For decades, thousands from around the world gathered to join Rabbi Yehuda Amital zt”l as he led the High Holiday prayers at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Right before the most critical points in the services, at moments of high spiritual intensity, he would pause to address the assembled with words that uplifted, inspired, and enlightened. He poured into these words the depths of feeling, insight, and experience he had accumulated on his personal journey from the ashes of the Holocaust to the miraculous revival of Jewish statehood and in his life’s work as an educational visionary and pioneering thinker.

When God Is Near presents a compilation of these powerful discourses by one of the most profound religious leaders of our time. Bringing together Rabbi Amital’s wisdom, sensitivity, humanity, and uncompromising search for truth, this volume guides readers on the path to sincere prayer and true repentance.