Closed Doors-Opened Doors
BY MOSHE KATZ 
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL

April 12, 2026, Israel

Saturday morning, Shabbat, I was sitting in the synagogue, as is our tradition, and I was reciting the same prayers, the same words, that I have recited since I was a child. the morning prayers, praising God; God who opens every day the doors of the gates of the east.   

האל הפותח בכל יום דלתות שערי מזרח

I have recited these words, this phrase, perhaps almost automatically countless times, from my earliest days until now. The location has changed many times, from our synagogue in Boston to our beloved synagogue in Savyon, Israel where I marked my Bar Mitzvah, to synagogues around the world. The surrounding people have changed, from my father, my grandfather, my uncles, my brothers, to members of the tribe worldwide, to our beloved community here in Mitzpe Nevo, but the words never change, and daily God opens the door or the gates of the east. This never changes.

Was does this really mean?

Honestly, I am not sure, but I feel it. The sun rises in the east. The day begins, as it always has, with the sun rising. This expression has been given various interpretations, the rising of the sun and breaking through the portals of darkness, or the gateway as the daybreak.

The congregation was singing, and it felt like a heavenly choir this particular Shabbat morning, with this background I looked at those words again and again. God who opens daily the doors of the gates of the east...

Things have been difficult lately, for all of us, in fact for most of the world, uncertainly, rising oil prices, challenges for everyone. and for me personally, honestly, a particularly difficult time, travel cancelled, no students arriving. It has been a difficult six years, starting with the Coronavirus restrictions, right into the October 7 invasion, the Gaza War, the 7 - Front War, the First Iran War, the Second Iran War. I was always taught to "put money aside for a rainy day", but this has been more than "rain", it has been a storm, with airports closed, no students arriving, and it has not been a "day", but years! 

And I hear the congregation, the heavenly choir, and I say the words...and God daily opens the doors...and I think. Yes, things are difficult, yes, at times I feel helpless, but then I remember, every day the sun rises, as God promised, and these difficult times shall not bury us, with every day the door opens with new opportunities, if we see them. I am reminded, at this private moment in the synagogue, to hope, to believe, to remember that even now every day there is an open door. The question is ...will we enter it?

And I think, there are various possibilities in life, when it comes to doors. 

1. Some do not know that a door exists, this is just fate, and there is nothing we can do. 
2. Some know there is a door, but they see it as permanently locked to people like us. We are stuck in our misery and we cannot get out.
3. Some see the door, and know that it can open, but they are afraid to open it. They cannot "think outside the box", and fear to enter the unknown.
4. Some see the door but do not think it is for them, only for others. 
5. Some see the door, and enter. 

"There was an immediate knock at the door and a man he’d never seen before in these lodgings entered." (Der Prozess, The Trial, Franz Kafka)

In The Trial, Der Prozess, Franz Kafka uses doors as imagery. Throughout the story we see the experience of doors opening, strangers entering, and lives forever changing. Doors are opportunities but also a source of danger, fear. An open door can also let in misfortune. A man enters "Josef K"s door and forever changes his life for the worse. 

A man from the country seeks "the law" and wishes to gain entry to it through an open doorway, but the doorkeeper tells the man that he cannot go through at the present time. The man asks if he can ever go through, and the doorkeeper says it is possible "but not now (jetzt aber nicht)".

The man waits by the door for years, bribing the doorkeeper with everything he has. The doorkeeper accepts the bribes, but tells the man he only accepts them "so that you do not think you have left anything undone". We see Josef K waiting patiently, not understanding, and gradually growing old, as he nears the end of his life the doorkeeper tells him, at the end, the door was meant for you alone.

"No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."

We discover that all along we could have entered the door, in fact that door was for no one but us, and yet we somehow lacked the courage to enter, we waited too patiently, as F. Dostoevsky writes in Crime and Punishment, "I should like to know what people fear most: whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine."

These are challenging times, but yet I am reminded that there are doors, and they are open, and daily the sun rises as God opens the doors of the gates of the east. And there is hope.

Comments

Dear Moshe,

once again, I feel the urge to write to you. 

Your words have stayed with me for quite some time. Not just as thoughts, but as something that continues to work quietly in the background. You speak about the gates of the East opening every day. And I found myself wondering whether the opening itself is perhaps not the difficult part. Maybe it simply happens—steadily, faithfully, beyond our worries. What moves us more deeply is whether we can still find the courage to recognize that something is open at all.In times that feel like a storm, our view narrows. We see less of the horizon and more of what is missing, what is threatened, what no longer works as it once did. And in that space, a quiet uncertainty grows: not whether there are doors, but whether they are still meant for us.And yet, perhaps there is a deeper truth in this: that what is essential has not changed. That the morning does not ask how the night has been. That the light does not hesitate because we doubt. Your reflections on doors reminded me of something: it is not always fear in the loud sense that holds us back. Often it is a quiet hesitation, a waiting, a “maybe later.” And sometimes more time passes in that space than we realize.I have the feeling that you are carrying a great deal at the moment—more than can easily be put into words. And perhaps this is exactly where those ancient words find their true strength: not as an explanation, but as a gentle contradiction to the feeling that everything has come to a standstill. Because as long as something opens—even if it is only a small space within—there is still movement. There are days when the only open door is simply not to give up.And perhaps it is not always about stepping through immediately. Sometimes it is enough just to see the door again.

I am thinking of you

Peter (Ort, Germany)

Moshe2021

Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.

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