You stand on Yom Kippur, praying sincerely, asking for forgiveness from the bottom of your heart. You feel that this time it's real - this time you're really going to change. But one month after the holidays you discover that you're back to being exactly who you were. The same thoughts, the same reactions, the same failures. It hurts and it's frustrating - why can't you really change?
The prophet Jonah, whose story we read in the Yom Kippur Haftarah, was in exactly this place. God asked him to go to Nineveh, but Jonah runs away. He goes down to the stern of the ship and falls asleep there. In essence, he does exactly what we all do: tries to hide from the parts of himself that are difficult to deal with.
But suddenly a storm comes, and the ship begins to sink. Everyone prays and Jonah... continues to sleep.
The captain goes down to him and says something amazing: "Why are you asleep? Get up and call on your God!" He doesn't tell him, "Get out of here" or "Why are you hiding?" He tells him that even here, in the stern of the ship, in the lowest and most hidden place - even there, one can call on the Creator.
And here the great secret is revealed: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not wait for us only in the holy and high places. He waits for us precisely in the places we thought were far from Him - in the lowest and most painful parts of us.
A mishnah lesson looking at Yom Kippur, for anyone who wants to break through the barriers that limit them.
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