Prepare for Rosh Hashanah-Elul JewU 189

Elul as spiritual alarm clock

Each year this season provides us with an opportunity to take stock of ourselves and the lives we lead, to look at where we have fallen short of our spiritual aspirations, and what we can do to improve ourselves. Each year during the month of Elul, we are called upon to begin the process of self-examination that we call teshuva.

If truth be told -- and what better time of year to tell it? -- most of us don't take advantage of the opportunity for renewal that this season provides. We may pay lip service to the process of teshuva, but we don't really take it as seriously as we know we should. Most of us are satisfied with the lives we lead. We may not be happy with what life has done with us, but we are mostly content with what we have done with life. If we engage in self-examination at all, it tends to be superficial, leading inexorably to the conclusion that we should continue living the way we have lived, only (maybe) a little more so.

It is just that kind of spiritual complacency that the month of Elul is designed to prevent. The shofar blasts that sound each weekday morning during this month are not mandated by the Torah -- only on Rosh Hashanah is blowing the shofar a mitzvah. The optional shofar blasts of Elul, rather, are a kind of spiritual alarm clock, trying desperately to wake us up to the opportunity this season provides. But most of us are difficult to arouse.

If we were to take seriously the season's invitation to teshuva, if we were to realize how far short we have fallen, we might quickly become overwhelmed. After all, the gap between who we are and who we ought to be is so vast that we can hardly avoid despairing of ever closing it. But here too the message of Elul can help.

One of the reasons for devoting a full month before Rosh Hashana to the process of teshuva is to enable us to take the process one step at a time. If we were to approach Rosh Hashana without advance preparation, the process of self-examination that day requires would be too much for us to handle. By beginning the process a month before, we have the opportunity to proceed slowly, so that we will view teshuva as a challenge rather than as an impossibility.

To be successful, teshuva must be, in a sense, a partnership between us and Elohim. We must push ourselves to improve, but we also must realize our inherent limitations as fallible human beings. We can recognize the immense spiritual challenge before us while still understanding that the only way we can even begin to meet that challenge is one step at a time.

Our part in this process requires strength and courage, but only with the aid of Yahweh can we succeed. Perhaps that is the message of the last verse in Psalm 27, which we recite twice a day during this season: "Look to the Lord, be strong and of good courage; look to Yahweh."

Chodesh tov, and a meaningful and successful Elul to all.

Shofar So Good - This demonstration is a blast

Psalm 27 - Keynote of Elul

Tehilim 27

By David. Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

When evil-doers came at me to eat up my flesh, Even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, Even then I will be confident.

One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after, That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, To see the beauty of Yahweh, And to inquire in his temple.

For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the covert of his tent he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.

Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.

Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

When you said, "Seek my face," My heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Yahweh."

Don't hide your face from me. Don't put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don't abandon me, Neither forsake me, Mighty One of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me, Then Yahweh will take me up.

Teach me your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.

Don't deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen up against me, Such as breathe out cruelty.

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.

Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.

The Four Traditional Shofar Blasts

Rosh Chodesh - Elul

The New Moon of the sixth month, otherwise known as Elul was sighted on September 1st 2008. Let us begin to prepare ourselves for the upcoming feast days by careful examination of our lives; making teshuva (repentance) in those areas in which we find ourselves lacking or in need.

Special Significance (Biblical and by "Minhag," (Jewish Custom) ) of Rosh Chodesh Elul

Biblical:

Moshe had gone up in the Month of Sivan, and returned after forty days and forty nights, on the 17th of Tammuz with the First Luchos (tablets of torah). When Moshe observed the Jewish People sinning by creating and worshipping the Golden Calf, and participating in other sinful activities centered around the worship of that idol, he broke that first set of Luchos. He ascended Mount Sinai a second time, on the eighteenth day of Tammuz, the day after the great sin, and remained there for another forty days and forty nights, praying to Yahweh to spare the Jewish People and to return His full Presence among them.

At the conclusion of the second forty day and forty night period (that is, on the 29th of Av, Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul), Yahweh forgave the Jewish People and instructed Moshe to ascend Har Sinai yet again the next day, to receive the Second Luchos (tables of torah), on which would be inscribed for the second time the Ten Commandments. Moshe's ascension to Har Sinai for the third time (which also took forty days and forty nights, ending on Yom Kippur) occurred on Rosh Chodesh Elul.

Yahweh also restored His Presence to the Jewish People by authorizing the construction of the "Mishkan," the Temporary Structure which served as a "Residence," so to speak, for the Divine Presence, before the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

Minhagim (Customs) Related to Rosh Chodesh Elul

The Custom:

Beginning the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, and continuing until-but-not-including Erev Rosh HaShanah (the day preceding Rosh HaShanah), the custom is to blow the Shofar every weekday (excluding Shabbat, but not Sunday), four sounds -
1. Tekiah - a flat straight sound, "Tuuuu"
2.- 3. Combination of Shevarim - three broken sounds, resembling sighing, "U-Tu, U-Tu, U-Tu," and Teruah - nine rapid sounds resembling wailing, "Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu, Tu"
4. And a final Tekiah


The Background:

When Moshe went up the Second Time to receive the "Aseret HaDibrot," the "Ten Commandments," the Jewish People blew the Shofar in the Camp. They did this to impress upon themselves that Moshe had once again gone up the mountain of Sinai, so that they would not again make the tragic mistake in judging the time of Moshe's return, and fall again into Idol Worship.

Therefore, the Jewish People in later generations accepted upon themselves the custom of blowing the Shofar, beginning with Rosh Chodesh Elul to remind themselves that the people of Israel in the desert had sinned with the Egel, had repented, had been forgiven by Yahweh and restored to their former level of holiness. This would arouse in their hearts and minds the importance and the effectiveness of doing "Teshuvah."

The Custom:

Ashkenazic (Northern, Western and Eastern Europe) have the custom, beginning with the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, of reciting Chapter 27 of Tehilim (Psalms), beginning "By (King) David, 'The L-rd is my Light and my Salvation,' " until and including Hoshannah Rabbah.


The Background:

This custom is based on the Medrash which links the "Light" of David, and the "Light" of all human beings, to Rosh HaShanah, the Day of Judgment, when by the light of the "neshamah," the soul, Yahweh searches out the recesses and "hidden" areas of the human being. This idea is in turn based on the verse "The Lamp of Yahweh is the human soul, which searches out all the recesses of his being." And the "Salvation" of David and of all human beings is linked to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Yahweh atones for the sins of His creatures.

Elul and Rosh Chodesh Elul - In Relation to Other Months of the Year:

1 Nisan
2 Iyar
3 Sivan
4 Tammuz
5 Av - 30 days
6 Elul - 29 days; Rosh Chodesh is 2 days
7 Tishrei - 30 days
8 Cheshvan
9 Kislev
10 Tevet
11 Shevat
12 Adar

Note - (Much of the following material regarding Rosh Chodesh Elul is abstracted from Mesorah Publications Stone Edition of the Chumash and from Rabbi Eliyahu KiTov's Sefer HaTodaah)

The Shofar Heralds Elul