Welcome to Elul! We have just begun the month that precedes the High Holy Days, among the best-known religious observances in the Jewish calendar. These days, specifically the two days of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, and the fast day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are so widely observed that we have the phenomenon of “three day a year Jews” – Jews who only set foot in synagogue on those three days, but they do show up then. That’s how important these days are to our religious calendar.

So what’s so important here? This period is set up to offer us an opportunity for some cheshbon hanefesh, accounting of the soul. How did we do the past year? Did we live up to our own expectations? Did we keep our word to ourselves and others? Were we kind and loving to those around us? Did we make time for our own health and well being? Did we work on our relationship with the Divine? What can we do better next year, in all of these areas? The idea is not to beat ourselves up, but to look at ourselves honestly and lovingly. The shofar, the ram’s horn, is blown every day to remind us that it is time to wake up and smell the spiritual coffee.  

Many people, including myself, have issues with the High Holy Day liturgy itself – much of it is medieval, and the language is very much that of a patriarchal, feudal system – it sees us as abject subjects of a Divine King (never a Queen), who sits on the Throne of Judgment to determine our fate in the coming year. We are explicitly compared to sheep, slaves and children, and repeatedly beg for forgiveness from our Lord and Master. While there is acknowledgement of the Divine attributes of compassion and mercy, the focus seems to be on the power of life and death, reward and punishment. It all seems very simplistic and child-like, with a side of abusive parenting based on fear. Just wait until your Father gets home!

For modern people, there can be a severe disconnect there, which can interfere with our ability to make the best use of this spiritual technology. In other words, many people throw the baby out with the bathwater – because they can’t relate to this particular way of expressing the concepts of self-examination and growth, they ignore the concepts themselves. And yet, if they were simply offered the opportunity to pause and give some thought to their relationships, with themselves, with others, with the Divine, would they not consider that a blessing? Thankfully, there are many resources available for doing just that. I have been fortunate to work with some wonderful, thoughtful people who are working to rebuild this connection in our image rather than that of our medieval ancestors. As they say, take what works. Don’t reject everything because some things no longer resonate with you.

This Elul I will be participating in a SVARA group that is reading a classic of High Holy Day preparation, This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by the late Rabbi Alan Lew. I hope to be able to share some nuggets with you as we go along. Stay tuned!