1 Elul/September 1
The Hebrew month of Elul is the last month of the Jewish year. As such, it is considered a month of spiritual preparation for the High Holy Days. Special meditations are added to the daily service for some, known as S'lichot, or penitentiary prayers. (*The Saturday before Rosh Hashanah is also known as S'lichot, and it is used as a night of contemplation and study.) For several years, a group of Reform rabbis and educators has collaborated on a series of Elul Thoughts, shared with our congregations in a daily email, and accompanied by a daily Tweet.
This year's Elul Thoughts include contributions from:
Rabbi Rabbi Heidi Cohen, Temple Beth Sholom, Santa Ana, CA
Rabbi Matthew Cohen, Congregation B'nai Israel, Galveston, TX
Rabbi Benjamin David, Adath Emanu-El, Mount Laurel, NJ
Rabbi Brad Levenberg, Temple Sinai, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Eric Linder, Congregation Children of Israel, Athens, GA
Rabbi Alan E. Litwak, Temple Sinai, North Miami Beach, FL
Cantorial Soloist Jenna Sagan, Congregation B'nai Tzedek, Fountain Valley, CA
Rabbi Nico Socolovsky, Temple Beth Tikvah, Fullerton, CA
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Congregation Beth Israel, Colleyville, TX
Rabbi David N. Young, Congregation B'nai Tzedek, Fountain Valley, CA
You can follow any of us on Facebook or Twitter.
If you have missed any of these daily emails or want to go back and remember something from earlier in Elul, feel free to read them all at https://tinyurl.com/elulthoughts.
Welcome to Elul Thoughts 5779!
Every year a group of rabbis collaborates on a series of emails intended to get us ready for the High Holy Days. These are intended to be brief thoughts about the themes of the High Holy Days, because just like when we exercise we cannot jump in and grab the heaviest weights, so too when working on the self-improvement involved with the act of Teshuvah, we should not begin with the heaviness of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Our souls need time to warm up to this most sacred moment on the Jewish calendar.
In that light, we offer these Elul Thoughts to our congregations as a spiritual warm up to get us ready for the High Holy Days.
This year we dedicate our Elul Thoughts to the memory of our friend and regular Elul Thoughts contributor Rabbi Daniel Treiser, whose first yartzheit was about two weeks ago. May his teachings continue to inspire us, and may his memory continue to be a blessing.
Our Ancestors Understood Our World
A few thousand years ago, our ancestors told us how to live a holy life. It is remarkable that they made sure to give us ideals and laws that are actually achievable and doable!
With this in mind, we reflect on one of the sayings from Pirke Avot: "You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it (2:21)".
The heaviness of the world and our lives can lead us to inaction. But keep our ancestors words in your heart. You can't fix everything, but you can (and should) fix something!
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