Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:
Matthew 7:13: “Enter ye at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat.”
I don’t know about you but this verse always screamed out that there was something during the time of Jesus which presented a picture of this that would have been familiar to the disciples. I’ve searched Christian commentators and found the usual pictures. Some say that this is a picture of ancient cities which had a broad wide gate for all to enter and they also had a narrow gate that was used by only those leaders or important persons.
There are those who say it is a picture of cities in Palestine which have large gates and are open to all and locked at night. Then there are narrow gates which are always closed and opened only to those who knock.
Still others will say that Jesus was alluding to the public and private ways mentioned by Jewish lawyers. Others mention the Tablets of Cebes who was a contemporary of Socrates. He wrote about a little door that few entered and led the way to true culture.
The problem I had with all these illustrations is that none really spoke of salvation. It seemed more to speak of people of privilege or an elite class of people and salvation is for everyone.
One picture does fit and that is there is a small door in the temple entered by the priest. It was sort of a wardrobe room where the priest would go to prepare to offer the sacrifice for the redemption of the people. The door in the temple that led to the Sanhedrin where one was judge was a very wide and broad door. Still that did not seem to be the best picture of salvation because again only a priest walks through the door leading to redemption.
I have to admit it was my study partner who pointed this out to me. But I was researching some of the teachings on the Hebrew letter “Hei.”
Jesus said in Mark 4:11: “To you have been given the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but those who are outside get everything in parables.” To the Jews the Kingdom of God represented knowledge of God. What was given to the disciples that others did not have? Rabbis are noted for their story telling but these stories often carried two messages. One is the message that is very apparent to anyone listening to the story. But the rabbi often hid a hidden message in his stories that only his disciples could understand. Stories told by rabbis many times represented a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. After two or three stories the disciples would have two or three letters which would spell a hidden message.
At the last supper Jesus announced that he was going to have a broken body and shed his blood. The disciples raised no objection; “Nay, master, you shall not die, not if we have anything to do with it.” Why was there no objection? I believe the disciples were looking for the hidden message that their master was giving. He mentioned a broken body. His body was not broken, maybe his skin from the whipping, but I doubt He was referring to that. Scripture tells us not a bone was broken. The disciples hearing this may have thought of the Hebrew letter “Hei” which is called the broken letter. When Jesus spoke of the wine and His blood the disciples would have associated that with the letter “Yod.” Yod, Hei spells the sacred name of God. The disciples may have been so stunned that their master was telling them He was God Jehovah, that they did not pay much attention to his talk of death or even when Judas took off in plain sight.
But back to this letter “Hei.” I read a portion written by Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson to my study partner where he said: “The Sages tell us that the Holy One, Blessed is He, created the world with the letter ‘Hei.’ The shape of this letter hints at the power of free will given to man; it has a wide opening at the bottom, suggesting that, if a person so chooses, there is ample opportunity to descend to the lower realms, but that it is also within one’s power to repent and re-enter the world through the small opening at it’s top.” My study partner immediately quoted Matthew 7:13. All Rabbi Glazerson needed to so was say: “Few there are who find it” and he would have unwittingly quoted a New Testament passage.
I firmly believe Jesus taught esoterically to his disciples and the disciples responded in like manner. When Jesus told of the narrow and wide gate, they could have pictured the letter “Hei.” It is very easy to drop through the bottom of the letter “Hei.” Few there are who find the small opening at the top for you can only find it through repentance.
You do not find your way to the narrow gate through being a lawyer, or prominent citizen. You do not get in my knocking. You only find your way to through that narrow or strait gate, that small opening at the top of the “Hei” through repentance, just as the Sages had taught at the time of Jesus.
Redemption and Salvation is for everyone who is willing to repent. Without repentance there is no remission of sins (Acts 2:38).
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