Looking Fearlessly into our Souls
by Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky
At sundown on September 3, the Jewish month of Elul will begin and so the one-month countdown to Rosh Hashanah will start. For me as a rabbi, that means that the coming weeks will be filled with planning and sermon writing. For others, it may well mean inviting guests and planning your Rosh Hashanah menu. But traditionally, the start of the month of Elul means something quite different: The first of Elul kicks off the season of repentance, and our gaze is meant to be directed in towards ourselves rather than outward.
We speak of the Ten Days of Repentance, the Days of Awe or the High Holy Days as if they are a compact unit that stands entirely on their own. However, the rabbis worked earnestly to extend the sacred time of the year. They stated that the season of repentance extended all the way until the end of Sukkot. Even though we declare on Yom Kippur afternoon that the gates are closing, the rabbis tell us they’re still open for nearly another ten days! More significantly, they moved back the start of the season to the beginning of Elul. While we do not attend synagogue to ask for forgiveness, ideally we use this month of preparation to take a good, hard look at ourselves and our actions over the last year.
The medieval rabbi Maimonides suggested a reflective process which is not too far removed from the 12 steps that those dealing with addiction use in our contemporary world: he invited us to set aside time each day to think about the last year and where we have fallen short of whom we believe we can be. We then think about those we have hurt, either on purpose or unintentionally. As our prayer book reminds us, simply asking God to forgive us for what we’ve done to others just doesn’t work. We need to approach the people in our lives and do our best to heal those relationships. It’s a really, really hard thing to do, and even more so because we may not always get the response we were hoping for. But Judaism places the obligation for restoring connections firmly on the one who has caused the hurt. Ideally, by the time we arrive at Yom Kippur, we have come closer to a place of wholeness and so can enter into the day feeling a bit lighter.
I am very much looking forward to walking this path together with you. May this be a meaningful month for us all as we draw near to what we sincerely hope will be a new year of sweetness, peace and hope.