25 Sep NEILAH UNLOCKED: THE PRAYER OF A SOLDIER WHEN THE GATES OF HEAVEN CLOSE WITH YOU INSIDE

The Cantonist
Abraham Lewin,
the author of a
book in Yiddish
e n t i t l e d ,
K a n t o n i s t e n
(Cantonists) relates a moving incident on
Yom Kippur in an unnamed Russian city.
The Cantonists were child-recruits in the
Russian military. The Russian Tsar, Peter
the Great (1672-1725), devised the system
in which young men were drafted to serve
in the military for prolonged terms. But it
was Tsar Nicholas Pavolovich (1796-
1855), who ruled Russia from 1825 till
1855, who ordered Jewish children to be
drafted, and used the system to force
Jewish children to accept Baptism. The
children were literally stolen from their
homes in the shtetles and forced to serve
for six years as trainees and then another
25 years as soldiers. They faced severe
pressure by all means, including torture, to
become Christian.
It remains one of the most horrific sagas of
Russian Jewish history. All Jewish
communities of Russia were faced with the
Tsars’ quotas of providing young soldiers:

ten recruits from every one thousand men.
And it was mostly children and teens from
age 7 and up. The Tsar issued the orders,
the leaders of each town’s Kahal (Jewish
communal organization) which for the
most part perceived non-compliance as not
an option, provided the recruits, and the
chappers (kidnappers) did the dirty work
for a fee. It was usually the poor kids who
were the recruits, and many Kahal officials
profited from payments from the wealthy
for their sons’ exemptions.
And so, it happened on one Yom Kippur,
that a particular Cantonist entered a shul.
This very fact indicated that he most
probably had never succumbed to the
enormous pressure to accept Baptism. Had
he undergone Baptism, he would have
been officially listed as a Christian and
prohibited from ever entering a synagogue
during the reign of Nicholas.
In recognition of his self-sacrifice, the
congregation appointed the Cantonist to
lead the Neilah prayers — the most
hallowed moment of the year. The gesture
clearly demonstrated one of great
admiration for the man who tenaciously
held on to his faith at all costs.

The soldier of Tsar Nicholas made his way
to the front of the shul. Having forgotten
almost all the religious training he had
received as a child, including the ability to
read Hebrew, he could not recite, nor lead
the Neilah prayers. However, before the
congregation, he expressed a powerful
prayer from the heart, which shook the
entire congregation.
He proclaimed: “Father in Heaven, what
shall I pray for? I cannot pray for children
for I never got married and have no hope to
raise a family. I am too old to start now. I
can’t pray for life, for what value is such a
life? It would be better for me if I died. I
cannot pray to be able to make a living
since Nicholas provides for my daily food;
I do not need any money. The only thing I
can pray for is, “Yisgadal VeYoiskadash
Shmei Rabah,” “May your name be
blessed forever” (from the Kaddish).
When hearing these words, the entire
congregation wept. They wept over the
pain this Jewish soldier endured. They
wept for the tens of thousands of other
Cantonists who were forced to endure the
same hardships, as well as their families.
They also wept when they saw and heard
what a Jew is! At his core he asks for
nothing. Only for Yisgadal Veyiskadash
Shmei Rabah.
Neilah Unlocked
If Judaism were the sport of baseball,
then Yom Kippur’s Neilah prayer would
be the ninth inning of a World Series
game. What is Neilah? It means closure.
The Rabbis taught that this is the time
right before the closing of the gates of
heaven at the end of Yom Kippur, so it is
our last opportunity to ask for what we
need, to repent, to seal ourselves in the
book of life.
Yet this insight is incomplete. Why is the
prayer called Neilah, closure, when it is
the final prayer before the closing of the
gates of heaven?
The Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1963 shared a
new insight into Neilah: During Neilah
the gates of heaven are closed already,
with you inside. During Neilah you are
alone with G-d.
Yom Kippur, the sages say, is the
wedding day between G-d and His bride.
Thus, we dress in white, like a bride at
her wedding. The traditional Jewish
marriage ceremony culminates with the
bride and groom entering a secluded
room (“cheder yichud” in Hebrew) to
spend time alone with each other. Yom
Kippur too culminates with the Neilah,
or closure prayer, so called because as

the sun of Yom Kippur sets, the gates of
heaven close—with us inside.
No matter who you are, where you are,
where you come from, what you know or
don’t know, what you do or don’t do—at
this time of Yom Kippur, you are one with
G-d. G-d invites you alone for an intimate
moment with Him.
Every day we have three prayers — Maariv
(the evening prayer), Shacharis (the
morning prayer) and Mincha (the afternoon
prayer). On Shabbat and every other
Jewish holiday, we have a fourth —
Mussaf (the additional prayer). But only
on Yom Kippur is there a fifth service —
Neilah. This is because Neilah corresponds
to the fifth and highest dimension of the
soul — the Holy of Holies of the soul —
which we access on this one day at this
time.
The soul has five dimensions: Nefesh,
Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah
(Spirit, Breath, Soul, Life, Oneness). They
represent your functional biological life,
your emotional life, your cognitive self,
your transcendental aspirations, and your
core undefined essence, a mirror of Divine
infinity and harmony.
They correspond to the five prayers in
Judaism: Maariv, Shacharit, Mincha,
Mussaf, Neilah. All days of the year we’re
usually able to access the three dimensions
of our soul; on Shabbat we access the
fourth, Chayah. On Yom Kippur can we
access the fifth layer of identity, Yechidah
— the oneness with infinite oneness. It is
the most intimate, vulnerable, gentle part
of the soul of the human being, unshielded
by the defenses of the other levels. We
reach it at the precise moment when Neilah
is said, and when, at its conclusion, we
declare Shema Israel: “Hear O Israel, G-d
is our Lord, G-d is One.”
This was the gift the Cantonist gave to the
community during that Neilah prayer in a
Russian town in the 19th century.