Thirty-six years ago, at our wedding reception, one of our friends toasted my bride and me using the acrostic interpretation of the Hebrew month of Elul—it was the month in which we married. In Hebrew: אֱלוּל. It has long been recognized the letters of the month correspond to the words of this passage from Song of Songs: אֲנִ֤י לְדוֹדִי֙ וְדוֹדִ֣י לִ֔י—I am my beloved and my beloved is mine (6:3). Elul, she said, is an opportune time to get married because of its association with those beautiful words. Indeed, her words proved prescient as we celebrate every one of those thirty-six years!
What she didn’t mention was that for a rabbi, the month of Elul is also a time of heightened anxiety and elevated stress because it directly precedes the High Holy Days. Not merely because the weight of preparations is on us but also because we are deeply aware of our own responsibility to prepare ourselves for the important task of teshuvah and continuing personal betterment. In a word, we clergy take the task of these Holy Days to heart, and we do all we can to inspire those in the communities we serve to feel that same urgency.
Today’s message is also appearing in the Wise Center for Tikkun Olam monthly newsletter. By integrating the messages and calling your attention to the importance of Elul preparations, I, on behalf of all the clergy, invite you to join us in preparations for the Holy Days. By seriously doing our own cheshbon ha-nafesh (personal accounting), by approaching our tikkun olam and tzedakah work in earnest, through other acts of preparation found in the Elul Challenge, we believe you will indeed experience a far more meaningful High Holy Days cycle.
Elul (which begins today) is a month filled with rich meaning on so many levels—its association with Song of Songs through that acrostic allusion reminds us that at our core, human existence is about relationships. The High Holy Days (and the meaningful preparation that precedes them) ultimately focuses our attention on refreshing, restoring, and strengthening the relationships we have with those we love, with our communities, and the world.
May 5782 bring you goodness, blessings, and most of all love.
— Rabbi Ron Stern