Elul is the name of the last month of the Jewish year, prior to the Jewish New Year - Rosh HaShanah. The month of Elul is known as the month of mercy and forgiveness as we spiritually prepare for the High Holidays season. Traditionally it is a time for personal introspection and repentance. The deep process of the "accounting of the soul" is conducted in preparation for Rosh HaShanah when, tradition teaches us that the entire humanity is called to an account and to a divine judgment.
The sages teach that on the 1st of Elul, Moses was called to come up mount Sinai to meet God for the second time after he broke the 1st set of the 'Tablets of the Law' with the Ten Commandments.
Moses spends another forty days asking God to have mercy and to forgive his people who had sinned with the golden calf:
"And on the new moon of Elul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: 'Come up to me on the mount' (Deut' 10, 1), and let them sound the shofar (trumpet) throughout the camp, …the Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted with that shofar, as it is said: 'God is exalted with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet' (Psalms. 47:5). Therefore, the sages instituted that the shofar should be sounded on the new moon of Elul every year" (Midrash). Hence one of the main customs of the month is to blow the ram's horn (shofar) every day after morning prayers.
Another custom is to get up very early in the morning to plead God to forgive us. We recite the repentance prayers, known as Selicot, as we follow the teaching of King David who would do so in the middle of the night: 'At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous ordinances' (Psalm 119: 62).
However, while we ask God to forgive us, the sages of the Mishnah taught: " Furthermore, for wrongdoings between a person and God, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) atones; however, for wrongdoings between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person" (Yoma 8: 9).
Before we appeal for pardon from the merciful God, we must first ask our fellow friends, members of our family, our colleagues - to forgive us for all we have offended them.
Thus, the customs of the month intend to help us prepare ourselves and our mindset for the approaching Days of Awe and Judgement.
And during the month of Elul, the "King is in the fields" as the Hasidic leader, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi taught us. God our King is normally in his palace where he is merely seen or can be addressed. But during Elul, the king comes out to the fields and can be easily approached by any of his subjects.
This month is a time of divine closeness, a period where the connection to God comes easier than at other times of the year. As such, it is an excellent time to do the inner work of repairing and deepening our relationship with God.
About the Author
Rabbi Oded Peles – cantor, musicologist, Israeli educator and tour guide. Oded Peles was born in Petach Tikva, Israel to a Dutch-German Jewish family. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a renowned cantor of the Rotterdam synagogue, the Netherlands, Oded has served and performed as a Cantor in communities worldwide, for over thirty years.