Take the road to the gate of mercy:

Every year at this time, the Ba'al Shem Tov held a competition to see who would blow the shofar for him on Rosh HaShannah. Now if you wanted to blow the shofar for the Ba'al Shem Tov, not only did you have to blow the shofar like a virtuoso . . . but you also had to learn an elaborate system of kavanot - secret prayers that were said just before you blew the shofar, to direct the shofar blasts - to see that they had the proper effect in the supernal realms.

All the prospective shofar blowers practiced these Kavanot for months. They were difficult and complex. And there was one fellow who wanted to blow the shofar for the Ba'al Shem Tov so badly, that he had been practicing these Kavanot for years. But when his time came to audition before the Ba'al Shem, he realized that nothing he had done had prepared him adequately for the experience of standing before this great and holy man, and he appled. He choked. His mind froze completely. . . . He just stood before the Ba'al Shem in utter silence, and then, when he realized how egregiously - how utterly - he had failed this great test. His heart just broke in two and he began to weep, sobbing loudly, his shoulders heaving and his whole body wracking as he wept.

"All right, you're hired," the Ba'al Shem said.

"But I don't understand," the man said. "I failed the test completely. I couldn't even remember one Kavanah."

So the Ba'al Shem explained with the following Mashal, the following parable: In the palace of the king, there are many secret chambers, and there are secret keys for each chamber. But one key unlocks them all, and that key is the axe.

The king is ribono shel olam, the Ba'al Shem explained. The palace is the House of God. The secret chambers are the sefirot, the ascending spiritual realms that bring us closer and closer to God when we perform mitzvot such as blowing the shofar with the proper intention, and the secret keys are the kavanot. And the axe - the key that opens every chamber and brings us directly into the presence of the King wherever he may be - the axe is the broken heart, as it says in the book of psalms - "karov adonai lishburey lev" - God is close to the broken hearted.

God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the Land of Israel. In the Land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the holy of holies.

There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests the holiest was the high priest.

There are 354 days in the year. Among these the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among the Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.

There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the Name of God.

And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would enter the holy of holies and there utter the Name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the high priest, but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the high priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.

Every spot where a man raises his eyes to heaven is a holy of holies.

Every man, having been created by God in His own image and likeness, is a high priest. Every day of a man's life is a Day of Atonement, and every word that a man speaks with sincerity is the Name of the Lord. Therefore it is that every sin and every wrong that a man commits brings the destruction of the world.