Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “No one is far and no one is near.”

God summons each of us with the call and the promise: “Return to Me, and I will return to you.”

God calls to each one of us, wherever he is, to return to Him, to draw near to Him, to take refuge under His protecting wings.

In teshuva, no one is far and no one is near; what applies to the near applies equally to the very distant.

God calls out even to those who gloomily imagine that they are as remote as can be.

To them, too, He promises the grace of His emanation, the light of His forgiveness, and the wholeness of unity with Him.

It is not a political party or social body that calls out to those who must return.

God Himself is the One who speaks to each and every individual.

It is He who calls, and it is He who promises.

We should not allow individuals or groups to conceal the true light, the light of God, to which we all must return, nor should we deny the inner will innate in each of us to be a complete Jew.

Let us not hold on to excuses and alibis to delay our return.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz