The last month of the Jewish calendar (counting from Tishri) is called Elul (אֱלוּל), which begins at sundown on Wednesday, August 19th this year. Traditionally, Rosh Chodesh Elul marks the beginning of a forty day “Season of Teshuvah” that culminates on the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur. The month of Elul is therefore a time set aside each year to prepare for the Yamim Nora’im, the “Days of Awe,” by getting our spiritual house in order. This year is especially important, friends, since time is short and the return of the Lord is imminent…
Beginning on Rosh Chodesh Elul and continuing until the day before Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to blow the shofar (ram’s horn) every day (except for Shabbat). This practice was adopted to help us awaken for the coming High Holidays. The custom is to first blow tekiah (תְּקִיעָה), a long single blast (the sound of the King’s coronation), followed by shevarim (שְׁבָרִים), three short, wail-like blasts (signifying repentance), followed by teruah (תְּרוּעָה), several short blasts of alarm (to awaken the soul), and to close with tekiah hagadol (תְּקִיעָה הַגָּדוֹל), a long, final blast.
We are all on a spiritual journey, writing the “Book of our Life.” To help us in the “writing” process, the Jewish sages encouraged us to set aside as a season each year for cheshbon hanefesh (חֶשְׁבּוֹן הַנֶּפֶשׁ) – “making an account of the soul.” This means that we engage in honest self-examination about our behavior. After all, what is the essence of teshuvah if it is not honesty with yourself? “For everyone who does wicked things (lit., ὁ φαῦλα, that which is “easy,” “worthless,” or “vain”) hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:20). Therefore we make some time to reflect about our lives from the previous year. We ask searching questions like, “How did I get to this place in my life?” “Where am I now?” “Am I where I should be?” We engage in this process of self-examination with an aim to grow — to let go of the pain of the past and move forward. Confession (i.e., homologia: ὁμολογία) means bringing yourself naked before the Divine Light to agree with the truth about who you are. Indeed, the related verb word “homologeo” (ὁμολογέω) literally means “saying the same thing” – from ὁμός (same) and λόγος (word). We need to confess the truth if we are to be free from the pain of the past. When King David wrote, יְהוָה אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי מִמִּי אִירָ֑א – “The LORD is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1), he implied that he should even be free of fear of himself and of his past….
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Being honest with ourselves is essential for any sort of authentic spiritual life… “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced” (James Baldwin). “No person is saved except by grace; but there is one sin that makes grace impossible, and that is dishonesty; and there is one thing God must forever and unconditionally require, and that is honesty” (Kierkegaard). Amen. Confession means “saying the same thing” about ourselves that God says – and that means not only acknowledging our various sins, transgressions, and iniquities, but also affirming our beloved place in his heart. Saying that God doesn’t love you is a lie as damning as denying His very existence…
“May it be Your will, LORD our God and God of our fathers, that you renew for us a good month in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Amen.”
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