We embark today on 29 days of the month of Elul.
Elul’s acronym is I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine (dodi li v’ani lo). Tradition has understood it to be speaking about the individual and God, rather than just romantic love. For us now, it can be how we intuit the sacred and our relationship to it. And so, we are encouraged to undergo a 29-day reflection as we approach Rosh Hashanah.
We do this year in and year out, trying to concentrate our intentions, our self-knowledge, our potential. In the book of Kohelet we read, ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ (1:9). We know these cycles; this is what we do. Yet this year’s High Holy Days will feel different for all of us. The horror of October 7th, as we were winding down to end the of the Tishri season last year, continues to traumatise in so many ways, from so many perspectives. How might we approach this season with this terrible backdrop behind and seemingly in front of us? How will it be when we gather together with all our different responses?
Colleague Rabbi Kath Vardi, on behalf of Reform and Liberal Rabbis and Cantors, suggests, In such circumstances it can be tempting to allow hope to give way to cynicism, to protect ourselves from bitter disappointment and hurt by pre-deciding that there is little point in working towards anything different.
Yet surely that is exactly what we should be doing, so that once again we embark on that internal work that allows these days to carry the grandeur, the possibility and the hope they promise.
So, with a great appreciation for repetition, I share some fragments again for each day of Elul. You’ve seen some of them before but like our prayers, they speak afresh to the person we are this year. We are different – and perhaps they may help us to find the future and hope we look towards.
This exercise is to enable us to arrive readier and more open to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur journey. Take what you find helpful and leave what you don’t.
It will also be different because we will be out of our beloved building as work begins on our roof. It is a challenge to not be in our home – but what an act of love for our synagogue community this work is.
We are encouraged to read Psalm 27 daily throughout Elul. I’ve found that different stanzas and phrases call out at different times of the month. Print it out for your fridge? I’m sharing a particularly beautiful translation by Rabbi Richard Levy z’l. And here is it set to music by Aly Halpert and Joey Weisenberg.
1 Of David.
Adonai is my light and my victory—
From whom should I feel fright?
Adonai is the stronghold of my life—
From whom should I feel terror?
2 When evildoers approach me in battle to feed on my flesh—
My pursuers, my adversaries—
They have stumbled, they have fallen down.
3 If a camp encamps against me, my heart will not fear;
If a war arises against me,
In this I would trust:
4 One thing have I sought from Adonai—how I long for it:
That I may live in the House of Adonai all the days of my life;
That I may look upon the sweetness of Adonai,
And spend time in the Palace;
5 That You might hide me in Your sukkah on a chaotic day,
Hide me in the hiding places of Your tent,
Raise me high upon a rock.
6 Now my head rises high above my enemies roundabout,
And in Your tent I’ll offer offerings to the sound of t’ruah.
I shall sing and chant praises to Adonai!
7 Hear, Adonai, my voice—
I am crying out!
Be gracious to me, answer me!
8 My heart has said to You: “Seek my face.”
I am seeking Your face, Adonai—
9 Do not hide Your face from me.
Do not turn Your servant away in anger,
You have been my help—
Do not forsake me, do not abandon me, God of my deliverance!
10 For my father and my mother have abandoned me,
Yet Adonai gathers me up.
11 Make Your path apparent to me,
Guide me in the upright road
Because of those up ahead who lie in wait for me.
12 Do not hand me over to the lust of my adversaries—
For false witnesses have risen against me, puffing violently!
13 Had I not the faith
That I would see the goodness of God in the land of life . . .
14 Wait for Adonai—
Fill your waiting with hope in Adonai;
Let your heart be strong and of good courage,
And wait hopefully for Adonai.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
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