Street Smarts

AS the entire intense period of teshuvah reaches its climax at Ne’ilah, it’s noteworthy that we invoke in the final prayer, “Atah nosein yad l’poshim v’yeminchah peshutah l’kabel shavim — You give a hand to sinners, and Your right hand is extended to those who return.” A few lines later, we again say, “You desire the return of the wicked, and You don’t want them to die,” and then we proceed to recite four additional pesukim that all affirm that same theme.

We might have thought after an entire Elul, followed by the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, which are then capped by a Yom Hakippurim, it would be obvious beyond all doubt that Hashem wishes for nothing more than for His creations to return all the way home to Him. And yet, in these last moments of the season of teshuvah, we’re quoting pesukim one after another as if we need to be convinced of this truth.

It seems, perhaps, that the thing holding us back from finally, truly repenting and throwing ourselves into Hashem’s open arms (kivyachol) is that deep down, we still have a hard time believing that Hashem would want to accept us back after the way we’ve sullied ourselves, that we could possibly be worthy of His hand being outstretched and beckoning to us.

There’s a human analog to this idea, too, in the uncertainty many of us have about whether we’re worthy of another’s attention and beneficence. A study in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science reports on recent large-scale experiments that yielded the conclusion that people who need help from others consistently underestimate how willing both friends and strangers are to assist, as well as how good the helpers feel afterward.