by Maggid Zelig Golden

29 Av 5775 | August 14, 2015

In the twenty-nine days leading to Rosh Hashanah, we are invited to fully listen to the welcomed blessings, as well as the darkness in our lives. What shows up when we take time to pause in the month of Elul, and how do we respond in the upcoming new year? Maggid Zelig Golden reminds us that, “one only needs eyes to see and a body that is sanctified to know the illumination of the divine.”

In order to enter into the new year perceiving the world around us with keen senses, we take time to pray and meditate, offering ourselves honest inventory of the mountains of blessings and the challenges we might call curse that exist within each of us. In that tuned state of being, we can skillfully open ourselves to the new year and choose life.

Below, listen to Maggid Zelig Golden’s drash on reflection and preparation in the time of Elul, recorded August 14 at the Kabbalat Shabbat services co-hosted with Urban Adamah.