GOOD MORNING! This week begins the Hebrew month of Elul. The onset of Elul is very significant as it marks the beginning of a period of spiritual preparation leading up to the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the key components of the Ten Days of Repentance. Together, the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance mark a forty-day period of introspection, repentance, and seeking of forgiveness. As we shall soon see this number forty is quite significant.

During the month of Elul, Jews engage in a practice known as cheshbon hanefesh or “an accounting of the soul.” This involves a soul-searching reflection on one’s actions and taking a hard look at the past year’s deeds. It is a time of acknowledging shortcomings and seeking ways to improve oneself in the three areas of relationships: 1) our relationship with the Almighty 2) our relationship with others 3) our relationship with ourselves.

Just as corporations review their financial records and report the prior year’s transactions to understand where they stand and prepare for a financial audit, so too Jews review their actions and seek to rectify any mistakes from the prior year. This prepares us for the “audit” on Rosh Hashanah – the day we are judged by the Almighty.

These forty days represent a continual process of transformation and renewal. We focus on ending self-destructive behavior and commit to spiritual growth and living a more moral existence. In many ways, these forty days represent a rebirth of who we are and how we perceive ourselves.

Those familiar with the Bible will recognize the number forty as a number that represents transformation. When the world sinned to the point that God decided that it needed to be “re-formed” He brought the flood for forty days and forty nights and the world was reborn.

When the Jewish people sinned by not trusting the Almighty when He told them to enter the Land of Israel, God decreed that the entire generation would not merit entering it. Thus, they were relegated to the desert for forty years while that generation perished, and the nation was transformed.

There are many other examples of the number forty representing significant rebirth and renewal. Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah from the Almighty. The prophet Jonah warns the wicked city of Nineveh that they had forty days to repent before the Almighty destroyed the entire city (this story is recounted in its entirety in the afternoon service on Yom Kippur).

(It is, of course, no coincidence that in the Christian faith the period set aside for prayer, fasting, introspection, and seeking forgiveness known as Lent is also forty days.)

But perhaps the most important forty, and the one that is directly connected to the forty days between the beginning of Elul to the end of the Yom Kippur, is that these very same forty days were when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to plead with the Almighty to forgive the Jewish people for sinning with the Golden Calf.

A brief recap: In the very first months after leaving Egypt and receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai, the Jewish nation sinned terribly and created the Golden Calf to be an intermediary between them and the Almighty. God informed Moses (who was on Mount Sinai and unaware of the goings-on in the encampment) of their catastrophic mistake. Moses then came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments and shattered them – representing the severing of the Jewish people’s special relationship with the Almighty, the one forged when they originally accepted the Torah.

On the first day of Elul Moses went back up Mount Sinai for another forty days to plead for forgiveness for the Jewish people in an attempt to save them from God’s wrath. After forty days of successfully arguing his case, Moses returned back to the people with a second set of Ten Commandments carved in sapphire representing that God had forgiven His people. This fortieth day was Yom Kippur and forevermore became the Day of Atonement.

Today, community and prayer play a vital role in the Elul observances. Jews all over the world observe special customs that begin with the onset of the month. In the Sephardic communities a pre-dawn prayer service expressing remorse and asking for Divine forgiveness is recited daily (the Ashkenazic custom is to begin a week or so before Rosh Hashanah). These intense prayers, known as selichot (literally, “forgiveness”), have a very meaningful communal aspect, one which fosters a sense of unity and shared commitment to growth and improvement.

Likewise, another meaningful social custom is to begin or end all letters/communications during the month of Elul with wishes that the recipient be blessed with a good year. The standard blessing is “K’tiva VaHatima Tova – A Positive Writing and Sealing [of Judgement].” This means that the person should be written and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year. (Tradition teaches that on Rosh Hashanah each person is inscribed for a good or a poor year, based on their actions in the previous one and their sincere efforts at atoning for mistakes or harm. On Yom Kippur, that fate is considered “sealed.”)

All month long in the synagogue after morning services the shofar (ram’s horn) is blown as a sort of “clarion call” reminding the assembled to focus on repentance (the shofar is not blown on the Shabbat or the day before Rosh Hashanah) and this custom continues until Rosh Hashanah. In addition, a special psalm (27) is added to the end of the morning and evening prayers – this psalm is seen as referencing the High Holidays and our yearning to draw closer to the Almighty. (Because this psalm also references a sukkah, it is recited until the end of the holiday of Sukkot.)

Just as in any attempt to repair a relationship, it is not enough to merely engage in self-flagellation. Elul is also a time to seek a deeper and more meaningful spiritual connection with the Almighty. We must commit to being ever present and focused on the theocentric universe and to draw nearer to the Almighty. According to the sages, the name “Elul” itself holds a special symbolism; it is believed to be a backronym of the verse; “Ani le’dodi ve’dodi li” (Song of Songs 6:3), which translates to “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”

Teshuvah is often translated as “repentance,” but in reality this word means “to return.” Thus, repentance is the process of “returning” to the Almighty and it is the central theme of Elul. The belief is that during this time God is particularly close and merciful, making it an opportune moment to seek forgiveness and mend relationships. Jews reach out to family, friends, and colleagues, seeking reconciliation and offering apologies for past wrongs.

In Judaism, true repentance is about repairing the relationship between yourself and your friends as well as between yourself and the Almighty. According to our sages, one can never fully achieve repentance from the Almighty if one hasn’t repaired the relationships with one’s friends. Thus, repentance isn’t merely about penance, rather it is an affirmative step in the process of promoting deeper and more meaningful relationship with the Almighty and others. This, of course, reminds me of a joke.

A man, who had only committed minor sins, dies. God decides that while he is worthy of heaven he must still do several tasks to repent. On the first day, he is asked to wash all the dishes and cutlery from the previous evening’s feast. On the second day, he is asked to make the beds in which all the righteous had slept the previous night. On the third day, he is asked to wash and iron the garments worn by the heavenly angels. While completing his ironing he suddenly muses, “Am I really repenting for my misdeeds, or did I just get married?”

There are, of course, no coincidences in life and this week’s Torah portion has a similarly relevant message regarding the number forty. In this week’s Torah portion we find some of the laws related to the Jewish nation engaging in warfare. It is important to know that according to our sages never in the history of the Jewish people did we engage in warfare without first giving the other combatants an opportunity to make peace and avoid a war. In fact, the Jewish warriors would never completely surround a city, rather they would only circle it from three sides in order to provide the inhabitants an escape route should they seek one.

In addition, the national army had a very interesting recruiting policy:

“Any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house [...] Any man who has planted a vineyard, and has not yet eaten of it, let him also go and return to his house […] Any man who has betrothed a wife, and has not yet married her, let him go and return to his house […]” (Deuteronomy 20:5-7).

It is fascinating that according to the Talmud (Sotah 2a) forty days prior to the formation of an embryo a heavenly voice goes out and proclaims 1) who the person will marry, 2) what home the person will settle down into, and 3) what fields the person will own. In other words, as part of the creation of a child three things are pre-determined; one’s spouse, one’s home, and one’s property (livelihood).

The next forty days of the embryo’s evolvement into a living being are all part of that process of who the person will eventually become. Because these three elements are so basic to a person’s self-definition, any warrior who had begun the process but not yet completed any one of those three elements was excused from serving in the army.

Shoftim, Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9

Topics in this week’s portion include: Judges and Justice, “Sacred Trees and Pillars,” Blemished Sacrifice, Penalties for Idolatry, The Supreme Court, The King, Levitical Priests, Priestly Portions, Special Service, Divination and Prophecy, Cities of Refuge, Murder, Preserving Boundaries, Conspiring Witnesses, Preparing for War, Taking Captives, Conducting a Siege, and the Case of the Unsolved Murder.