Earlier this week, a congregant was asking me about the High Holy Days. Do you just dread them, she asked? And the answer is--I don't. I don't think any of us rabbis/cantors/educators do--if we did, we're in the wrong business. But it is more than that. The minute I step onto the bimah for Erev Rosh HaShanah, I am overcome with a sense of excitement, a sense of possibility. I walk through those days charged with the feeling that a new day has truly dawned.
Had she asked a different question, I might have had a different answer. Had she asked about Elul....well....this morning dawned with, if not a sense of dread, certainly a sense of anxiety. There is (obviously) the professional anxiety--will I get the sermons written, will they be good? And within that, I think, are deeper questions: What do I have to teach this year? How can I bring challenge and comfort at the same time? What is MY Torah this year?? What is yours?
And even deeper, of course, there is my personal anxiety about these High Holy Days. Will I have enough time for my own spiritual preparation? Will I use my professional responsibilities as a way of dodging tougher personal commitments? What is the work of teshuvah--repentance--in which I have to engage this year?
Rabbi Phyllis Sommer started something called #BlogElul. The idea--to take a different topic for each day of #Elul and blog, Tweet, or FB about it. I know I cannot commit to each and every day, but I am posting the topics here, in hope that they will inspire you---and me---to begin the introspection this month requests of us.
Chodesh Tov. Welcome to this new month. First #BlogElul to follow....
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