The verse says “Jacob’s heritage is like a rope.” Tanya’s Igeres HaTeshuvah explains that our relationship with G-d is like a very thick cable made of 613 strings. Each Mitzvah is an individual connection between a Jew and G-d. Keeping that Mitzvah strengthens that string, and the overall cable, but non-observance of that Mitzvah weakens or severs that string. (This parable notwithstanding, Tanya elsewhere emphasizes that no lack of observance can totally sever the essential bond between a Jew and G-d).
What to do with a broken string? It can be fixed! Teshuvah or repentence is the process of repairing and reconnecting the string. We tie the two torn ends together. That knot makes the string stronger, and tighter – and shorter. Here’s a wonderful thing about this metaphor: Not only can broken strings be fixed, but once they are reconnected, the string becomes stronger and the distance between G-d and us becomes a little shorter. It brings us closer together. This can sometime be true in interpersonal relationships as well.
This string made tighter and shorter by the knots, reminds me of the old Shabbos House Mechitzah (room divider for prayer):
When we first came to Shabbos House in 1997 there was a table or two that divided the room during prayer and the prayer divider was 3 or 4 trifold cardboards, the kind used for science project displays in elementary school. After some time, especially after our Minyan grew a bit, Raizy looked into an improved Mechitzah arrangement. She bought a long length of cord, hooks for the front and back walls of the room, and cloth shower curtains from Wal-Mart (minus their plastic backing) that had an elegant design. We strung the curtains along the cord, and we stung the whole thing on the two hooks, one near the old Ark and one near the entrance. Simple, cheap and effective. This same Mechitzah lasted all the rest of the years in the old Shabbos House until 2009, probably just over a decade.
But now and then the Mechitzah cord developed knots. Some came out right away, but the increasingly taut string tightened the knots. Over time, the cord got tighter and tighter with inreasingly more knots, and it became a Herculean task to get that Mechitzah to reach and lock on the hook in back of the room. We used to challenge new students with this simple looking effort, and eventually only a select few were able to do it. Our children marveled that the house walls didn’t come caving in from the tightness and pull of the Mechitzah rope.
Yes, yes… knots make the connection tighter and shorter, they really do!