ישוב ירחמנוThe Higher Opening

yashuv yeraḥamenuIn Gamatria ↗

The one who returns climbs in through the narrow window above.

People reconciled after an offense rarely love as before; God, says Cordovero, loves the penitent more. He builds on the Talmud's image of the letter heh shaped like an open portico (Menachot 29b): the world lies open below for anyone who wishes to leave, and open above for one who returns. The returner cannot re-enter through the low doorway, since his small fence was already breached; he climbs through the narrow upper opening with stronger safeguards, and so stands higher than the fully righteous (Berakhot 34b). So when someone who wronged us seeks our friendship again, we should bring him closer than before.

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