This column was written for our September 2024 newsletter
Dear family of friends,
I hope the end of the summer finds you well: that you have had a chance to get away a bit, to spend precious time with friends and family, or just to enjoy some lazy evenings in the warm weather. I have enjoyed getting to know many of you over the course of this summer, in services, social gatherings, board meetings, and one-on-one conversations, and am looking forward to many more.
Often at this time of year we find ourselves gearing up simultaneously for the resumption of post-Labor-Day routines, and the disruption of those very same routines by the Jewish High Holidays.This year (due of a quirk of the Jewish calendar, which adds an occasional lunar month to stay in sync with the solar cycle), the High Holidays come very late — not until the end of September. This means we get a whole month to recover from our summer vacation and resume the rhythms of our lives before we are beset by weeks of Holidays.
It also gives us time to prepare. Not just time to send our Shanah Tova cards, or plan our holiday menus (or, in my case, write my holiday sermons), but to prepare ourselves spiritually.
Our tradition sees Rosh Hashanah as simultaneously a day of joy — a celebration of the new year and the renewal of spiritual connection — and of awe and trepidation. One of the formal names of the day is “Yom Hadin,” which literally means “the Day of Judgment.” In the famous Unetaneh Tokef prayer, we imagine the angels themselves trembling with fear “for even the hosts of heaven are judged.”
But while on Rosh Hashanah we envision God seated on a lofty throne of judgment, the month of Elul, which leads up to that Day of Awe, has a gentler energy. There is a Hasidic teaching that imagines God as an earthly King who spends Elul traveling to the capital city to sit on his throne and judge His people. The royal court is a formal place, and it is intimidating for a regular person to approach the King there. But during Elul, while the King is traveling through the fields, He is much more accessible. Anyone can come up and pour his heart out before Him, and the King can listen, with no judgment.
This month leading up to the High Holidays is a time for reflection and taking stock: a time to be honest with ourselves about the year that has passed, during which we can reserve judgment until all the facts are collected.
I hope that during this coming month, alongside our resumed fall routines and our holiday preparations, we can each find some time to reflect. Perhaps take a walk in the cooling weather, or find some other opportunity to let our mind wander to what’s really important in our lives. Maybe there, in our wandering thoughts, we will meet the King, and our encounter with the Days of Awe will feel a bit more familiar when we get there.
~ Reb Josh
