Elul
אֱלוּל
A Message from Hazzan Adam
Elul is the last month of the year that comes just before before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is a month of reflection and it is a journey that provides each of us with a great opportunity to RETURN.
I invite you to join me on this journey. Below are 18 practices we can engage in as we proceed through the month of Elul. Each practice is an invitation with guideposts – a chance to open a door, to deepen and soften ourselves.
I will be speaking about these practices and themes in all of our upcoming Shabbat services and all meditations, leading up to the High Holy Days.
By engaging in these practices with an open heart, my hope is that when we gather on Rosh Hashanah and again on Yom Kippur we will arrive already with a depth of meaning and belonging.
~ Hazzan Adam
An Invitation to Be Still
For the month of Elul there will be a DAILY opportunity for “meditation and reflection” sessions. I will be in The Shul’s Meditation Zoom Room every weekday, Monday thru Friday at 8:30am for 30 minutes. You do not have to join every day, but I will be there. Please come into the zoom a couple minutes early. I will give brief instructions at 8:30am sharp each day and we will be finished by 9am. Let us support one another! This is a FREE program, registration is required for the Zoom link and meeting password.
Meditation
Meditation creates a place to land and take a breath and ground yourself. The best way to begin to meditate is to just begin. It’s very helpful to have a set time and place and to sit. Try starting in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. For the next 5 minutes focus on your breathing. When your mind wanders, bring your attention back to your breath.
Keeping an Elul Journal
I invite you, if you like, to have a journal. The 18 Practices have questions for you to reflect on and "noticing/awareness" inquiries. It can be useful to jot down a discovery or an insight or experiences that you have during the month. Throughout the coming weeks in our Shabbat, Candle Lighting, and meditation meetings there will be opportunities for sharing if you like. It is helpful to have your journal nearby to remember and deepen what you discovered.
1. Awaken
The shofar (שׁוֹפָר) calls us to awaken!
“Awake, you sleepers from your sleep!” ~ Maimonides
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.” ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
Practice: Notice what has gone dormant. What have we turned from? Where have I become resigned? What did i give up on? What do I fear is happening?
Inquiry: What in me is asking to wake up?
2. Attention
Hineni (הִנֵּנִי) – Here I am.
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” ~ Simone Weil
Practice: Cultivate a capacity to sit for 10 minutes without moving, like a prayer. Allow yourself to be still. Welcoming all of your experience into the stillness.
Inquiry: What is here? Can I welcome what is here?
3. Return
Teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה) – Return.
“There is no way of coming to oneself except by returning to oneself.” ~ Martin Buber
Practice: Return to something you have neglected.
Inquiry: What am I being called back to?
4. Stop
Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) – Cessation.
“The Sabbath is a time when we stop making a living and start making a life.” ~ Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Practice: Stop doing. Sit. Listen.
Inquiry: What becomes audible when I stop?
5. Listen
Shema (שְׁמַע) – Listen.
“Listen to your life.” ~ Frederick Buechner
Practice: Listen to another person speaking without preparing a response. Listen to the sounds on the street while walking outside. In those moments when you are standing in a line waiting for coffee or the subway to arrive, sense into your body and listen.
Inquiry: What has my life been trying to tell me?
6. See
Ra'ah (רָאָה) – To look, to perceive.
Practice: Look Anew. See Freshly.
Today, choose something familiar and practice seeing it without your usual story about it. Alternatively, take 5 quiet minutes and bring something you choose or one of the following to mind:
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A person you think you already understand...
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A relationship that feels stuck...
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Something about yourself you have judged repeatedly...
Then ask:
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What am I not seeing?
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What might be true that I haven't allowed myself to see?
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If I looked with compassion instead of certainty, what would change?
7. Acknowledge
Vidui (הִוּדוּי) – Confession, acknowledgement.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~ James Baldwin
Practice: Without defending yourself, tell the truth.
Inquiry: What truth have I been avoiding?
8. Say '"I'm sorry''
Al Chet (עַל חֵטְא) – For the sin.
“An honorable human relationship – in other words, one in which two people have the right to use the word ‘love’ – is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved.” ~ Adrienne Rich
Practice: Make one genuine apology.
Inquiry: Where have I caused harm?
9. Forgive
Selichah (סְלִיחָה) – Forgiveness.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” ~ Lewis B. Smedes
Practice: Release one resentment—not necessarily the relationship.
Inquiry: What am I carrying that I no longer need to carry?
10. Receive
Kabbalat ol malchut shamayim (קַבָּלַת עוֹל מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם) — Receiving the yoke/presence of heaven.
“You do not have to be good.” ~ Mary Oliver
Practice: Receive a compliment without deflecting it. Receive help.
Inquiry: Can I allow myself to receive? Where do I not allow others to contribute to me?
11. Embrace the Broken Heart
Hashkafah (הַשְׁקָפָה) — Perspective, point of view.
“There is nothing as whole as a broken heart.” ~ Reb Nachman
“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” ~ Leonard Cohen
Practice: Stop hiding one crack.
Inquiry: Where might my brokenness become an opening?
12. Let Go
Shemitah (שְׁמִטָּה) — Release, relinquishment.
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ~ Joseph Campbell
Practice: Identify one expectation you are willing to release.
Inquiry: What am I holding onto that is holding me back?
13. Change
Teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה) — As transformation.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anaïs Nin
Practice: Do one thing differently. Even if it is small!
Inquiry: What would I do if I weren't afraid to change?
14. Love
Ahavah (אַהֲבָה) — Love.
“Love is an act of will.” ~ Bell Hooks
Practice: Make love concrete: call, visit, repair, thank.
Inquiry: Where does my love need to become an action?
15. Reconcile
Bein adam l’chavero (בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ) – Between one person and another.
"I – Thou." ~ Martin Buber
Practice: Reach toward someone from whom you've become distant.
Inquiry: What relationship is asking to be repaired?
16. Begin Again
Teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה) – As return that is always possible
“If you believe that you can damage, believe that you can repair.” ~ Reb Nachman of Breslov
Practice: Give yourself permission to begin again.
Inquiry: What would it mean to start over?
17. Make An Offering
Korban (קָרְבָּן) – Sacrifice
The Hebrew word "Korban" comes from the root word that means "to draw near.” So at its deepest level, korban isn’t simply about giving something up – it is about drawing near to G-d.
“Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything.” ~ Leonard Cohen
Practice: Offer what you actually have, not what you wish you had.
Inquiry: What imperfect gift can I bring?
18. Hear the Shofar
Tekiah (תְּקִיעָה) — One long breath, one long cry.
“And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” ~ Rilke
Practice: Listen. Breathe. Make a sound.
Inquiry: What is calling me into the year ahead?
Elul is not about becoming perfect, but about becoming present enough to return.
Elul doesn’t begin with “Be a better person.” It begins with: Wake up.
Then: Pay attention.
Then: Listen
Then: Be a truth teller.
Then: Repair what you can.
Then: Open your heart.
And finally: Begin again.
I dedicate these practices in honor of our community and in memory of our beloved founder and teacher Rabbi Burt Aaron Siegel z’’l.
~ Hazzan Adam