Elul 14/September 5

Elul is the time in our year for accountability and return. It is a time for deep examination and teshuvah; a chance to dig into your soul, and explore the opportunities you have to return to your truest self. As a clergy member, I am often asked how I connect to God, and how I personally relate to the holiest of holidays in our year. My answer? Music.

During Elul, I carefully reflect upon my year by creating an “Elul playlist.” Curating the playlist helps me to begin the crucial process of self reflection that allows me to pray, sing, and connect with my congregation every high holy day season.

This year, my playlist focuses heavily on songs of the recently departed Leonard Cohen (z”l). Through songs like “Who by Fire,” which is an updated version of the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, and “You Want it Darker” in which he cries out, “Hineni, Hineni, I'm ready, my Lord,” Cohen’s words and music cut directly to the heart of the high holy days.  

The Alter Rebbe described the month of Elul as a time in which “The King is in the field,” meaning God is at God’s most accessible. There are no formalities-just God in plain clothes, offering up a personal connection unparalleled in any other time during the year. This year, I will imagine myself facing my creator with gratitude as I listen to my soundtrack of Elul. As I listen I will, with immense humbleness, begin the process of teshuvah that is essential to becoming a Jew worthy of being inscribed in the Book of Life.

Below, you’ll find a link to my Elul playlist.  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX0oYHJhbZ5HymF_BmNsGbglnJfPijOEh

What would you add? What would you change? What’s on your #elulplaylist?

(Cantorial Soloist Jenna Sagan)

Elul 13/September 4

Lao Tzu wrote, Every journey begins with a single step.

Think about just one thing that you can do. One act of t’shuvah, one mitzvah. This is doable and achievable. Now, go and do it! Then, do another, and another …

Judaism teaches us that Mitzvah goreret Mitzvah, one mitzvah leads to another.

Once we accomplish one, and then another, and then another, we can look back on the journey that started with one simple act.

(Rabbi Eric Linder)

Elul 12/September 3

Beyond Apology

There is a midrash that the month of Elul that precedes the High Holy Days is the time that Moses went up the mountain after the sin of the Golden Calf to pray for forgiveness for the people, and get the next set of tablets. The original profound moment at Mount Sinai was not just that the Israelites experienced the revelation of God, but that once they were exposed to the Divine awe, they chose to enter into covenant, into relationship with God. This choosing of relationship is likened to a great wedding where the Israelites committed to living with the Great Source of All Life.

When Moses didn’t return from the mountain at the time they expected, in their fear and insecurity, the Israelites built a Golden Calf, trying to derive some comfort and connection from an inanimate object and a deity that had never served them in Egypt. They sought immediate gratification and denied the very relationship they had committed to.

Moses’s work on the mountain was to repair the relationship with God that was broken by the Israelite idolatry. We can only imagine how Moses helped God shift perspective from judgement and destruction to reconciliation and forgiveness. In this month of Elul, each of us have the opportunity to repair our relationships with each other and with God. We don’t wait until Yom Kippur to begin this process, but engage the inner process and outer conversations necessary to experience our covenant and connection with each other. It’s important to realize that apologies are not enough. In the words of the popular young child cartoon character, Daniel Tiger - “Saying sorry is the first step, then how can I help.”  We need to go beyond apologies to dialoguing with others to find see what they need in order to feel connected with us. Whether with God or with other people, they need to feel that our covenant/relationship together is important enough that we are willing to change behavior to honor our connection together.

(Rabbi K'vod Wieder)

Elul 10-11/September 1-2

In respect for Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, we will not be sending you an Elul thought tomorrow so that you can be at rest from your email and other social media. So please enjoy both of these thoughts today!

Shabbat Shalom!

Elul 10/September 1

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend a baseball game with my congregation's brotherhood. With thousands of my fellow passionate Angels fans, we cheered and clapped as our team scored run after run. At one point, the opposing team's catcher made an error, allowing our runner to score. As the crowd went wild, my clergy partner, Rabbi David Young, remarked, "Fascinating..in this sport we get so excited when the other team makes a mistake..."

It got me thinking...as we approach the high holy days (lovingly referred to by many clergy as our spiritual olympics), what does it mean to cheer for other's mistakes? Do we make proper teshuvah when we delight in the errors of others? Do we give those who have made mistakes the time to reach out to us and make teshuvah?

This Elul, I'm remembering that failure is the greatest of all teachers. Failure allows us the opportunity to reflect, and grow as we look towards the future. Yes, I do in fact believe that we should delight in the failure of others; not for what those failures might do to improve our own personal development, but what they can do for our interpersonal and intrapersonal spiritual development. I will be taking this Elul to personally reflect on my failures as well as my successes, looking towards the future with the goal of rejoicing in the prospect of a brand new year. What opportunities could your future hold if you approached those that you might have failed this year, with an open heart and a willingness to grow and reflect together?

