Meditations and Reflection on Elul: Preparing for the High Holy Days
Join the Adas Israel clergy and community members in a new project as we reflect in writing and video on the meaning of this holy season and offer meditations several times a week to inspire, challenge and help us explore our own spiritual work as we approach these sacred days of Awe.
NEW THIS YEAR: Live From the Clergy Suite - Join us each Friday in Elul at 10 am on Facebook Live as your rabbis, talk the Torah, the spirit, the work and the joy of the High Holy Day season. Check it out here: facebook.com/adasisraeldc
September 6th at 10am with Rabbis Krinsky and Yolkut
September 13th at 10am with Rabbis Holtzblatt and Yolkut
September 20th at 10am with Rabbis Alexander and Yolkut
September 27th at 10am with the full clergy
6 Elul 5784 | September 9
The Bent Shofar - Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt
As I write this we just buried Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l. The last 11 months since October 7th have been brutal- and this particular loss, to me and to so many American Jews hit very hard. Hersh and his parents Jon and Rachel are a family that many of us could imagine being a part of our own community. Hersh, that wonderful young, vibrant, curious seeker that brightened up a room- somehow beyond his years in wisdom and at the same time silly and present -taken hostage from a peace loving festival on that terrible day in October. So many of us believed he would come home alive as we prayed, advocated, and followed Jon and Rachel as they made their way around the world to beg for his return. Universes have been shattered again and again since October 7th, 101 hostages remain in Gaza, innocent civilians in Gaza are deeply suffering and there is no end in sight. How in the world do we go into preparations for Rosh Hashanah this year?
There is a certain Talmudic passage in Tractate Rosh Hashanah on 26b that just might help us this year. The text reads: Rabbi Yehuda, holds that on Rosh HaShanah the more a person bends his mind and humbles himself by bending in prayer, the better. Therefore, a curved shofar is sounded as an allusion to our bent minds and bodies. But on Yom Kippur, the more a person straightens his mind and prays with simplicity, the better. Therefore, a straight shofar is sounded. In a typical year we enter Rosh Hashanah bent because we have been doing the work of heshbon hanefesh (soul work) for the month of Elul and Rosh Hashanah is Yom HaDin, the day of judgment- it makes sense that we would use a shofar that matches our inner life and the significance of the day. By Yom Kippur we have been engaged in the month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah and the 10 ten days of repentance- by the final shofar we are cleansed and heading on a straight path filled with opportunity and blessing, thus a straight shofar.
This year the kafuf (the bent shofar) means more. This year there is an inner sorrow, a communal sorrow, a national sorrow because of what we have traversed this year. Though we will celebrate a new year and pray for blessing, we can also, at the same time, hold our sorrow for what we have lost and what is still broken. This year we are holding more as a people and being bent makes sense, the weight is heavy. We will return to joy and dancing and we will never stop looking for a way forward but it is also ok to recognize where we are as a people. May light shine on us.
September 3rd Rosh Chodesh Elul Intro to the Elul Project- Rabbi Elianna Yolkut
Open Up for Us A Gate- Petach Lanu Sha’ar
A number of years ago, as we were trying to leave synagogue on Saturday morning I had a funny encounter. As is the case with 3 children, especially as a clergy person, trying to leave the building after kiddush lunch can be a bit hectic. We go from one space - where the food and schmoozing happen, to my office where we pick up scooters, bikes and God knows what else we brought with us. I am often too slow to keep up with the kids and as I was turning the corner I saw one of our security officers stopping our kids before they barreled out the door. As I approached. He said, “Rabbi, I am sorry I know you run a tight ship so I didn’t want to let them go so far ahead without you”.
Now leaving aside your laughter at his comment on my parenting I felt a deep sense of relief and gratitude. The simple but profound idea that these officers are really paying attention is no small gift; they are gatekeepers and openers to our sacred spaces - protected so we can pray, eat, gather, learn, grow and they quite literally keep our children safe.
The process of cheshbon ha’nefesh - the accounting of the soul we are meant to do in the 30 days (or possibly seven weeks) leading up to Rosh Hashanah and into Yom Kippur might be improved, made more successful if we could each have a sort of gate keeper and opener. You know a person who notices when things have run amok in your life? Someone who could guide you through a narrow strait in a relationship helping you to see the space where you only saw closing pathways? A person who paid attention to small things - tiny gestures in your parenting or human-ing that were errors, or ways you missed the mark? A fellow traveler who watched out when you got too far ahead of yourself? They were kind and thoughtful, attentive to what you couldn’t see for yourself, they noticed the blind spots - they watched out for you and over you - שומרים guards your spiritual life? These watchers had you empty your pockets not looking for dangerous objects but for heavy baggage that was holding you back? Someone who cared enough to notice when things were just not on track to say something?
We need these folks in our lives - the one who keep our hearts, spirits and kids safe - literally and figuratively. They are our partners in this work of spiritual seeking - we will grow and change, turning toward that best version of ourselves with the help of our spiritual security. For the next 30 days we have the chance to be partners in this work so check out this tab www.adasisrael.org/elul or our Facebook page www.facebook.com/adasisrael to read and hear clergy reflections and meditations on preparing for the High Holiday season several days a week.
And new this year each Friday we will come to you live from the clergy suite at 10 am on Facebook live for an hour of informal, irreverent and engaging conversation about the Torah of the season. May the gates open for you and all of us. Shanah Tovah.
Rosh Chodesh Elul 5784
Living for Today -Cantor Arianne Brown
“Did you know, Ima, that we are always living in the past? It takes about 100 milliseconds for the human brain to process something. That means what we think of as the present is already in the past. It vanishes by the time we can think.”
During times of uncertainty, of illness or recovery, we give the sage advice - yom yom. Take it one day at a time. One hour at a time, one minute at a time. Take the moments as they come, and don’t look too far ahead. The future is uncertain and out of our control. It’s overwhelming. And so we practice mindfulness by trying to keep ourselves in the here and now. Today he is alive. Today she is awake, aware, by my side. Today, I will make a good decision.
Our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experiences urge us, even jolt us, into the presence of the present.
In an experiential sense, we keep ourselves there through communal singing, through the piercing sound of the Shofar, and through the visceral feeling of a fast.
The content of our liturgy also includes moments of intense present, highlighting the word hayom - today.
After each set of shofar calls - היום הרת עולם, היום יעמיד במשפט - Today the word stands at birth; today all creation is called to judgment.
In the featured spot as the final piyyut in the Musaf service - the famous Hayom T’amtseinu.
Strengthen us - today.
Bless us - today.
Exalt us - today.
Seek our well-being - today.
Inscribe us for a good life - today.
Lovingly accept our prayers - today.
Hear our plea - today.
Sustain us with the power of Your righteousness -today.
Elul, the month that precedes Rosh Hashanah, is reminiscent of counting the Omer. For Shavuot, we have to work our way up the metaphoric mountain to receive Torah, each and every year. For the Yamim Noraim - Days of Awe - we have to prepare ourselves to experience that awe, to wade in the wonder, to make meaning of the traditions laid out before us.
As I learned from my wise child, what we think of as “now” is technically in the past. Still, I urged him, we can’t let the limitations of our amazing brains take away from the meaning of our perceived present.
The way we spend our days of Elul informs our Rosh Hashanah. Let’s remember to let Rosh Hashanah also inform our Elul. We prepare for tomorrow with gratitude for today. We dream of tomorrow while caring for ourselves and others today. The days of Elul count.
היום תכתבנו לחיים טובים Inscribe us for a good life - today. Amen!
