Rosh Chodesh Elul falls on September 1st this year, a somewhat unusual aligning of the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. The month of Elul offers us a chance to arrive at Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe a little better prepared for the experience. Just as the Kabbalat Shabbat section of our Friday night service allows us to ‘ease’ into the tefilah experience with melodies and poetry, so is the month of Elul offering us a chance to get ready for the intensely personal and communal experience of the High Holy Days. There are multiple ways to do so: craft for yourself some additional Jewish experiences, read a book with a Jewish theme, visit a service you don’t regularly attend, watch an Israeli movie or TV show (which now abound on our streaming services), brush up on your Hebrew reading skills (or start learning!). What YOU do depends on what you like to do, or what works for you – the goal is to be extra mindful about the Jewish experiences you create for yourself and those around you, moments that will help you ponder your life and your actions, as well as the collective journey of the Jewish people.
This year, once again, we will begin using the new High Holy Day machzor all through the month of Elul, helping us get better acquainted with the prayer book and the themes of the Days of Awe. As always, there’s no better preparation for the moving and inspiring Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur than to refresh our prayer book skills together while celebrating Shabbat during the month of Elul. (We will make an exception on September 6 for our Annual Shabbat Under the Stars service, when we will use our usual ‘traveling’ siddurim). The culmination of our preparation will be the Selichot service, an annual event that brings together four reform synagogues in our area for the joint experience of preparing for High Holy Days with rabbis, cantors and a combined choir. On September 21 at 7pm we will be hosted by Temple Beth David in Cheshire, and I very much hope to see many of you there for this immensely moving and special start for the Days of Awe.
Rosh Hashanah is coming September 29. Will you be ready?