Find and Seek

Regarding the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Isaiah the Prophet states: “Seek G-d when He is found, call to Him when He is near.”

Someone who was “missing” something in their Jewish observance during the past year might mistakenly think that they have lost their chance with G-d… So he is told: “Seek G-d when He is found.” To find a discovery does not necessarily depend on how much your searched for it. During the Ten Days of Repentance, G-d makes Himself found to you.

Even after he has found G-d, however, he still may not feel “close” to Him. He may not sense G-d’s love. The verse therefore makes known to him that as far as G-d is concerned, He is not only already “found,” He is already “close.”

But the person must utilize this opportunity to its fullest measure through his own service, and therefore the verse states: “Seek G-d when He is found, “Call to Him when He is near.” No matter how close G-d may already be to you, it still depends on you: your seeking Him and calling out to Him turns that “closeness” into a “relationship.”