Maggid Zelig Golden
August 7, 2013 | 1 Elul 5773

Teruah! As the earth rotates on its axis and morning dawns across the world, Jews are blowing their shofar to awaken themselves and their community to the days of Elul, the final month leading to Rosh Hoshana… Chodesh Tov (Good Month)!

As we bring in the harvest from the year, we traditionally blow the shofar every morning this month to prepare ourselves for Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish New Year. We stand before Creator each day to account for the year behind and pray to be sealed for health and happiness in the year ahead. Maimonides described the sound of the shofar in Elul as a “wake up call,” to awaken the parts of ourselves that are “asleep” so we may rise up from complacency and return to the pathways of love and aliveness. (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 3:4).

For many, Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur are the days we think of to dig deep, search for forgiveness, and pray for a good year. This work requires preparation, however, and our sages gave us the thirty days of Elul to prepare ourselves for those ten Days of Awe.

The word Elul comes from “harvest,” in its Akadian root, and also means “search” in its Aramaic root, indicating that this month is a potent time for our deepest preparation. During these 30 days we are instructed to reflect on our conduct from the previous year, collect lessons learned, and seek forgiveness within ourselves, preparing us for the ten Days of Awe we ask Spirit for forgiveness for any ways that we have missed the mark and repair our human relations. Moses’ ascents on Mount Sinai can guide how we might approach this special month.

We are taught that Moses ascends the mountain today on Rosh Chodesh Elul (the first of Elul) and remains on the mountain for forty days to write the second set of tablets, a mirror of the forty days from now until Yom Kippur. Moses creates this second set of tablets after he receives and smashes the first tablets in the wake of the Golden Calf incident, when we strayed from our faith in the One. (Ex. 32; 34:27-28). The difference between the first and second tablets is instructive.

The first set of tablets are divinely created and given to Moses from Creator itself—a purely supernatural revelation. Moses hews the second set of tablets with his own hands in partnership with the One, through a prolonged process of forgiveness and reconciliation. Thus we are taught that while pure revelation from above may be fantastic, perhaps it does not last. Awakenings that come through our own directed effort and intention, through our commitment to spiritual practice for example, prove to be more resilient in our lives.

Elul is a golden opportunity to engage in such spiritual practice. During Elul we engage in Teshuva, “spiritual return,” through deep reflection and soul accounting for our conduct during the previous year. Like the fields that we harvest, plow and replant for the coming rainy season, this is a time to harvest, plow, and reseed the field of our soul. The great Chasidic rabbis have taught through the generations that during Elul “The King is in the Field.” During this special month, the Spirit of the One, which seems so far away most of the time comes to visit from the Palace across the veil, giving us greater access to our spiritual connection and spiritual truths.

Elul (אלול) spells the Hebrew acronym אני לדודי ודודי לי (Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li), “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is Mine,” a common epithet used to celebrate union of marriage (Song of Songs 6:3). The potential for deep connection pervades the energy of Elul. Through the eyes of the Kabbalists, the quality of connection available during the month of Elul can bring Divine Understanding, Elul having the same gematria (letter numerical value) as Binah (אלול = 67 = בינה). In his seminal work Ehyeh, A Kabbalah For Tomorrow, Rabbi Arthur Green teaches that Binah is the quality of understanding likened to the “womb of God as Great Mother,” a feminine quality of lasting understanding that we engage by delving to our depths.

So, sound the shofar today and every day this month, plow your spiritual fields through self-reflection, and dig deep into your core nature-connection practices! For certainly if “the King is in the Field” during this time, and the gates of the Divine womb are open this month, there is no better time for hitbodedut, spending time alone and connecting to the divine mirror of nature.

I wish you a beautiful Elul—may you come into contact with your beloved within, that Divine heart of truth, and may you awaken to the beauty and wisdom all around you as you prepare for the coming year.