Elul Thoughts 5780

 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 Heidi Cohen, Hanefesh, Orange County, 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

Rabbi Larry Malinger, Temple Shalom, Aberdeen, NJ

Rabbi Nancy Rita Myers, Temple Beth David, Westminster, CA

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld, Congregation Albert, Albuquerque, NM

Rabbi Benjamin Sharff, The Reform Temple of Rockland, Upper Nyack, NY

Rabbi Michael Sommer, Har-Shalom Synagogue, Northbrook, IL

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Congregation Beth Israel, Colleyville, TX

Rabbi Michael Weinstein, Temple Israel, Tulsa, OK

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.

Elul 1-2, 5780/August 21-22, 2020

Welcome to Elul Thoughts 5780!

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.

On Fridays, we give you a double portion of our Elul Thoughts so that we can all take a rest from our electronics on Shabbat. Enjoy!

Rabbi Alan Litwak

Moses In Isolation  

The High Holy Days are not two distinct holidays with services for us to attend and then return to our lives until next year.  The Yamim Nora’im - 10 Days of Awe - are part of a continuum that began on Shavuot when Moses ascends Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah.  Alone, he remains for 40 days, while the people grow restless and build a golden calf.  When Moses descends on the 17th of Tammuz and sees the wrongdoing, he smashes the tablets of the Ten Commandments.  He ascends for another 40 days to carve another set of tablets and ask God to pardon the people.  Moses returns to the people, but God does not grant forgiveness.  On the first day of Elul (today), Moses ascends the mountain a third time and remains for another 40 days.  After three attempts and 120 days of isolation, on the 10th of Tishrei - Yom Kippur - God grants forgiveness and Moses returns to the community.  

I do not see the coronavirus and months we have quarantined and physical-distanced as a punishment by God.  Yet, it has been a period of self-reflection.  The next 40 days is an opportunity to do even greater reflection - to approach the High Holy Days not as services to attend, but as a transformation to go through; not as a sprint, but a marathon; not as one big fix, but as a series of many tiny tikkunim/repairs to ourselves and our communities. 

Rabbi Michael Sommer

God put you here for a reason. The month of Elul is a reminder to focus on our reason for being and recenter as we prepare for the new year.