Elul Reflections
The Hebrew month of Elul (immediately preceding the Jewish New Year) invites us to reflect and prepare for the High Holy Days. Get Inspired! with these daily Elul reflections: **These daily Elul messages are the product of a cooperative venture by Rabbis Asher Knight (Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas), Bradley Levenberg (Temple Sinai, Atlanta, Georgia), Jason Nevarez (Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford Corners, New York), and David N. Young (Temple Sinai, Miami, Florida)**
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29th of Elul: Wednesday, September 28th – Erev Rosh Hashanah
Cultivating Balance
“To pray is to know how to stand still and dwell upon a word” (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel).
Tonight, as we enter the Yamim Nora’im, these Days of Awe, we continue our journey of cultivating balance. As we enter our prayer spaces on Wednesday night, we seek the critically important balance between keva (fixed worship), and kavannah (prayer with inward intent). Keva is our worship, a formal and institutional approach, often happening within the context of community. Kavannah is prayer that emanates from the heart, typically in the form of a response or a request.
In Rosh Hashanah Readings by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Rabbi Mark Greenspan reminds us: “The sages of the Talmud speak about keva and kavannah, spontaneity and form, in the act of prayer. True worship, true prayer must have a measure of both. There is an element of discipline, formula, and history that shapes how and what we say. But there must also be another element of fire that comes from deep within our heats, a quality that is unique to us, that connects us to God personally. It’s not enough to go through the words of the machzor, to worship mindlessly. We must find a way to transform the words we recite into our personal prayer.”
What are those prayers that emanate from your heart? How can they balance your communal prayer experience over these High Holy Days?
L’shana Tova U’Metukah - May this be a sweet, reflective, and joyous New Year!
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28th of Elul: Tuesday, September 27th
Cultivating Balance
On praying together….A congregant once said to me: “I’m a private person. One aspect of worship that’s always been a challenge for me is communal prayer, as it doesn’t come easily for me. HELP!” Communal prayer can be very powerful for the individual and community. In fact, some of the more sacred prayers can be recited only where a quorum of ten, a minyan, is present. A folk etymology understands “community" has resonance with the words tzaddikim ("righteous"); beinonim ("average"); resha'im ("wicked"). It takes all sorts to make a Jewish community as it takes all sorts to make a world.
I believe we pray because we are stronger collectively when we share our hopes and our longings, and recognize that there is something beyond us that we call "God", who makes possible our journeys.
What do you hope or long for in your community?
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27th of Elul: Monday, September 26th
Cultivating Balance
The Tzanzer Rebbe was asked by one of his disciples: “What does the Rebbe do before praying?” The Rebbe replied: “I pray that I may have the ability to pray!”
Every day, we have conversations. We use our verbal skills to communicate our needs, our thoughts, or to respond to others - a piece of information we wish to hear, or a request we would like to convey. Yet, "conversations" can also be employed with God. We call it “prayer”.
The great sage Rabbi Yochanan once said: "If only a person could pray all day long!" You have God’s attention; speak as long as you wish!
As you enter these final days of Elul, what do you want to say to God when you stand alone in the midst of your community? These are the days to pray for the ability to pray, to prepare words of gratitude and petition, words of apology and of praise.
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26th of Elul: Sunday, September 25th
Cultivating Balance
You shall sanctify Me in the midst of the Israelite people…(Leviticus 22:32)
The Jewish community is central to Jewish worship and practice. We require ten or more Jews to gather in prayer (B Talmud Megillah 23b; J Talmud Megillah 4:4). We are commanded to not separate from the community (Pirkei Avot 2:5).
Perhaps the most memorable moments as a community are those we spend in celebration. We remember dancing with friends and spouses, singing around campfires, and cheering for the accomplishments of those we love. When people we care about are celebrating, it increases our joy to see their happiness.
That is the essence of community. Solitary celebrations can be wonderful, but when the community gathers to celebrate with us, our joy is increased a hundredfold.
May all of our celebrations in the coming year be magnified by the reflection of our own joy in the eyes of those we love, and may we all have many things to celebrate as a joyous Jewish community.
What Jewish celebration has been meaningful to you? What Jewish celebrations are you planning this year? How can you bring joy to the celebrations in your community?
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24th of Elul: Friday, September 23rd
Cultivating Balance
Tomorrow night, when this last Shabbat of Elul concludes, Jews will gather to begin the Days of Awe with S’lichot, which means “apologies.” On this night, we ask: “Have we made our apologies? Have we stood face to face with those we’ve wronged and told them we are sorry? Have we forgiven those who have approached us? Each year on S’lichot we prepare our souls for the High Holy Days, to help us “turn” and reach toward holiness.
A meditation to prepare us for S’lichot:
“We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die, nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this choice of choicelessness, we do choose how we will live; courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe might be to our choices or decision, these choices are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed” (Joseph Epstein).
