Summary

Serving G'd with love and fear is most relevant during the month of Elul. Every year G'd provides us with a month of "refuge" when G'd is specially ready to accept our repentance. The last letters of the four words that form the acronym "Elul" have the numerical value of 40, referring to the 40 days from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur. Elul is a month where we must prepare for the Days of Awe that are ahead of us. Throughout Elul we blow the shofar as a wakeup call to repent and return to G'd. The more sincere our prayer is, the closer we can get to G'd. We must remember that we are actually talking to G'd, especially when we say Shemoneh Esrei. The shofar announces: you are doing fine but you can do even better.

Love and fear

In the past two issues of Torah Attitude, we have dealt with how to serve G'd with both love and fear. This applies during the whole year, but it is most relevant during the month of Elul that we have entered this week.

Month of refuge

In this week's parasha, the Torah repeats the laws of the cities of refuge for someone who killed his fellow inadvertently (see Devarim 19:1-10). These laws are mentioned for the first time in Parashas Mishpatim (Shemos 21:13) where it says that if a person killed his fellow unintentionally, G'd will provide a place to which the killer shall be able to flee. Four of the words in that verse, "inah leyado vesamti lecha", form the acronym "Elul". This, says the great Kabbalist, Arizal, comes to teach us that every year G'd provides us with a month of "refuge" when G'd is specially ready to accept our repentance.

40 days

The Halachic authorities quote a verse in Shir HaShirim (6:3): "I to my beloved and my beloved to me." This also forms the acronym "Elul". In addition, the last letters of these four words have the numerical value of 40, referring to the 40 days from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, the tenth of Tishrei. The Chofetz Chaim writes (Mishnah Berurah 581:1) that this sends us an important message. When we make an effort to get closer to our beloved G'd through repenting our wrongdoings, G'd will reciprocate and bring Himself closer to us, His beloved nation, and accept our Teshuvah (repentance) with love.

Days of Judgment

So on the one hand Elul is a month where we have the opportunity to strengthen the mutual love between G'd and the Jewish people. But on the other hand, Elul is a month where we must prepare for the Days of Awe that are ahead of us. We must internalize the fact that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are Days of Judgment where our future is being decided. We have the opportunity to make changes throughout the month of Elul that will make a real difference. Obviously, we cannot undertake and promise that we will do everything right from now on. That is not realistic. But we can make a serious effort and show G'd that we sincerely want to be better people and do what G'd expects of us.

Call of the shofar

The fear of the upcoming Days of Judgment and the opportunity to get close to G'd go hand in hand. Throughout Elul we blow the shofar as a wakeup call to repent and return to G'd. The Rambam (Laws of Teshuvah 3:4) writes in regards to the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah that, although it is a Torah commandment, there is an underlying message to wake us up from our slumber, and make us scrutinize our deeds and leave our way of wrongdoings. This is what the Prophet Amos states (3:6): "If the Shofar is blown in town, do the people not tremble?" We all have our weaknesses and things we would like to change, but throughout the year we get used to a certain way and get complacent with our lifestyle. Then comes the penetrating sounds of the shofar and calls us to wake up and change.

Sincerity

It is interesting to note that we blow the shofar at the end of our service every morning. Would it not be more meaningful to blow it before we pray to arouse us to pray with more sincerity? The answer may be that we first pray in order to get closer to G'd. As King David says in Ashrei (Tehillim 145:18): "G'd is close to all who call Him, to all who call Him in sincerity." The more sincere our prayer, the closer we can get to G'd. G'd is our merciful Father Who is ready to listen to us. As with every father, He is not always ready to give us what we ask, for reasons only known to G'd, but He always listens to our requests. And even when we do not see our prayers answered, they still make a difference. But the more sincere our prayers are, the better chance we have that G'd will give us what we ask for.

Talking to G'd

So how do we enhance the sincerity of our prayers? The first thing is to remember that we are actually talking to G'd, especially when we say Shemoneh Esrei. G'd allows us to address Him in first person, and there is no need for appointments or intermediaries. We have a direct line open 24/7. Since our sages established our prayers, and we say the same prayer every week day with minor changes from morning to afternoon and evening prayers, it takes a real effort to stay focused and not put our prayer on "automatic pilot". The more we study our prayer book and the commentaries, the easier it is to concentrate. Besides the standard prayer that is printed, we should always communicate with G'd on a personal level. If one does not know Hebrew, one can use any language. In Shema Koleinu and before Oseh Shalom we are encouraged to say our personal prayers specifying our needs. Nothing is too big, and nothing is too small, that would make it inappropriate to ask of G'd.

Do even better

When we pray with sincerity we create an intimate and loving relationship with G'd. We can further develop this relationship when we study Torah and observe the commandments, if we only remember that we do it to fulfill what G'd expects of us. Comes the shofar and announces "you are doing fine but you can do even better." After serving G'd with love through our prayer, the shofar reminds us that we have to combine our love for G'd with fear and awe. In this way, our service becomes more wholesome. And as we prepare ourselves for the High Holidays, we grow and better our position on the Days of Judgment.

May we succeed to prepare ourselves well, so that we, together with all of the Jewish people, will be inscribed to a year of only goodness and blessings.

These words were based on a talk given by Rabbi Avraham Kahn, the Rosh Yeshiva and Founder of Yeshivas Keser Torah in Toronto.

These words were based on a talk given by Rabbi Avraham Kahn, the Rosh Yeshiva and Founder of Yeshivas Keser Torah in Toronto.

Shalom. Michael Deverett