(Cantorial Soloist Jenna Sagan)

Elul 11/September 2

I love artichoke hearts.  If I am looking over a restaurant menu and I see a salad that includes artichoke hearts, it will likely be my choice.  At home, we often include artichoke hearts in our salads, as ingredients in pasta dishes, etc.  You get the idea.

I have been asked the following question more times than I can count:  “Rabbi, why do High Holy Day services have to be so long?”

Years ago, Dr. Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, z’l, editor and publisher of the Jewish Spectator, made a radical suggestion.  She opined that since most people are not so fond of LONG High Holy Day services, why not offer a nice meaningful half-hour service and then have the congregation break up into small study groups for the rest of the day?  I don’t know if many rabbis took her up on the thought.  

Yes, there is an important place for study in Judaism, but prayer also is central to our way of life.  But…why so MANY prayers?

I have come up with an answer.  It is…the ARTICHOKE.

Don’t be thinking right now of the artichoke heart, but of the entire artichoke.

What is the PURPOSE of the High Holy Days?  It is to have a change of heart, leading to a change of behavior.

But, how do we enter the process?  With this conviction:  I am OK.  You may not be, but I surely am.  We humans are so adept at rationalizing our behavior.  We put up layers and layers of explanations and excuses.

How to cook an artichoke?  Steam it…for a LONG time.  Get the hard leaves to soften.  Then, you can peel them away…and get to the heart.

That’s it.  The LONG services are meant to soften the hard leaves of our rationalizations and our excuses.  Finally, with God’s help, we can get to the heart…change it, and move forward.

(Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein)

Elul 9/August 31

The Need for Refuge

To do the work of repair of our relationships and true renewal of our lives, we need to be willing to vulnerable. We need to acknowledge where we haven’t been our best selves in our relationships with others and with God. In order to show this vulnerability, we need to believe that we are loved and wanted in spite of our mistakes and failings.

The holy Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria of Tzefat, 16th century) taught that the name of the month of Elul is an acronym for אִנָּה לְיָדוֹ וְשַׂמְתִּי לְךָ -deliver into his hand, I shall establish for you (Exodus 21:13). This verse speaks of the “cities of refuge” established in Biblical times as places where a person who killed another unintentionally might find sanctuary from the wrath of his unintended victim’s family.

The Ari taught that the entire month of Elul is a a refuge in time that allows us to expose our vulnerability to ourselves, to own our feelings and mistakes, without fear of judgement or shame. Seeing this month of High Holy Day inner preparation as a refuge is the affirmation that God, or the deepest part of reality, is one of understanding and forgiveness, and that we can trust the process of self introspection and repair of our lives and ourselves.

(Rabbi K’vod Wieder)

Elul 8/August 30

After months of only the occasional workout, I recently started lifting weights again. On that first day back at the gym I picked up the same weights I had always used, and felt myself strain to finish a set that was easy a year ago. I had gleefully returned to working out, only to feel uncomfortable and frustrated. Then, as bad as I felt working out, the day after was even worse. My sore muscles screamed as I attempted an everyday task, and I almost did not want to return to the gym. Why would I do something, if the effects were so unpleasant? After months of lack of use, I needed to build up the strength I once had. I had pushed my muscles without giving them the proper preparation.

I imagine Elul like a month-long warm up after a year of inactivity for our t’shuvah muscles. If we were to simply dive right into the High Holy Days without any preparation, it would be like trying to run a marathon after months of just taking a short walk around the block. We would be miserable, and we would never want to participate. Therefore, we take these weeks leading up to the Days of Awe to ease ourselves into the practice of t’shuvah. We stretch our minds around the difficult task of self reflection; warm up our tongue to say: “I’m sorry.” We push ourselves a little further each day, strengthening our t’shuvah muscles, so they are able to carry the weight of our repentance into the new year.

(Rabbi Sarah DePaolo)

Elul 7/August 29

Reflecting on our lives, our mistakes and how to do better can be difficult. Let’s remember our faults – all the times we messed up… who wants to do that – focus in on our mistakes? Fortunately, we have a good role model when it comes to imperfections. For while it is true that the Torah teaches us that God is perfect and just (Deut. 32:4), the Torah also teaches us that God regrets, God loses God’s temper, and God kvetches… often – and far more than you would expect.  It’s no wonder that Jewish mystics envisioned a broken, shattered God for a broken world and the broken, imperfect people that live within it. Fully aware of our weakness and our flaws, they had the audacity to suggest that we, with our imperfect lives, have the capacity to heal the world, heal God, and heal ourselves in the process. And that healing begins with reflection, for how can we repair all that needs to be repaired if we fail to recognize that which is bent or broken.

(Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker)