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.
Dear Congregation Beth Ahabah,
Welcome to the Hebrew Month of Elul! Elul is the last month of the Jewish year and the final month prior to Rosh Hashanah, our Jewish New Year. This is a month in which we spiritually prepare for the High Holiday season of reflection and repentance.
Elul is traditionally a time of introspection and personal stock-taking, known in Hebrew as cheshbon hanefesh — literally “an accounting of the soul.” This process is conducted in preparation for Rosh Hashanah when, Jewish tradition teaches, all of humanity is called to account and a divine judgment is issued. The customs associated with Elul are all intended to help cultivate the proper mindset for this preparation.
Each year, we, the clergy of Congregation Beth Ahabah send out weekly messages in Elul to remind and encourage participation and preparation for the coming days of Awe. This year we will be using some special and meaningful liturgy from both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as a means for encouraging thought and discussion as we prepare our souls together.
We start this first week with Hin’ni: Here I am.
Hin’ni is one of my all-time favorite prayers and is one of the very first prayers which make up our Rosh Hashanah evening service. It is a prayer of profound humility by the prayer leaders, your clergy, asking for God to recognize the clergy’s prayers prayer on behalf of the congregation—and to accept those prayers on your behalf even if we, your clergy, are not worthy. It reminds everyone—us, you, and God—that we, your clergy, are just fallible human beings too. Ultimately, we are asking that it is the merit and worthiness of the congregation, not the prayer leader's qualities, or even the quality of the prayer, that should gain God’s attention and grant renewed life in the New Year. It takes the pressure off of us and off of you. Perfection is not the goal. You can misspeak, your mind can wander, you can even be late (but please try not to be) and God will still consider all of us in the New Year.
The words are short, simple and powerful. They express our intention to be present in both body and mind for entering and celebrating the new year. Hin’ni.Here I am. This is the single word that is uttered in opening this prayer. It is another form of the same word, hineini, uttered by our forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, and by our great teacher, Moses. It is a centering meditation. It is a profound statement of spiritual self-recognition. It is a declaration of an individual’s presence and one’s understanding of connecting with the divine. Hineini - I am Here. Here with and in the community. A shared history, a shared present, and a shared future. Hineini - I am Here. Here in front of myself, looking within for the real me, my essence. Not hiding from myself. Looking for the true scope and nature of my behavior. Looking at what I did wrong and what I could do better. Hineini - I am Here. Here before God and all the endless possibilities of tomorrow and the New year. Here I am. Here I stand. Here I pray. Here I am. Hin’ni.
Hineini - I am Here. Where are you now? More importantly, where do you want to go? Who are you now? Most importantly, who do you want to be?
Enjoy the important work of Elul.
L'Shanah Tovah!
Rabbi Scott Nagel The Sophia and Nathan Gumenick Senior Rabbi
Congregation Beth Ahabah
