{"id":66272,"date":"2019-11-27T16:15:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T14:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=66272"},"modified":"2023-06-19T18:19:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:19:33","slug":"opening-the-gates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/opening-the-gates\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening The Gates"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[511,363,816],"acf":{"old_id":"66272","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"360","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"\u00a0For whoever says \u201camen!\u201d","content":"

Our chapter begins with the prophetic promise that <\/span><\/p>\n

In that day [i.e. the End of Days] this song will be sung\u2026Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith (Isaiah 26:1-2).<\/span><\/p>\n

An early midrashic text (Sifra Aharey Mot 8:13 to Leviticus 18:5) derives a remarkably universalistic teaching from our verse — that a non-Jew who observes the Torah is like the Jewish high-priest. For it does not say: Open the gates that the Priests, Levites and Israelites shall come in, but that the \u201crighteous nation may enter\u201d. This suggests that a member of any righteous nation that \u201ckeeps the faith\u201d in the God of Israel by observing the commandments of the God of Israel may receive the reward of life in the World to Come.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 110b, Rabbi Meir is said to have stated that a person, no matter how young, is eligible to enter Paradise, from the first moment he says Amen. This is based on a midrashic re-reading of the final phrase of our verse, read not as shomer \u2018emunim<\/em> (\u201cthat keeps the faith\u201d) but as the similarly sounding Hebrew phrase she-\u2018omer Amen<\/em> (\u201cthat says Amen\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

This midrash seemed to have been quite popular with the Rabbinic Sages. According to Talmud Bavli Shabbat 119b, Resh Lakish states that anyone who responds \u201cAmen\u201d with all his might, the gates of Paradise are opened for him, as it is written, \u201cOpen the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith\u201d. Read not shomer \u2018emunim <\/em>(\u201cthat keeps the faith\u201d) but rather she’omrim amen<\/em> (\u201cwho say amen\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

A later rabbinic text (Seder Eliyyahu Zuta, Chapter 20) employs this midrashic re-reading of our verse in an extraordinary description of the eschatological future. After the Holy One, blessed be He, and those accompanying Him, have eaten together and recited the Grace after Meals, God will take hold of the Torah and give a Halakhic discourse, followed by King David who will give an aggadic discourse. Then the righteous in Paradise will exclaim: \u201cMay His great name be blessed for ever and ever\u201d, to which the transgressors of Israel in Hell will respond \u201cAmen\u201d. God will turn to the ministering angels and ask them: Who are they who are responding Amen from out of Gehenna?! And the angels will answer that these are the transgressors of Israel, for though they are in Hell suffering intense torment, they have summoned up all their remaining strength to cry out before you Amen! Whereupon, God will tell the ministering angels: Open up the Garden of Eden for the transgressors to come and sing Amen before Me. For Scripture states: \u201cOpen the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith [shomer \u2018emunim<\/em>\u2019]\u201d \u2013 those are the people who say Amen (she-\u2018omrim Amen<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Gustave Dor\u00e9 – Henry Francis Cary (ed) (1892) “Canto XXXI” in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Rosa Celeste: Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven, The Empyrean \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":66273,"id":66273,"title":"is26-empyrean","filename":"is26-empyrean.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/opening-the-gates\/is26-empyrean\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is26-empyrean","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66272,"date":"2019-11-27 14:14:54","modified":"2019-11-27 14:15:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":888,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-270x300.jpg","medium-width":270,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-768x852.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":852,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":888,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":888,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":888,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":888,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-378x420.jpg","home_baner-width":378,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Opening The Gates","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"\u00a0For whoever says \u201camen!\u201d","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":66273,"id":66273,"title":"is26-empyrean","filename":"is26-empyrean.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/opening-the-gates\/is26-empyrean\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is26-empyrean","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66272,"date":"2019-11-27 14:14:54","modified":"2019-11-27 14:15:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":888,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-270x300.jpg","medium-width":270,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-768x852.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":852,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":888,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":888,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":888,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":888,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is26-empyrean-378x420.jpg","home_baner-width":378,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116129,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66272\/revisions\/116129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}