During Elul, a month of preparation before the coming High Holy Days, we hear the call of the Shofar as a reminder: awaken! We hope this Shofar Blast of weekly messages from the clergy will help your Elul preparations.
Last year the clergy shared reflections about Living Our Values. This year, our Elul messages are inspired by Mussar:
Jewish teachings about deepening our values through action.
I am excited it is the Hebrew Month of Elul! Elul is the last month of the Jewish year, the month preceding the High Holy Days of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. As we see the Days of Awe appearing on the horizon, we are called by Elul to pay attention, to recognize that we are not ready to begin anew and that there is work yet to be done if we are to embrace this gift and opportunity for growth and renewal.
We long for renewal and new beginnings and we cry out:
הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְיָ אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם Hashiveinu, Adonai eilecha, v'nashuvah. Chadeish, yameinu k'kedem. Return us back to You, O God, and we will return. Renew us as in days of old.
Those words appear at the end of the book of Eichah – Lamentations (5:21) which we read on Tisha b’Av, the 15th of last month, as a reminder that Elul is coming soon. We will repeat these words again on Yom Kippur (in the prayer Sh'ma Koleinu).
This is the renewal we pray for in this season: to find within ourselves, and to be blessed from Above with the inner resources to begin again; to start this new year with fresh energy, optimism, and idealism with unlimited potential as was the case with the first human beings Adam and Eve, with all of life and all of creation before them in “days of old”, when there was no past - only a future. What a gift indeed!
It is hard if not impossible to realize that ideal. We tend to live in our pasts, wallow in our mistakes, and focus on limitations. Now is the time to say, “Hineini” – I am Here. I am Here in the present month of Elul, this time and space given to me with truly limitless possibilities for renewal and growth. Hineni – I am here. It is one of our Congregation's living values as we strive to remain fully present in our interactions with others or in prayer and study. Now we say Hineini for ourselves as well. To live in the present with authenticity requires that we break through our routines and consciously tick up our enthusiasm a notch.
The lesson for us here at the beginning of the month of Elul is that merely showing up in life just isn’t enough. Not at High Holy Day services or in life in general. It is why we sound the Shofar EVERY DAY in the month of Elul. It calls us to wake up and pay attention to where we are, who we are with, and what we are doing!
The shofar calls us now to find and express the energy and excitement needed to complete our tasks with our whole selves and sustain our energy throughout the whole enterprise. It takes enthusiasm not to get bogged down, wander off, or pull up midcourse. It takes concentration to be fully present and fully participating through the whole experience.
As the cycle of our lives moves towards the markers of another year find your own shofar call this month of Elul. Find something that calls you daily to be present with your whole self in whatever you are doing. Take this month to get into good practice to be present for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5784. Better yet – blow your own shofar every day this month.
If you don't have a shofar (or you want another one!), join us on Saturday, September 9 at 5:00 PM to make your own shofar! (Registration link below.)
Regardless of workshop participation, the entire congregation is invited to kick off the High Holy Day season with a Congregational Dinner followed by a brief S'lichot Havdalah service(registration link also below).
Now let us shine a new light on the prayer we return to at this time of year when we ask for renewal. “Return us back to You, O God, and we will return. Renew us as in days of old.” Let us celebrate both the past and future by calling on us to return to a place of endless possibilities that we once had and are blessed to have again in the new year.
Shanah Tovah!
Rabbi Scott Nagel The Sophia and Nathan Gumenick Senior Rabbi Congregation Beth Ahabah
