Love in Elul
This Shabbat, we enter the month of Elul, the full month of preparation necessary to make the High Holidays as impactful as possible. As with anything important in our lives, we must prepare ourselves if we are to make the most of reaching our goal, arriving at our “moment of truth.” The rabbis derived a bit of word play from this timeframe. They connect the letters of Elul to the verse from Song of Songs, the Bible’s love poetry: Ani L’Dodi v’Dodi Li—I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. The first letters of the words of the verse spell out the word E-L-U-L, and the last letters equal the number 40. The interpretive possibilities were too tempting for our esteemed sages: During the 40 days between the start of Elul and Yom Kippur, repentance is more likely to be accepted by God. And so, a person must bring repentance with a full heart to our ultimate beloved (God), and God will return that love and acceptance in kind. Thus, our tradition links critical preparation to the ultimate fulfillment of the process of teshuvah as one seamless journey, forged in love, and binding of an embracing God to a longing Jew.
– Rabbi Daniel Weiner