G-d loves us as a mother loves her child

Rosh Hashanah

There are three curious aspects about this period surrounding the Days of Awe that I would like to attempt to analyze. The Bible defines our Jewish New Year’s Day, “A Day of the broken sound of the shofar -- it shall be a Truah for you.” What is the real message of the sound of the shofar?

Secondly, throughout this period, we recite special Penitential Prayers (Slichot). What is the significance of these prayers?

Finally, the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) is commanded to enter the innermost part of the sanctuary -- known as the Holy of Holies -- only twice a year on the same day, Yom Kippur- the Day of Forgiveness. The first time he enters he offers incense in a very difficult act of Divine service. The second time, towards the end of the day, he goes in to this most sacred of places without any specific function mandated by the Bible. What is the significance of this second entry into such a holy place?

The broken, staccato sound of the shofar (truah) is identified by the sages of the Talmud as either three sighs or nine sobs. These sounds cannot but remind us of an infant’s wailing, which is perhaps the most primal sound we know. What is the baby seeking when he looks up at his mother and cries in this way? The most primal need within every human being is the need for love. The most frightening experience is to feel alienated, alone, and unloved. Our most fundamental human need is to be loved unconditionally.

It is precisely this unconditional love that our Parent in Heaven is willing to give to His children on earth. The Chasidic disciples of the revered Rebbe Menahem Mendel of Kotzk once asked him, “Why is it that in Kabbalistic and Chasidic lore the Almighty is referred to as the Shekhinah, usually translated as ‘Divine presence,’ after all, the Hebrew noun Shekhinah is a feminine noun, we are living in a very patriarchal society, ought G-d not be referred to by a masculine noun?”

The Kotzker Rebbe smiled and explained with an analogy that might be a bit anachronistic, but which contains a most profound message. “It is the way of the world,” he said, “that when a father comes home after a difficult day’s work, he derives great relaxation from playing with his infant child, but once the baby messes its diaper, he gives the baby to its mother to clean it up. Still the father watches his wife as she changes the diaper; sees how she tenderly kisses the baby, as she cleans it. She accepts her child with its filth and that is precisely the way G-d accepts us with His Divine and unconditional love.”

This is the true meaning of our penitential prayers. Again and again we repeat the names or partial descriptions of G-d that the Almighty revealed to Moses as the great prophet stood at the cleft of a rock: “Lord, Lord (Y-HVH) G-d of Compassion (Rahum) and Freely-giving Love (Hanun), long suffering, full of kindness and truth … ” (Exodus 34:6)

Our sages explain that “the Lord of Love” is written twice because G-d loves us before we sin and G-d still loves us after we sin. The Hebrew word for compassion (rahum) is built on the Hebrew noun rehem, which means womb. G-d loves us unconditionally just like a mother loves a child of her womb unconditionally. The shofar sound is a human cry for love. The penitential prayer is G-d’s loving response to our tearful request.

The High Priest, who serves as a representative of the entire Jewish people, spends Yom Kippur engaged in presenting sacrificial offerings to the Divine. At the end of the day, he enters the Holy of Holies just as he is, with no offering at all. He is asking G-d to accept him just as he is.

And this is precisely the meaning of the very last request of the penitential Prayers “Avinu Malkaynu” (Our Father, our King): “Be gracious to us and answer us because we have no worthy deeds to speak up for us; do for us an act of charity, an unconditional loving kindness and save us.” And we actually sing these words out loud in order to express our joy in a G-d who loves us unconditionally.

Someone once went to Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov and asked him what was the proper way to repent. The rabbi told him to make two separate piles of papers. On one pile, he should write the names of all those people for whom he did favors; in the second pile he should write the names of all those people who wronged him. He must then make a fire and cast both piles into the flames in order to demonstrate that just as G-d loves us unconditionally, we must love every other human being unconditionally as well -- and we must never expect any reward or thanks for the good things we do.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the chief rabbi (Orthodox) of Efrat, Israel.