Ne’ilah and the Closing of the Gates
Mythic Historical - The practices and legends around Ne’ilah are historical, though of course the mythic effects are not.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year and falls in September or October. The theme of the day is repentance - it is a chance to repent from sins against Hashem and to reflect and ask forgiveness from others for sins against your fellows. The halakhic practice, in addition to many hours of prayer, is to refrain from eating or drinking from sundown to sundown - twenty five long hours when Jews emulate the practices of angels and seek to be closer to Hashem.
The final hour or so of prayer begins as the sun is setting and lasts until it is completely dark and the holiday is over. The community prays standing, with the ark, the closet that holds the community’s Torahs, open. The lengthy and thoughtful mood of the previous Yom Kippur services is replaced with a sense of urgency. The time for repentance is ending, and this is each Jew’s final chance to place his or her heart before the divine throne of mercy. The name of the service means “closing of the gates” and the imagery that the service evokes is that the gates of heaven are being held open for just a few more moments before they are shut for the year.
The final moments of the service come when members of the congregation come forward, each with a shofar, a ram’s horn trumpet. As one they blow a blast on their shofarim, each holding the note for as long as they can. One by one the notes fall away as each blower runs out of breath. Finally the last musician holds his note, a single clear sound. And then it ends.
In that moment, when the horns are sounding and the congregation is held rapt, the gates of heaven are being held open by the force of the shofar blast. Jews believe this to be true, and indeed it is.
Celestial Regio - The Divine Throne of Repentance
While the shofarim are sounding a gateway to a Celestial Regio is opened. Each synagogue and place of prayer in Mythic Europe connects to this same Celestial Regio. It is the divine throne, the seat of Avinu Malkeinu, the Divine presence enthroned as king, which is the metaphor by which Hashem is understood on Yom Kippur. The throne is too bright to be perceived, it appears only as an afterimage seen when you close your eyes. Whirling angels of fire surround the throne, chanting the Avinu Malkeinu prayer in Hebrew. At the foot of the throne is the Book of Life, the book in which each person’s fate is inscribed on Rosh Hashana and sealed on Yom Kippur.
Entering it is possible for anyone who can perceive it (ArM5 189). This requires a Perception roll using Second Sight or Sense Holiness and Unholiness roll. The difficulty for the roll is 13. Alternately the level 20 spell Piercing the Divine Veil (ArM5 158) allows a magus to see into the regio. Anyone who can see into the regio can enter it, though they may not bring anyone else in with them. They must move quickly, the regio stays open only as long as the shofar is sounding, which lasts around a minute.
Entering a Celestial Regio is not something that should be attempted lightly. The regio has a Divine Aura of 9 and is extremely disorienting (RoPD 14). Upon entering each character must make a Stamina roll using Dominion Lore, Parma Magica, or Jewish Theology to be able to act normally, with a difficulty of 18. On failure they are at a penalty of -18 to all rolls.
In addition, entry attracts the attention of the seraphim circling the throne. These beings of fire have six wings and sixteen faces. They will attempt to rain Heavenly Fire upon any trespassers. A single seraph will attack each character who is in the regio every round with a +30 damage blast of fire that has +15 Penetration (Seraphim box RoPD 21 for other game rules).
Outside the regio each person blowing a shofar makes a Stamina + Music roll every round, with a difficulty equal to the number of rounds that they have been blowing their shofar. So on the first round they need 1+, on the 10th round they need 10+, and so on. If they fail they stop blowing their shofar. Once all shofar blowers have failed their roll the regio closes.
When the regio closes everyone inside it is immediately ejected from the regio. They return to the synagogue where they entered the regio, and are deafened. This deafness heals as a Heavy Wound. In addition each person gains two Warping Points, which may cause Divine Ascent if they are a Holy Character.
Entering the regio of the Throne of Repentance is almost certainly a terrible idea. It is the sort of thing only attempted by arrogant magi who despise Hashem or insane kabbalists who think that they are far more pious than they actually are. That said, there are three reasons why a character might attempt this ridiculous feat.
First, entry into this regio may provide insights into the nature of the divine or the nature of regions that the magus is seeking. At the storyguide’s discretion this may provide one or more Breakthrough points towards an appropriate Discovery. (HoH:TL 26)
Second, entry into the regio allows access to the Book of Life. Getting to the book and reading your entry is an incredibly difficult task, that should require defeating the Seraph who is attacking you in the regio. Buf if you can, you know with certainty whether you will die in the next year. If you are not fated to die in the next year then you gain the Death Prophecy Major Virtue for the next year. If you are fated to die in the next year then you will do so, nothing can change that.
Third and finally, the regio may be entered from any synagogue on Yom Kippur, and it may also be exited from any synagogue in Mythic Europe. Someone who can see across regio boundaries can enter the Throne of Repentance from Troyes and exit it in Cairo moments later. While Leap of Homecoming is a much simpler options, jaunting across Mythic Europe via heaven will certainly grant you bragging rights at the next Tribunal.