the driveway, let's take advantage of his availability and pour our hearts into his service so that when the gates begin to close we don't get desperate and fearful, but instead can understand that we will always have the key and we, WE, escorted a king until the very last moment that we were allowed to.