Creative Explorations of Elul

One of my duties with my rabbinic internship at a Reform temple is to write a monthly column for the congregational newsletter. I plan to post them here, around the beginning of each month. If anyone enjoys them -- great!

Creative Explorations of Elul

I don’t know about you, but I’m busy. Between work, classes, family, children, cleaning, kvetching – it sometimes feels as if life is passing me by in a whirlwind, and I’m barely hanging on.

It’s like that for almost everyone these days – and then Elul arrives, and our tradition hands us yet one more thing to add to our “to-do” list.
“Contemplate!” we are told.
“Prepare to make amends!”
“Think about your life and where you’ve fallen short, and how you’d like to do differently in the coming year!”

It’s a valuable and deeply meaningful exercise. And it’s a mandate that sometimes makes me groan.

The 12th month of the Hebrew calendar, Elul, begins on Sept. 1 this year. Considered a time of repentance, Elul means search in Aramaic. It was given this name because it is a time to search our hearts in preparation for the coming High Holy Days.

Elul doesn’t receive much attention these days in most Jewish communities, and I think I know why: Time. Who has the time?

For many of us, we forget about the Holy Days until they are suddenly upon us, and then we are scrambling trying to find that flier that came in the mail giving the time and location for the Erev Rosh Hashanah service. The night already upon us, we hastily don some white clothes and race out the door. When we arrive (probably at least a few minutes late, truth be told), we pick up the Machzor, look up to the rabbi and chazzan and only then, for the first time, try to center ourselves and say: “Okay, here I am. Here is what I am here to do … .”

It’s a tough task to take on all at once. It’s kind of like jumping into a really cold lake – rather than easing yourself gently in, giving your body time to acclimate to the climate change, you give yourself a physical and psychic shock. It’s the same with the High Holidays. Jumping into long, all-day services centered on heavy, sobering themes isn’t for the light of heart, and doing so without any preparation at all makes it even more challenging.

There is good news, however. This year, you can do it differently! Elul lasts an entire 30 days (from the 1st to the 30th), so you have 30 days to carve out a small niche of time to ready yourself.

Toward that end, I wanted to offer a few online resources to help you on your journey. Whether you are a reader, a listener or a hands-on doer, hopefully you can find something here to help you prepare:

* The Jewish Heritage Online Magazine offers two beautiful poems by the famous Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, appropriate for the season: www.jhom.com/calendar/tishrei/rh_amichai.html

* Join Rabbis Richard Hirsh and Shawn Zevit in a 25 minute audio recording on Elul and Rosh Hashanah. Why is preparation during Elul important, and how can it change our High Holidays experience? What are some creative and alternative ways of preparing? Includes music and storytelling.
www.jrf.org/pub/hmsarchives.html, and click under the header “Rosh Hashanah”

* Nothing works better to bring families together than getting your hands dirty! Elul is a great time to plan an Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner with friends or loved ones. For recipes and ideas, visit:
Mimi’s Cyber Kitchen: www.cyber-kitchen.com/holidays/highholidays/recipes.htm
High Holidays on the Net: www.holidays.net/highholydays/sweets.htm
Recipe for round challah: http://judaism.about.com/library/food/blrhroundchallah.htm

* New clothes are often a special part of preparing for Rosh HaShanah, and taking your kids shopping for a special High Holidays outfit can help them appreciate the importance of the season. Then, by saying a berakha on wearing a new garment for the first time, we express our gratitude for the abundance in our lives:
Barukh Atah Ado-nai, Elo-heinu Meleh HaOlam, Malbish Arumim
Praised are You, Adonai, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who clothes the naked.

* Zichronot (remembrance) is an important theme of the season – both God’s remembrance of Israel, and our remembrance of those who are no longer with us. Elul can be a wonderful time to:
+ assemble those shoeboxes full of photos into albums
+ scan old photographs into your computer and write captions
+ trace your family heritage and make a family tree
+ make a remembrance box

May you have a rich and meaningful start to the season!