We are in the month of Elul.
It׳s the precursor to the High Holiday season.
We need to be prepared.
The Jewish year is comprised of the holidays which mark the seasons.
Each year as we traverse the year we may have the tendency to say to ourselves, it’s Rosh Hashana again?
Wasn’t it just Rosh Hashana?
How did we get here again?
We may feel we are like the hamster on the wheel, mindlessly running as we pass the same markers over and over again.
The Chassidic Rebbe, the Kotzker Rebbe, teaches us that when we pass each station again we should not feel that we are just going round and round. Rather we should view it as an upward spiral. Yes we are reaching the same station again, but this time I’m just a bit higher on the journey than I was last time I arrived at this station.
The Rebbe says there is a special energy available to us at each station, and we can use that positive energy to provide a boost.
For example, when we arrive at Passover, freedom is in the air.
We can use that energy to help free ourselves from the shackles that bind us. It may be freedom from a physical incarceration, or it may be a time to free ourselves from things that hold us back in our hearts or minds.
So what is happening on Rosh Hashana?
I asked a few people their opinions.
They answered that it’s a time to wipe the slate clean, it’s a time of reJEWvenation.
All great answers.
But how do we do that work?
Rabbi Moshe Shapiro teaches us that on Rosh Hashana
“Gd sets the reset button in creation.”
So when we arrive at the station called Roah Hashana we go back to the first Rosh Hashana when it all began, to the time when Gd asks the question of the angels
“Shall we make man?”
On Rosh Hashana Gd is asking should we make this woman/man again?
As the beautiful prayer Unesaneh Tokef details, each and every individual is the subject of Gd’s focus.
Just as Gd created the first man on Rosh Hashana, so too it will be decided if we will be created, or be given the chance to remain creative, for the year to come.
As Rabbi Shapiro says “this is both terrifying and elevating without parallel”.
Gd cares and focuses on me.
We are given the days of Rosh Hashana to plead our case.
“We are given 48 hours to justify our right to life”.
Anyone who stands before a judge knows that in order to be successful in court, you need to prepare.
We are given these precious days to work on wiping the slate clean, to reJEWvenate, so we have a case to make before Avinu Malkeinu, our Father our King.

This week’s Torah portion is called Ki Teitze, when you go out.
This is a portion that is always read in the month of Elul, so there must be a timely message.
It details some laws about behavior of the Jewish army when they go out to war.
On a literal level, these are instructions for situations that may come about in warfare.
But on a deeper level, these are commandments to us for when we go to war against our negative attributes.
Our purpose in this world is to fill a unique mission.
We are also given one of a kind tools and challenges in order to complete our job on planet earth and during our sojourn, become the best version of ourselves.
This is the war we must engage in at this time, so we can take advantage of the spiritual opportunities that are at hand, and the chance to create ourselves anew.
My husband was just counseling a gentleman who is going through a very difficult time. Apparently, this person’s default response is to blow up in anger when the going gets tough. I could only hear one side of the conversation, but I could hear my husband challenging this gentleman to face the situation without resorting to anger which would help his overall position.
When someone says to his loved ones, I’m just an angry person, take it or leave it, love me or leave me, that person is not tapping into the reality that they are creative, that they can change.
But Gd is rooting for that person to take a tiny step towards uprooting his natural tendency to anger which ultimately causes pain and destruction to his loved ones, and to himself.
So the message of this time is, you are going to war, fight against that negative tendency, create a battle plan, so that you can take a step on the path to becoming a better version of yourself.
Who do we want to be?
Who do we want to become?
How do we want to be remembered?
We can create that being.
At the time of Moses there was a king who was curious to understand the character of this great leader.
He sent artists to draw Moses visage (no IPhones then).
When the artists returned, the King gave the renderings to his wise men so they could analyze the character of Moses from the pictures.
The King was shocked when his advisors reported that they saw anger and haughtiness in the features of Moses.
His curiosity thoroughly piqued, the King went to meet Moses himself.
He asked Moses, how could it be that my people are reading hauteur and anger when you are the most humble of all men?
Moses replied that the advisors were correct, he did indeed harbor those characteristics, and he was therefore engaged in a lifelong struggle to control and channel them properly.
It’s Elul.
The energy is there.
In Aramaic, which is the language of the Talmud, Elul is translated to the word which means to scout.
Like a soldier on a reconnaissance mission, we need to scope out the terrain of our beings and strategize on how to grow and create a new and better version of ourselves.
The Torah portion says when you go out to war you will see…
How will we use our eyes in this process?
Will we look at others with a negative eye or a positive one?
Will we write people off, ignore them and deem them unworthy of our attention, or will we cast a positive eye and appreciate the innate value of each and every individual?
Not easy
We are work in progress
And it is work.
A suggestion is to take some time, alone, in a quiet place, and do some introspection.
Journal.
Write about your challenges.
Do some reconnaissance.
And develop a battle plan.
This will help each and every person to create the person we want to become.
And then when Gd asks us, shall we make man, WE can answer with a resounding YES.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love on day 342!