From Jewish Answers, by Rabbi Shmuel Jablon
Neilah of Yom Kippur: The Closing of the Gates
Neilah, literally "the locking of the gates," is the final chance on Yom Kippur to beseech Hashem for forgiveness. As the Sephardi piyyut says, "Awesome G-d, find for us forgiveness at this hour of the locking of the gates." Neilah is the culmination of all of our prayers. HaRav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt"l notes that neilah is unique among all others services of the year. While on all other days we are obligated to daven three times, Yom Kippur is, itself, a day of prayer. The three other services are combined with this last opportunity to give the day that designation (as a day of prayer). Rav Soloveitchik says that if one has not prayed the other services of the day, he has lost the opportunity to pray Neilah. It cannot fulfill its function on its own.
What can we do at the last moments of Yom Kippur? We are tired. We are hungry. Often we do not understand the ancient words we say…even if we think we do. We must pray for our lives, the lives of our families and of our entire nation. We must beg and plead as if our lives were at stake, for surely this is the case.
About 24 hours before Neilah, we say the Kol Nidre. We start the holiest day of the year with a seemingly technical recitation of a formula that is to absolve us of mistaken vows of both the past and the future. But prior to Rosh HaShannah, we participated in Hattarat haNedarim- the annulling of vows. Why must we do it again? And why must we do it again on this most awesome of days? Rav Yitzchak Sender brings a beautiful answer (see The Commentator's Machzor Companion). On Yom Kippur, perhaps out of fear, we might renew some vows. Perhaps we might make some promises we do not mean. Perhaps we might even shed "crocodile tears." But as we start Yom Kippur with Kol Nidre, we remind ourselves that Hashem only wants sincere prayers and sincere commitments.
At the end of Neilah, we blow the shofar. Why? Numerous answers are given by our sages. Rav Sender notes the idea that the shofar is blown to announce that the Shechina (the Divine Presence) is ascending from the Camp of Israel back to, as it were, the Heavens. According to the Kotzker Rebbe, after the shofar blew following the revelation of the Torah, Hashem told Moshe to send the Jewish People back to their tents. The true test would now begin. It wasn't difficult to serve Hashem in His Presence at Mount Sinai. But what would we do when we got home? This is a direct parallel to Yom Kippur (which is also the anniversary of the giving of the second set of "Tablets"). It is easy to make promises on the awesome day of Yom Kippur. It is easy to be holy on the holiest day of the year. But the shofar reminds us that Hashem wants to see what we will do when we go home.
Yet, when Neilah begins, we are not ready for the final shofar blasts. We still have one last chance to confess and return to Hashem. Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl shlit"a asks why verbal confession of sin (vidui) is an intrinsic part of the mitzvah of teshuva. Surely Hashem knows what we have done (even more than we do). Rav Nebenzahl suggests that people have a natural desire to look good, pure and innocent before others, and certainly before themselves. Verbal confession forces us to say, and hear ourselves say, that we were wrong. We have no excuses. We must change our ways. We know our faults. Hashem certainly knows them.
Neilah is our final chance to admit to Hashem and to ourselves that we are far from perfect. We must also take the final chance to take upon ourselves true commitments about what we will do to try to correct these imperfections. But we must be honest. We must remember that Hashem wants sincere teshuvah u'tefillah and commitment to do what we can do, and what we know in our hearts we must do. If we mean it, if we believe in our hearts and minds that we will do better, our prayers will make it into the gates before they lock.
As the Sephardi piyyut says, "May you merit long years, sons and daughters, with joy and gladness at the time of the locking of the gates."
We do not have to be perfect. Our hirhurei teshuvah- sincere thoughts of repentance- are our commitments. But they must be honest, and coupled with concrete steps. What will we do to be better? Neilah is a time for honest commitment and the most sincere, heartfelt prayers of the year. It is the time to pray like our lives are at stake. They are.
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