Our Elul challenge theme this week is teshuvah/repent, the act and idea that is at the heart of the High Holy Days season.
The first stage of teshuvah, of the work of repentance, is introspection and reflection. The work of the month of Elul is known as heshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul. In modern Hebrew, heshbon is the bill at the end of a meal; here, in the month of Elul, it is a tally of the right and the wrong, the good and the bad, and all of the gray areas in between. But unlike Rosh Hashanah, the month of Elul—this month of preparation—does not feature God reviewing your deeds as a shepherd reviews their flock. No, the month of Elul is all about you, about us, about the work we need to do.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel, taught that the primary role of teshuvah is for a person to return to themself, to their soul. Self-reflection is an act of bravery; to sit with our deepest selves and consider the ways that we have strayed from who we want to be is not easy work.
Our #ElulWisely challenge today invites you to make a playlist of songs that make you feel brave and post it using #ElulWisely5781. So, on this Monday morning—let’s psyche ourselves, and each other, up for this hard task.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer