A year in twelve days

 The month of Elul is a special month.  Every day is a precious day that can be used to come closer to Hashem, to strengthen our Jewish connection, to transform our challenges to positives and to prepare for the great days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the “Days of Atonement” in between.

 

Then within Elul itself, there are extra special days – the last twelve days of the month.  Our Sages tell us that each of those days corresponds to a month during the past year.  Beginning with the 18th of the month, which corresponds to Tishrei, then the 19th, corresponding to Cheshvan, etc.  Practically this means that each day we think back to how we spent that month, and how we can build on our successes and fix the things that need to be fixed.

 

This twelve day period begins this Monday,with the 18th of Elul, which is itself a very exalted day.  Two of the greatest luminaries of all time were born on Elul 18.  The Ba’al Shemtov, founder of the Chassidic movement, was born on this day, as was Rabbi Schneur Zalman founder of Chabad, two generations later.  18 is the numerical value of the word “chai,” which means life.

So now let’s put all of this together.  In the middle of the work of the month of Elul, doing teshuva, fixing our flaws, thinking back over how we have lived and what can be improved, comes a day that brings life into this work.  This “life” comes from the teachings of the two great luminaries who brought the Chassidic approach to our service of Hashem.  And this is on the day that we relive the month of Tishrei, the head of the year, which then passes this “life” or excitement to the rest of the 11 days.

What is this life that we are talking about?  There is so much to say on the subject, and as usual I will just bring up one point.  When we think back over the past and see flaws, mistakes and issues, it can make us depressed.  We start defining ourselves as flawed human beings and rather than lifting us up to bigger and better things, it may drag us down and make us give up on ourselves.

There is no question that it’s important to recognize what we need to change, but the “life-filled” approach focuses on the fact that our true essence, the real definition of who we are, is not the mistakes or the flaws.  We each have a soul that is part of Hashem, with infinite potential to grow and do goodness and bring the light of Hashem to the world.  The things we have done wrong are not who we really are - they are a deviation from our real selves.

A lively teshuva lifts us up and brings us closer to Hashem and to who we really are and to what we can really be.  Yes, we regret the negative, but we don’t define ourselves by it.  We look up to the source of our soul, and we work to bring that into our consciousness, and then into our day-to-day actions.  This kind of Teshuva transforms us, and helps us transform the negatives and challenges into springboards for greatness.

I wish you an uplifting Elul and a wonderful sweet New Year.