The Month of Elul: Dr. Wade K. Butler

 

The season of Elul Elul follows the months of Tammuz and Av, both catastrophic months for Israel according to tradition. Tammuz is remembered as the month in which the people of Israel built the Golden Calf (Ex. 32) and Av, the month of the sin of the spies (Num. 13). The proximity of Tammuz and Av to Elul underscores the penitential mode of this, the last of the months, before the new beginning and spiritual re-creation that is precipitated with the New Year beginning the following month of Tishrei. The Jewish calendar carries the message that in the cycle of life estrangement can and should be followed by reconciliation. Elul, An invitation. Wisdom through Understanding During the month of Elul each person and, indeed, the Community of Israel as one, reflect upon the past year, entering, on the first day of Elul, into a forty-day period of introspection. Elul is a time to grow in wisdom, to reflect with understanding upon one’s standing within the framework of God’s mercy and justice. Spiritual reflection associated with thepreceding month, Av, pictures God as having retreated within a concealed inner sanctum—a reflection, in fact, of human distancing and withdrawal from God. Elul becomes a time to make good, to reflect, to advance in wisdom (through understanding [binah]), and to begin setting things to rights—the beginning of the “teshuvah” process. The King is in the Field Jewish mystical thinking encourages the idea that reflection upon one’s inner motivations and thoughts one is able to engage the “power” of the soul within the body, reshaping the way in which we live and respond—re-orientating our “will” to God and to good. "And his heart shall understand, and he shall return and be healed" (Isa. 6:10). A Hasidic parable During the season of repentance, and particularly on Yom Kippur, God is envisaged as Father and King. Hasidic reflection sees God as, “the king in the field” during Elul, drawn out of “concealment” and approachable. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi in his Likkutei Torah explains the Hasidic teaching of the approachful-ness of God during Elul.A king normally lives in a palace, separated from and unapproachable by ordinary people—this is how our relationship with God seems as we become bound up in the world with its distractions, frailties and concerns. During Elul, however, the king (God) Page 5 of 117 might be experienced as having left the hiddenness of the palace and having entered into the field (i.e., that place where ordinary people are) and so becoming available to his subjects. In this month of Elul, while people continue with their normal activities they are at the same time aware of the presence of God and are drawn to prayer, reflection and response. This parable, like much of Hasidic philosophy, invites us to enter a period of personal reflection where our ultimate goal is to uncover the Divine point which is within. This is the holy point (Yehudah) within every person’s heart—the “living soul,” which is partnered with the Divine Eternal and which, in the course of everyday life, becomes covered and hidden. During Elul we are the ones who “come into the field” seeking the King, and it is during Elul that we turn to prayer and seek to draw close to God remembering the Divine attributes of Mercy and Forgiveness. According to The Sefat Emet it is in our Divine point that God has implanted eternal life in us, and it is this Divine point which we must seek to uncover in order that we might be renewed; released from our sinful and imperfect selves, and “inscribed for life”—that God will inscribe “Life” on our hearts—with the coming of Rosh HaShanah.