Questions to consider for this study session:
- What is Rosh Hashanah? Is it a celebration or a time for sober reflection? Can it be both?
- What motivates you to observe Rosh Hashanah?
- Is Rosh Hashanah an ending or a beginning?
Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the month of Tishrei, but equally it marks the end of the month of Elul. Elul is not given any special significance in the Torah, but has been used as a month full of preparation for the high holidays for at least 1000 years. If Rosh Hashanah opens up the 10 days of repentance, Elul offers us a month in which to consider what we might want to repent for, how we might want to make t'shuvah, and where we might want to give tzedakah in the future.
Questions on Elul and reflection:
- What has been your greatest joy in the past year?
- What do you not want to carry into the new year?
- What do you hope to achieve in the next year?
- What stopped you achieving those goals this past year?
I’m thinking of Elul not so much as a time of turning, but as a dive into the deep end. Maybe my obsession with diving that summer long ago, as I stood poised on the edge of adulthood, came from an instinctive longing to penetrate the surface of life and engage more deeply. To do so, I had to release the fears that held me back — my fear of the water, of the impact, of the depths. I had to replace these limiting imaginings with a clear image of the goal I wished to achieve, the promised land I hoped to enter.
Elul entices me with that same promise — the pull to dive into the quiet of an underwater world and refresh my capacity to consciously turn toward imagining a different, better world. When many of us join to do this together, we begin to build the imaginal framework on which a new reality can grow.
"Diving into Elul" by Rabbi Diane Elliot
(https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/diving-into-elul/ - extracted 15/08/2023)
Texts from "Forms of Prayer for Jewish Worship" (1985)
"When Jews appear for divine judgement the angels say to them: 'Fear not, the Judge...is your Father'" Midrash Psalms, p124
"When Adam saw for the first time the sun go down and an ever-deepening gloom enfolded creation, his mind was filled with terror. G?d then took pity on him, and endowed him with the divine intuition to take two stones - the name of one was 'Darkness' and the name of the other 'Shadow of Death' - and rub them against each other, and so discover fire. Thereupon Adam exclaimed with grateful joy: 'Blessed be the creator of light!'" Talmud, p167
"Everything is in the hand of G?d except the fear of G?d." Berachot, p169
"Humanity is afraid of things that cannot harm us, and we know it. And we long for things that cannot help us, and we know it. But actually it is something within us that we are afraid of, and it is something within us that we long for" Chasidic, p168
Why is it that we do not find that a person who fashions a shofar makes the blessing of “Shehechiyanu,” “Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season?” (Sukkah 46a)
The Ra’avad answers a shofar is used when we are standing in judgment, to arouse feelings of repentance within us. It is an object associated with judgment, and the fear of judgment makes that time one we would rather not recall. Hence, the recitation of the Shehechiyanu bracha would be inappropriate.
However, we know that on Rosh HaShana itself, the very day on which we are judged, we make the bracha of Shehechiyanu prior to the blowing of the shofar. Why, then, if we fashion a shofar six months prior to the Day of Judgment, we have cause to fear and we do not make a bracha, but in the midst of judgment itself, we can make the bracha, and fear is not an impediment to making the blessing?
Rav Chaim Kanievsky answered simply: once you are in the midst of judgment, you are happy to have the opportunity to perform a mitzvah, to do something that helps tip the scales in your favor. It reminds us of a time that rightfully inspires fear. Yet, while in the midst of judgment, when we need help, any opportunity we have to perform G-d’s dictates is welcome.
Adapted from "A Time for Fear, A Time for Joy - Elul/Rosh Hashanah" by Rabbi Yehudah Preto
(https://torah.org/learning/yomtov-roshhashanah-vol12no04/ - extracted 15/08/2023)
תַּנְיָא, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר: גְּדוֹלָה צְדָקָה שֶׁמְּקָרֶבֶת אֶת הַגְּאוּלָּה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״כֹּה אָמַר ה׳, שִׁמְרוּ מִשְׁפָּט וַעֲשׂוּ צְדָקָה, כִּי קְרוֹבָה יְשׁוּעָתִי לָבֹא וְצִדְקָתִי לְהִגָּלוֹת״. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשָׂרָה דְּבָרִים קָשִׁים נִבְרְאוּ בָּעוֹלָם: הַר קָשֶׁה – בַּרְזֶל מְחַתְּכוֹ, בַּרְזֶל קָשֶׁה – אוּר מְפַעְפְּעוֹ, אוּר קָשֶׁה – מַיִם מְכַבִּין אוֹתוֹ, מַיִם קָשִׁים – עָבִים סוֹבְלִים אוֹתָן, עָבִים קָשִׁים – רוּחַ מְפַזַּרְתָּן, רוּחַ קָשֶׁה – גּוּף סוֹבְלוֹ, גּוּף קָשֶׁה – פַּחַד שׁוֹבְרוֹ, פַּחַד קָשֶׁה – יַיִן מְפִיגוֹ, יַיִן קָשֶׁה – שֵׁינָה מְפַכַּחְתּוֹ; וּמִיתָה – קָשָׁה מִכּוּלָּם [וּצְדָקָה מַצֶּלֶת מִן הַמִּיתָה] – דִּכְתִיב: ״וּצְדָקָה תַּצִּיל מִמָּוֶת״.
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: Great is charity in that it advances the redemption, as it is stated: “So said the Lord, uphold justice and do charity, for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed” (Isaiah 56:1). He would say: Ten strong entities were created in the world, one stronger than the other. A mountain is strong, but iron, which is stronger, cleaves it. Iron is strong, but fire melts it. Fire is strong, but water extinguishes it. Water is strong, but clouds bear it. Clouds are strong, but wind disperses them. Wind is strong, but the human body withstands it. The human body is strong, but fear breaks it. Fear is strong, but wine dispels it. Wine is strong, but sleep drives it off. And death is stronger than them all, but charity saves a person from death, as it is written: “And charity delivers from death” (Proverbs 10:2, 11:4).