Gates of Hope Rabbi Michael G . Kohn
Gates are designed for a singular purpose — to impede the flow of people , animals , or machines , or to allow them to pass through . Gates can be physical , electronic , and I am certain , spiritual . My life has been a series of passages through one gate or another , each time opening up a new path to follow . Each time I found a gate closing in front of me , I firmly believe that God opened another one for me — one that created a life that was better than the one I was living .
Every year on Yom Kippur , as the light of the day transitions through twilight towards the darkness of night , I stand facing the open Aron HaKodesh during the Neilah service , anticipating that verse that has guided me through much of my life . P ’ tach Lanu Sha ’ ar B ’ eit N ’ ilat Sha ’ ar — “ Open for us a gate , at the time a gate is closing ”. As we sang in the U ’ nitaneh Tokef earlier in the day , “ On Rosh HaShannah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed .” Our fate for the coming year is sealed as the gates of heaven close . So we pray that a gate remains open for our final prayers of the day to ascend .
As we were singing Pit ’ chu li sha ’ arei tzedek (“ Open for me the gates of righteousness ”) at Simchat Torah services on October 7 , what opened instead were the gates of unmitigated evil . And in the days and weeks and months that followed , throughout the diaspora the floodgates opened and unleashed a storm of
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