Rabbi's Message

We are now firmly in the Hebrew month of Elul, and Rosh Hashanah is just a little over two weeks away. Elul is a time for reflection and introspection. It is a month for study and for preparing our hearts, bodies, and minds for the High Holy Days.  It is a time for heshbon ha-nefesh, soul accounting. It is a time in which we challenge ourselves each day to discover and to grow. 

A story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiv (1740-1809), who one year, at the beginning of the month of Elul, stood at his window as a traveling shoe-repairman passed by.  Hoping for a customer, he asked “Don’t you have anything that needs to be fixed?”  Immediately, the rabbi sat on the ground and began cry while saying “Woe is me, and woe to my soul, for the Day of Judgment is imminent and coming, and I still have not yet fixed myself!” (Shai Agnon, Yamim Noraim, 30)

The shoe-repairman provided Rabbi Levi Yitzchak with a gift.  The gift of a reminder; specifically a reminder to awaken within himself the need for tikkun (repair). A reminder that now is a time for mindfulness, preparation, and soul-searching.

The simplest (and, paradoxically, most difficult) thing we can do to begin preparing ourselves now, during the month of Elul, before the High Holy Days, is to be constantly mindful of the ability to grow.  Our lives are busy, and the world around us does not stop during Elul to give us time to think about teshuvah.  Chances are, most of us will not hear a heavenly voice calling us to this task.  But we can choose to take a few moments during the week to ask ourselves: what in me needs fixing? Which of my relationships need fixing? What in my day-to-day life needs fixing?  If we take this preparatory time seriously, we may suddenly find that like Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, we are open to hearing this message from even the most unexpected places.  Be on the lookout for shoe-repairmen this month.  Don’t wait until Rosh Hashanah to start looking.  May God bless all of us on our spiritual journey of growth.

Shabbat Shalom.