In the Month of Elul

By Rabbi Elyse Winick
KOACH Associate Director

Many of you have begun the arduous task of packing to return to school. Or, at the very least, you've begun to think about the fact that you really ought to begin the arduous task of packing to return to school. There's an irony to that, since this time of year is more about unpacking than packing. In a spiritual sense, at least.

As the last month of the Jewish calendar year, Elul is a harbinger of things to come – but unlike the packing required for the journey back to school, this journey requires that you unpack – your soul. This is a special opportunity to reflect on the year just past in order to prepare for the year ahead.

Each morning (save Shabbat) in the month of Elul, we blow the shofar. It's the alarm clock to shake us out of the slumber of the end of the year. Everything is old and same. Now is the time to polish the lenses, look back at the year without its attendant haze. With 29 days with which to work, each day creates the opportunity to do the important work this season demands. In the midst of all the packing you need to do, it's easy to put this task on the shelf and hope to come back to it later.

But there is no later.

Heshbon hanefesh, the self-accounting we do at this time of year, is no easy task. But there are a couple of ways to make it easier:

Read a book. You might want a good text on teshuvah, like On Repentance, edited by Pinchas Peli. Or perhaps something with a brief thought for each individual day, like Dov Peretz Elkins' Forty Days of Transformation. Maybe you'd prefer a novel, like Golfing with God, by Roland Merullo.

Listen to a piece of music. Try something deeply contemplative, http://radiomovies.wordpress.com/about/the-diver-in-the-crypt-cd/penitential-psalm-online/ or http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4955739&m=4955759. If classical doesn't send you, try the lyrics of these songs and see where they take you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmLmIArqWM or http://www.onlylyrics.com/hits.php?grid=6&id=1033783.

See life through someone else's eyes. Take these waning moments of summer and do some hands-on volunteering. You may think you're too busy once classes begin, but what's your excuse right now?

Watch a movie. Groundhog Day, The Quarrel, Left Luggage and Crimes and Misdemeanors are thought-provoking choices.

Whichever way(s) you choose, don't let the month of Elul pass you by. Unpack last year to prepare for the next – and you'll be the richer for it.

[Posted 8/19/09]