We are entering into a very special time of year as we prepare to enter the Jewish month of Elul. This is the month before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which are the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, the days of at-one-ment, the time of the setting and sealing of the divine intention for the year to come.
How do we prepare for that? Elul marks the beginning of a 40 day period until Yom Kippur. During those 40 days we go into a spiritual training routine - like preparing for a marathon. We refocus our priorities. We clarify our relationships. We return to a deeper and more rooted awareness of God.
In fact, during the month of Elul the shofar ~ the ram's horn whose blast is usually associated with the High Holiday prayers ~ is sounded each weekday after morning prayers. The rough, brash sound of the shofar shakes us and says "WAKE UP", "PAY ATTENTION", "BE MINDFUL".
Wake up to what? Pay attention to what? Be mindful of what?
The task set before us in Elul is to return to our relationship with God. Teshuvah ~ to return. Where are the gaps between our 'business as usual' lives and our lives as lived in direct connection with the divine? What needs to be healed? What needs to be forgiven?
We can't just walk into High Holiday services and expect an instantaneous realignment. Elul is the practice of spiritual preparedness that tills the soil and makes us ready. It is a time for getting in touch with our brokenness, the 'contrast' of our lives. Fun? No. Productive? Yes.
If we use the month of Elul to turn within each day and come to an honest accounting of ourselves and take it to the next step by doing the work of teshuvah to 're-turn', or 'turn around' those areas of our lives that need it, then when Yom Kippur arrives we will have already initiated the transformation of saying 'yes' to a fuller, more connected spiritual life.
It is not just 'God's job' to make us holy as an external thing that is done 'to' us. It takes our initiation and our participation to create 'whole-ness' in our lives. It is for us to start the process and to revisit it each year during Elul. That is how we prepare for Yom Kippur.
So, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to reflect on where you are. Where was the 'contrast' in your life this past year? What has your responsibility been in creating that? What compensation are you willing to offer to make the situation whole? To make your heart whole. To make your relationships whole. To make your life whole.
Elul is about 'getting real' with ourselves but it is not about beating ourselves up. As we walk this path of Elul, let us remember to balance the 'accounting' of our spiritual life this past year with as much gentlenss and forgiveness for ourselves as we are called upon to give to others.
Rabbi Hanan Sills teaches that keeping Shabbat - the Sabbath - is the way we heal the world. During Elul pay special attention to the spiritual practice of Shabbat. As our Shabbat prayers say, there is in each of us an 'elohai neshama', a pure soul, filled with divine potential.
On Saturday, August 7, 2010, you are invited to come celebrate Shabbat, with us. We will be bringing in the energy of chant to open up a spaciousness in those areas to untie the tangles and to return light, life and reconnection into those deepest corners.
Come join us in a space of oneness, wholy-ness, and sabbath peace! Everyone is welcome!
Contemplative, Meditative Shabbat Chant Circle
August 7th at 10:30 a.m.
August 7th at 10:30 a.m.
at the Center for Spiritual Living
390 Vernal Street, Eugene
(Cross streets Coburg Rd and Rustic Pl.
Turn east at Blockbuster and go one block.)
If you can't come, we invite you to join your intention with ours at this time however you are able.
For more infomation on our monthly Shabbat Chant Circle visit www.SpiritPathNow.com/Shabbat.
