High Holiday Spiritual Preparation in the Months of Elul and Tishrei

Sometimes, though rarely, the Jewish calendar is really easy for me to understand.  This year, the spiritual month of Elul begins on Labor Day,  Monday, September 1st.   By the next-to-the-last day, September 29, Rosh Hashanah begins in the evening.  I can easily encompass September as my month of spiritual preparation for both a New Year of Jewish life, and a little further growth into the person I want to be.   If I attend to Elul's call, I can  begin to bring my awareness to bear on how I will make the amends I need to take care of by Yom Kippur in October during the month of Tishrei.   I figure I have five and a half weeks to reflect on and repair my relationship with those around me, myself, and G-d, if I want to have the holiday feel right to me personally.  

And of course the work is never done in one short period, but the annual cycle of accounting and repair is as true as a birthday:  you take stock and celebrate what you can heal, and move on.   Our Jewish psychology is healthful:   when it comes to the work of seeking and giving forgiveness,  we needn't get it all done at once, and we get to take another crack at it each year we live.  As the Ethics of the Fathers, or Pirkei Avot, states (my paraphrase):  You are not required to complete the task, but you are not to abandon it. 

 

And just after all that deep work is over, we finish the month of Tishrei with Sukkot and Simchat Torah, two periods of celebration: of  home, food, and our Book of Books, all the while in awareness of our utter dependence on the Source of Life.  Might as well have some wine and dance.  

A very attractive book that helps an individual prepare for the high holidays is Rabbi Simon Jacobson's Sixty Days:  A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays.   Not a stuffy book, it's laid out flat like a cookbook, spiral-bound, with sidebars and room for personal jottings, which the reader will be inspired to make as she or he mulls over bits of history, law and customs, little spiritual exercizes, and reflections on the process of inner change.  The first chapter, The Energy of Time, sets a nice tone for how we can individually immerse ourselves in the months of Elul and Tishrei for 60 days of inner awe and transformation.   Jacobson notes that only change breeds more change, and in preparing for what I hope will be an interior change, I have faith in my ability to use this book to create some change, instead of only reacting to change that Life imposes on me.   By the time of the HHD, I expect myself to have grown by the work I do now.   Although I won't glow, and  will still be me with all my stuff, I hope it'll show in small ways that let me be more truly who G-d had in mind.  

If you like the book or have some ideas to share about your HHD inner work, let us all know in this space.  

laura thor