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Are You Ready?

There is a new High Holiday book on my shelf that I have been assiduously avoiding, if only because of the ominous title: "This Is Real and You You Are Completely Unprepared."
[additional-authors]
August 28, 2003

There is a new High Holiday book on my shelf that I have been assiduously avoiding, if only because of the ominous title: "This Is Real and You You Are Completely Unprepared."

Rabbi Alan Lew’s book, subtitled, "The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation," reminds me that summer is ending, and the time has come to prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

"A mindful awareness of our circumstances often makes things worse, not better," writes Lew, the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco and the founder and director of Makor Or, a meditation center connected to a synagogue.

"Suddenly aware of problems we never knew we had, we may genuinely feel that we are much worse off than we thought we were; we may feel a sense of urgency, even of desperation, about our plight."

The rabbi says that this is the "emotional basis" of Selichot, "the week of urgent, desperate prayer" which Sephardim begin reciting on the first day of Elul. (Other communities recite it a week before Rosh Hashanah.)

Elul, the last month of the Hebrew calendar, begins Thursday and Friday, Aug. 28-29, and with it, our preparations for the High Holidays. In Aramaic, Elul means to search; in Hebrew, it is said to be an acronym of Ani l’dodi v’dodi li, — "I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine," — the Song of Songs verse referring to God and the Jewish people.

In Elul, most communities recite Psalm 27 "Of David":

"Of David; Hashem is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Hashem is my life’s strength, who shall I dread? When evildoers approach me to devour my flesh, my tormentors and my foes against me — it is they who stumble and fall."

In Elul, most communities also begin to sound the Shofar (did you think it was only on Rosh Hashanah?): a wake-up call, so to speak.

For many of us, September — with shorter days, the start of the school year and the return to a more regimented schedule — signals a time for inner contemplation, for re-evaluation of our personal goals, accomplishments and the direction our lives are taking.

Whether or not you mark the beginning of Elul, you can’t avoid the fact that change is in the air — even here in Los Angeles, the city where the sun hardly sleeps.

No matter how you prepare for the High Holidays — whether you recite the traditional Selichot prayers, or whether you simply plan elaborate sweet meals to beckon in a sweet new year — these autumn holidays set us apart from the rest of the world. While they are only busy with back to school, we are also busy with the Days of Reckoning.

More than a personal time of reckoning, Elul, Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe and Yom Kippur, bring us together as a community, as a family and as a nation, to chart our course.

With the war in Iraq, a continuing intifada in Israel and anti-Semitism plaguing Europe, this year was a tumultuous one for the Jews and the world; although it was less so than the year prior, when Sept. 11 turned the world upside down.

Do you remember how different everything was in 2001?

And yet, 5764 does not seem so different from 5763: A shattered cease-fire (or is it back on again?), peace in the Middle East still but a dream, nothing seems to have changed, unless it is to have gotten worse.

But as we prepare for our own reckonings Psalm 27 reminds us to turn inwards, and place our faith above humans (even the Terminator).

"Though an army would besiege me, my heart would not fear; though war would arise against me, in this I trust. One thing I asked of Hashem, that shall I see: That I dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life; to behold the sweetness of Hashem and to contemplate in His Sanctuary."

According to Jewish tradition, now is the time that the events of the upcoming year will be decided. "Who will live and who will die?" we recite in the holiday prayer.

But instead of looking at it with trepidation and avoidance, Lew writes we should look at this time as one of opportunity.

"This moment is before us with its choices, and the consequences of our past choices are before us, as is the possibility of our transformation," writes Lew, who will be speaking next month at Sinai Temple.

"On Rosh Hashanah, the gates between heaven and Earth are opened, and things that were beyond us suddenly become possible. The deepest questions of our heart begin to find answers. Our deepest fear, that gaping emptiness up ahead of us and back behind us as well, suddenly becomes our ally. Heaven begins to help us."

Heaven help us all.

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