Community at Temple Israel
Rabbi’s Message – September 5, 2024
Elul is here. Our preparatory month before the High Holidays. Normally I would share some of my favorite options for Elul – like Jewels of Elul – but this year feels different. I was reminded on social media recently of a project that a colleague, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, started back in 2010 – BlogElul. (You can visit her blogspot imabima here). The idea is to use the list of topics as prompts to express one’s thoughts via whatever means you wish each (most, some) day of Elul. This project started back when blogging was the easiest means of posting online content, but has expanded across different social media platforms, and I’m sure also in personal journals, artistic creations, and more beyond the online space.
In the past, I have appreciated daily-email-type ways to engage with Elul. The ease of them coming to my inbox and being able to do as much thinking (or not) as I had brain cells and time for each day has been a good format for me. This year, with all that has happened in our world, feels more of a year to bring out our own voices and thoughts more freely. So, I share this resource with you. Whether you decide to engage with Elul through #BlogElul, or something else, daily or not, I hope that you make time for the introspection this season calls upon us to do.
Here’s my reflection from yesterday:
Elul 1: Decide
In Torah Queeries, the section discussed the possible meanings behind the imperative for the Israelite tribes to appoint for themselves – for the tribes – judges and officers. There was certainly a lot to say about this idea, and more that could have been said. When I came home to consider the prompt for the first day of Elul, ’decide,” what resonated was the notion of both having representation in leadership, and stepping up to be the leadership when representation is lacking: deciding to be part of the ‘solution’ rather than gripe about the problem as a primary response. What things could we decide to take on more accountability for in the coming year? What big, or small, decisions could help set the course for the year we hope to have?