During Elul, we include Psalm 27 in our prayers. Line 4 is most familiar, performed by the incomparable Chava Mirel and translated by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat:
Only one thing do I ask of You, Yah:
Just this alone do I seek, I want to be at home with you, Yah,
All the days of my life.
I want to delight in seeing You.
Seeing You when I come to visit You in Your temple.
Shabbat Shalom
Billy Preston sings My Sweet Lord as we welcome the third Shabbat of Elul
Shabbat Shalom
Biko- Peter Gabriel and Playing for Change share a somber and thoughtful welcome to this Shabbat, the first Shabbat of Elul.
Shabbat Shalom
As the High Holidays approach, this lovely prayer sung by the incomparable Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue fills our hearts.
The line comes from Psalm 27, shared throughout the month of Elul in preparation for the Holidays.
Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a Happy Healthy New Year.
This Shabbat, as we approach the Yamim Noraim, let us always be committed to peace.
Shabbat Shalom
During Elul and into the High Holidays we share Psalm 27. The most well-known phrase of the psalm, Achat Sha’alti, is sung here as a meditation by Rabbi Andrew Hahn, the Kirtan Rabbi.
One thing I ask of the Eternal One
Is to dwell in God’s house all the days of my life
To be in God’s presence and behold the Divine’s Holy Temple
Shabbat Shalom
For Shabbat Nachamu, Elana Arian shared this beautiful melody.
As we welcome this Shabbat during Elul, it sets a wonderful mood.
Shabbat Shalom.
In the Torah, Moses sets out a choice for us this past week. Blessings and curses. It is a deceptively easy binary choice. Given good stuff or bad stuff as alternatives, it seems like a no-brainer. I opt for the good stuff!
But it’s really not so simple. For what does that mean for us to choose the Blessings, especially to us in the modern world? That is the fundamental question to consider in the month of Elul, leading up to the Yamim Noraim, these special High Holidays. Perhaps we, like our ancestors, are metaphorically also on the verge of entering into our own Promised Land. It is more complicated than: Choose Blessings and you go in; Choose Curses and you stay out. Because it is about more than entering The Land; it is about living fully while there, possessing it and becoming one with it.
During Elul, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we ponder the choices we make in our lives. As we reflect on the year past, we see successes and failures. And as we look ahead, we use this understanding to chart our course. Are we on the path we want to be on, the one we should be on, the one we need to be on? And presuming we have been blown off course by the winds and currents of life, how do we right our ship and get back on our path?
Elul is our time to consider these questions. Before we can ask for forgiveness we need to know where we went astray and maybe understand why. Before we can ask to be written in the book of life, we need to know what it means to choose a life of blessings so that this coming year brings us meaning and connection. Then we are able to approach the Divine to make things right and set a course forward for a year where we deliberately choose blessings, knowing what they are and how we might pursue them.
L’Shanah Tova!
How do I forgive? I am supposed to use the month of Elul to prepare for Rosh Hashanah. It is a time of introspection, to reflect on how I can improve in the year to come by looking at where I went astray in the year past. I need to seek forgiveness from God as I bare my soul. But our tradition teaches I cannot ask God for forgiveness until I have sincerely attempted to reconcile with my fellows. It all starts and ends with me.
Who among us does not deserve an apology from someone who has treated us improperly? But am I ready to welcome that apology if it comes? And if it does not come, am I prepared to reach out and help those who do not know how to ask for forgiveness and how would I do that? It is very hard to rise above my pain and hurt to embrace the humanity in the other.
And what about those whom I have wronged? Can I find it in myself to be contrite and ask forgiveness from them? Pride and principle often get in the way, blocking what could otherwise be a caring relationship. Even when I sincerely believe I am right, standing on principle creates an impasse. Then I must consider whether it is more important to be right or to be the one who can reach out and embrace someone I care about.
Finally and very importantly is forgiving myself. I look inside and see my shortcomings, the places where I did not do as I hoped I would, the places where I am shackled by guilt, immobilized by my personal sense of shame or deficiencies. I am the victim of the harshest critic of all, me. What can I do to finally say I am sorry; I forgive me so I can finally begin to heal from my wounds and move forward, not place a bandage over them. Keeping them locked inside only chains me to a past filled with hurt.
Sins and transgressions are big and small. Whichever they are, my inability to move beyond them and sit in judgment places barriers between us. They estrange me from those I love locking me into a narrow place. If I can move beyond the pain and hurt, however, forgiveness can be a transformative experience. It is quite difficult but when I truly forgive, a great weight is lifted from me. Barriers that once separated fall and I can reunite with those who had become distant whether it is another I love or the child within. If I can temper “din” (judgment) with “rachamim” (mercy), then I am acting in a more Godly, selfless way. And perhaps it is through these acts of human forgiveness I might attain forgiveness from the Eternal One.
Perhaps the first step on this path is through our traditional MiShebeyrach prayer for healing. May the one who blessed our fathers and our mothers bless those in need of healing with a refuah shlemah, a restoration of completeness. I will speak the words for them and for me too.
May this be a year of health, wholeness, and healing for us all~
L’Shana Tova!
Mercury is in retrograde. From August 30 through September 22, Mercury is moving backward in the sky from our perspective. This is the third of four such occurrences this year according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Astrologers say this event is supposed to mark a time for reflection rather than new action. This is not a time for decision-making. Instead, we are to assess priorities and plan to move forward by reviewing projects and determining where to appropriately focus energy.
Elul is the month preceding Rosh Hashanah. It is our Jewish time for deep reflection and repentance as we prepare for the High Holidays. For many of us, this is our period of Teshuva, the “return to God” that requires seeking and granting forgiveness as we strive to understand where we went astray and how we can get back on the path of living a meaningful righteous life.
I’m not suggesting that there is some equivalence between Astrology and Judaism or that the early astrologers were Jews. But I believe that making time to take stock of whom we are is of utmost importance to finding fulfillment. The unexamined life is not worth living, so teaches Socrates in Plato’s Apology. So many of us are consumed by the day-to-day issues of living, sometimes, it is all but impossible to step back and assess where we are and where we are going.
In life we often awake to find we have been blown off course. Anyone who has ever piloted a plane or a boat knows navigation is an ongoing process of course corrections, so too life. Currents and tides constantly push us off course and our aim has to compensate if we are ever to arrive at our destination. For some of us, we don’t even take the time to determine what our destination might be. For all of us Elul is an appointed time to engage in the process.
As we approach these High Holidays may you find forgiveness for those who have offended you, be forgiven by those whom you have offended and find your true path of meaning, relationships, and fulfillment.
L’Shana tova
