*Elul is the 12th and final month in the Jewish calendar. It is a month that connects the past year with the coming year, a time when we reflect on where we stand and where we should be going. A time of mercy and forgiveness, a time for t’shuvah = repentance.
The entire 40 day period in the Jewish year from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, represent the 40 days Moses spent on Mount Sinai before coming down with the second (“replacement”) set of the Tablets of stone.
Rosh Hashanah is the head of the Jewish year. It falls on the 1st and 2nd days of the Jewish month of Tishri (September/October). On the afternoon of the 1st day, the ritual tashlich is performed, in which sins are “cast” into open water, such as a river, sea, or lake.
As a kid growing up in Israel, Rosh Hashanah meant the end of my summer vacation, dipping apples in honey and writing lots of Shannot Tovot (greeting cards) to family and friends. As I grew wiser, I’ve learned to embrace, appreciate and understand the depth and the symbolic, metaphoric meaning of it all.
The High Holidays reach their crescendo, a week after Rosh Hashanah, withYom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). We neither eat nor drink for 25 hours. Dressed in white, we pray in the synagogue. Feasting and fasting, prayers and inspiration make up our spiritually charged head of the Jewish year.
It always reminds me of my Grandpa who was the founding member of 3 different synagogues in Israel during the 50’s, working as a Hazzan (Cantor) at the synagogue I attended as a child. I can still hear his soulful voice singing Adon HaSelichot Lord of forgiveness, and even though I didn’t understand the meaning of the piyut at the time, the melody resinated with me ever since. It is my favorite piyut to sing at Temple Ramat Zion every year.
At the tender age of 9 I started fasting, it wasn’t my idea, my Grandpa promised he would give me 10 shekels ($2.5) and I agreed. In hindsight, it was not the best deal I’ve ever made in life.
The High Holidays continue with the festive holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, which bring the annual fall holiday season to a most joyous conclusion.
Thinking about Sukkot, I remember my Grandparents had the most beautiful and the most decorated Sukkah in the entire neighborhood, no one had such fancy decorations as we did. Every year my Grandma carefully took out her fancy decorations, which she kept in special boxes. Round sparkly balls, like red apples, pomegranates if you will, and every year we would come together and help hung them all up around the Sukkah, unfortunately, every year, at least a couple would fall down and break. Miraculously no one got hurt and we never run out of our fancy Sukkah decorations, apparently my Grandma kept lots of these special boxes hidden.
Years had past and I didn’t think much of it. Moved to Los Angeles and during a routine shopping trip at Target, was when I realized why our family was the only one who had these beautiful decorations …. It was shocking to say the least.
The time was right before Christmas, Target was filled with shoppers, filling their carts with holidays toys and stuff, and then I saw it for the very first time, a huge Christmas tree standing in the middle of the store, covered with …. my Grandma Sukkah decorations…?! You see, my Grandparents, who traveled to America a few times over the years, and apparently liked shopping at Target, bought and brought many boxes of red Christmas ornaments to decorate our Israeli, Jewish Sukkah! What a sense of humor they had, no wonder no one had a Sukkah like ours, understandably, Christmas trees always reminds me of Sukkot.
Happy Holidays to you all.
*The four letters of the name Elul are an acronym for the phrase in “Song of Songs” (6:3): “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me” “I am to my beloved”, we approach God with a desire to return and connect. “And my beloved is to me”, God reciprocates with divine expressions of mercy and forgiveness
Listen to YedidYah Kol Dodi “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me”
Have a blessed day,
Yakira