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Friends,

Today is the first day of Elul; the beginning of the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah. Elul is a time intended for introspection; a month set aside for the “assigned pre-work” for the High Holy Days. This is the month when we are supposed to stand in front of our proverbial mirrors and perform cheshbon hanefesh: an honest self-accounting. This means acknowledging the ways in which we fail to live up to our best selves, and the ways in which we fall short in our relationships with our fellow human beings and with God.

This is hard, sometimes painful work…but the beauty of Jewish tradition is that none of us does it alone.

To ease us into this reflective time, I thought I would share some of my own cherished resources to accompany us as we enter this sacred season.

Elul tunes: There is so much beautiful music—both Jewish and secular—that speaks to the themes of reflection, return, and forgiveness. Here is a playlist of just a few that I particularly love; the link also allows you to add your own song picks. Let’s share our most beloved music and help each other get into the Elul mood!

Elul reading: This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared by Rabbi Alan Lew. This isn’t a new book, but it is truly evergreen. Lew’s text serves as a companion through the spiritual journey of the High Holy Days, offering a path “from ter­ror to accep­tance, con­fu­sion to clar­i­ty, doubt to belief, and from com­pla­cen­cy to awe,” and reminding us that the broken heart is the one most open to God.

Elul poetry: “Coming Up on September” by Marge Piercy. I love poetry, and I am a huge fan of Marge Piercy’s poetry, and I really love this particular poem. Piercy has written many secular books of poetry, all of which are worth checking out, but her book The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme is really a masterpiece. I return to this particular poem at the end of each summer.

“White butterflies, with single black fingerpaint eyes on their wings
dart and settle, eddy and mate over the green tangle of vines in Labor Day morning steam.
The year grinds into ripeness and rot, grapes darkening, pears yellowing,
the first Virginia creeper twining crimson, the grasses, dry straw to burn.

The New Year rises, beckoning across the umbrellas on the sand.
I begin to reconsider my life.
What is the yield of my impatience?
What is the fruit of my resolve?

I turn from the frantic white dance over the jungle of productivity
and slowly a niggun (wordless melody) slides, cold water down my throat.
I rest on a leaf spotted red.

Now is the time to let the mind search backwards like the raven loosed to see what can feed us.
Now, the time to cast the mind forward to chart an aerial map of the months.
The New Year is a great door that stands across the evening
and Yom Kippur is the second door.
Between them are song and silence, stone and clay pot to be filled from within myself.
I will find there both ripeness and rot, what I have left done and undone,
what I must let go with the waning days, and what I must take in.
With the last tomatoes, we harvest the fruit of our lives.”

It’s not easy to pause the busyness of life and do the soulful (soul-full?) work that Elul requires. What helps you get into a reflective headspace? Books, music, meditation, exercises, places to visit, other tools? I’d love to hear from you…

With prayers for a meaningful Elul –
With wishes for a peaceful Shabbat –
With love from my family to yours –

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Klein