When G-d Knocks

On the intermediate Sabbath of Passover, we read ‘The Song of Songs’, which is a love poem written by King Solomon. In chapter 5 we read:

"I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
'Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.'

"I have taken off my dress,
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet,
How can I dirty them again?

"I arose to open to my beloved;
But my beloved had turned away and had gone!
I searched for him but I did not find him;
I called him but he did not answer me.

On this surface, ‘Song of Songs” is a love story between a man and woman. In this section, we read the man knocking at the door after the woman had gone to bed. The woman doesn’t want to get out of bed, so leave the man knocking. Eventually she decides to answer the door, but it’s too late. The man had left.

All commentaries agree, that “Song of Songs” is not a love story between man and woman; it’s between G-d and his people. So in this context, the above excerpt is about man not answering G-d when he calls.

Most of us would agree, that if G-d came knocking at your door, you would run to greet him. But how many of us really do? We hear a knock at our spiritual door, and we’re too tired to go answer it. We hear something that peaks our interest, but we’re too tired to study it. We experience something that could be considered miraculous, but we’re content to call it coincidence, so that we don’t have to question our beliefs.

My process of teshuva (return) was started when I decided to go see who was knocking at my door during a very difficult time in my life. Most of the past 2 years has been spent answering the door. The question is, how am I going to react when I see who is on the other side?