Blogging Elul - Judaism, a religion of preparation

The month of Elul has now begun, and with it the countdown towards Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. One of the striking features of Judaism is the way in which preparation forms an important part of our calendar and general religious observance.

In most religions the call to prayer marks the beginning of the formal service. The muezzin ascends the minaret and sings the words of the adhan calling Muslims to the Mosque for the service to begin; and the bells ring out to mark the beginning of Church services. However, in Judaism the Barechu – which is our call to prayer, appears in the midst of the service. In our morning service, the prior sections of birkat hashachar – the morning blessings and pesukei dezimra – the passages of song, prepare us for the formal call to prayer, when we rise to enter into God’s presence. And according to the Mishnah (Berachot 5:1) The pious men (hasidim harishonim) of old used to wait an hour before praying in order that they might concentrate their thoughts upon their Father in Heaven.

The 49 days of the Omer, which we begin counting on the second night of Pesach, are a way of preparing ourselves for the festival of Shavuot and the giving of Torah. Our ancestors in the wilderness did not immediately reach Mount Sinai for God’s revelation, and our calendar recreates this with the Omer, as we count towards the festival of Shavuot. We move from the physical freedom, which we acquired at Pesach, to the spiritual freedom, which we acquire with Torah on Shavuot. Each night we recite the blessing for the Omer and we count, so as to consciously mark the move and transition from Pesach to Shavuot.

And before we come to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we have the month of Elul. All too often when we have jobs which need to be done we wait until the last minute to do them. In the lead up to Yom Kippur our jobs are teshuva – repentance, tefilla – prayer and tzedakkah – charity (deeds of righteousness), all of which avert the evil decree. Rather than waiting until Yom Kippur we have the ten days from Rosh Hashanah, and the thirty days of Elul to begin work on these tasks. Each day of Elul we sound the shofar, which calls us to attention and reminds us that Yom Teruah - the day of the Shofar (another name for Rosh Hashanah) is approaching and that we should begin preparing for the High Holy Days today.

With all of this preparation it is interesting to note that Pesach, is the only Torah festival with no obvious lead up (even for Sukkot we begin our work immediately at the end of Yom Kippur, putting the first nail into our Sukkah). Perhaps this element of the calendar is a reminder that our ancestors were forced to leave Egypt in such a rush that there was not even time for the bread to rise. And so our calendar includes no obvious time for preparation.

Through Elul our calendar is urging us to do what we can today to prepare for our High Holy Day festivals, and to not wait until tomorrow. Before we know it Rosh Hashanah will be upon us, and rather than the marathon of Elul, we will have the sprint of the Ten Days of Repentance (and eventually just the 25 hours of Yom Kippur). As Hillel used to say: “If not now, when?”