Today we begin the Hebrew month of Elul – the final month in the year that began with Rosh HaShanah, the head of the year, last September. It’s a little amusing that the Hebrew months actually all have Babylonian names – in the Bible, they are mostly referred to by their numbers (for example, the seventh month) or the time of year (the harvest month). When the Jews came back from the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the First Temple, they brought the names with them.

This is traditionally a time for introspection, self-examination, and repentance. The High Holy Days, which begin in exactly a month, are imagined to be the time when the Divine Judge will decide who will live and who will die in the coming year –  but as the rabbis said, repentance, prayer and good deeds can avert the evil decree. This work begins during the month of Elul, and finds its culmination in Yom Kippur, when we spend the day in synagogue, fasting and praying and confessing our sins. During this time, we are expected to repair our relationships with our fellow humans, and also with the Divine. 

In a world where repentance and repair are not always easy to come by, the rabbis put great emphasis on the importance of this soul work – they imagined it as a work of love and joy (they even declared the name Elul to be an acronym for the famous quote from the Song of Songs, I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine). Not too many of us see it that way these days, but it can, in fact, be a great opportunity to work on some of the harms we have undergone and perpetuated – and all of us have done both.

I have been reading, with some friends, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s book On Repentance and Repair. I recommend it to anyone, Jewish or not, who is interested in the accounting of the soul. As the leaves turn (at least here in the northern hemisphere), it’s a good time to turn inwards, and consider how we can repair at least a tiny bit of the harm in this world.