On Saturday night, after Shabbat, how will you choose to prepare your soul?
Shabbat Shalom!
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23rd of Elul: Thursday, September 22nd
Cultivating Balance
“Finding a middle path that allows us to savor life fully while also cultivating spiritual, emotional, and physical health is central to Jewish tradition” (Rabbi Edythe Mencher).
Moses Maimonides, a great medieval Jewish thinker, taught that through study, cultivation of new actions, and establishing ways of thinking, each of us can be elevated to “walk in God’s ways.” Utilizing his approach, we might recognize that total change is unlikely. Rather, we can focus our energies on attainable, incremental adjustments, having gratitude for each advance as we slowly work toward a greater goal.
Think of one way that you have found that “middle path”. Why was it successful? Is there something challenging in your life, where you can apply this model of finding a middle path?
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22nd of Elul: Wednesday, September 21st
Oneg: Joy of the Season
When I was seventeen years old, my grandmother died. During Shiva I vividly recall sitting on her couch next to my aunt, feeling sad and angry. I wasn’t really listening to what my family was saying, but I got offended by their laughter. I asked what they had to laugh about with Grandma gone, and my aunt put her arm around me and said, “David, sometimes when we miss someone we cry, and sometimes we laugh. Grandma would be glad to know that in her memory we are all laughing.”
Anatomically, laughing and crying feel similar. The body shakes, the diaphragm vibrates, the mouth gets wide, and the tear ducts open. Both laughing and crying can alleviate stress and prevent depression. We don’t often have a choice when we react to things. Some things make us sad and others make us happy. But if we do have a choice, why not laugh and express our joy, especially in the wake of a distressing event.
When we lose a loved one it is natural to cry. It is also natural to remember the best times we shared with our loved one. When we sit at Shiva we will, God willing, laugh and express with great joy how the people we love touched our lives. May we all find the strength to turn our sadness into joy through laughter and love. In this way our loved ones’ memories will be a benediction.
Think about a time when a friend or family member who is no longer living made you laugh. Does that memory bring a smile to your face? Can you share it with someone else to pass that joy along?
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
call to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things." (Mary Oliver – New and Selected Poems)
Kehillah, Community
A physician’s prognosis identifying the actual cause of your probable death makes
each day precious. Everything is supercharged with meaning. You no longer take
anything for granted. The most trivial sensations are gifts: The smell of a child’s
hair, the sound of a barking dog, the kiss of a lover, the morning coffee. Each
becomes precious. If only there was a way to achieve this heightened gratitude for
life without the terror.
death before us. Not only will we die, but we could die at any moment. This is not
a pitch for life insurance; it is just the truth. All we know is that we are alive right
now. Beyond that there simply is no guarantee. No promise about anything six
years from now, or six months, or six hours, or even six minutes.
commanded not to eat or drink. We cannot have sex. We don’t perfume, anoint, or
deodorize ourselves. We wear white. And by the end of the day, looking around
the crowded prayer hall, we realize what has been happening. We appear more
like corpses than living men and women. This day has been a rehearsal for our own
death. (From The Book of Words by Lawrence Kushner, pages 111-112)
our lives in 2011 as we prepare for the High Holy Days?
Kehillah, Community
knowledge or a big vocabulary, but because it requires of us humility. And that
comes, I think, from a profound sense of one’s brokenness, and one’s need. Not the
need that causes us to cry, “Get me out of this trouble, quick!” but the need that one
feels every day of one’s life- even through one does not acknowledge it- to be related
to something bigger than one’s self, something more alive than one’s self, something
older and something not yet born, that will endure through time.” (Lillian Smith)
prayer often finds its highest expression when uttered alongside others who share
our beliefs.
communal participation?
Teshuvah, Renewal
Teshuvah, Renewal
advocating it. Mahatma Gandhi said it well: “We must be the change we wish to see
in the world.” And a story about Gandhi provides a good illustration of how hard it
is to “be the change.”
Gandhi was approached one day by a woman who was deeply concerned that
her son ate too much sugar. “I am worried about his health,” she said. “He respects
you very much. Would you be willing to tell him about its harmful effects and
suggest he stop eating it?” After reflecting on the request, Gandhi told the woman
that he would do as she requested, but asked that she bring her son back in two
weeks, no sooner. In two weeks, when the boy and his mother returned, Gandhi
spoke with him and suggested that he stop eating sugar. When the boy complied
with Gandhi’s suggestion, his mother thanked Gandhi extravagantly but asked him
why he had insisted on the two week interval. “Because,” he replied, “I needed the
two weeks to stop eating sugar myself.” (Al Gore)
What kind of change do you need to make in your life?
- The pursuit of Teshuvah, renewal
- Connecting to the strength of a kehillah, our community
- Celebrating the oneg, the joy of the season
- Cultivating balance, personal prayer and worship.
