This is a classic teaching of the Alter Rebbe, who taught it as a parable about the month of Elul. It is based on the feelings of many people, who felt that God was just like the King or Queen, President or Prime Ministers, of their earthly nation. Far away and inaccessible. Even should they take a great journey and visit the capital, and walk up to the palace, who would let them in to see their ruler? Only if one has royal permission will they be allowed to enter.
But during the month of Elul, we should forget such formality. Instead, we should imagine as if God was the King in the field. A Monarch who has left the palace behind and is happily waiting for their citizens to come out in plain clothes and with easy hearts. To greet, celebrate, approach and embrace. Unlike the palace, where your meeting comes at the desire of the monarch, the King if the field represents a meeting with the divine as something initiated by human beings.
We have many opportunities to do that sacred initiation here at Holy Blossom, and any of the activities below are a great way to prepare ourselves for the High Holidays!
It is customary to recite Psalm 27 and blow the shofar during morning prayers, and you can join us for this sacred moment during our morning Shacharit minyanim! More than one person has told me that hearing the shofar this month during minyan feels like ‘an alarm clock for the soul.’
All are welcome to find time for personal reflection and gratitude in our sacred spaces. If you would like to sit before the open ark and find a few moments for private expression, you can learn more about it here! You and your families are welcome to share hopes for the future and to meditate on this last year.
Communal learning about forgiveness, repentance, and creative expressions of the heart will be continuing on Wednesdays for the next several weeks. You can explore the Jewels of Elul by registering here. Led by Sharoni Sibony, this class blends classic and contemporary texts with artistic flair.
As always, if you are looking for a meaningful book to enrich your Elul, I recommend “This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared” by Rabbi Alan Lew. It is a life-changing book that I recommend to students at every stage in their Jewish learning. If you’ve taken me up on reading that text before, you can join me in reading ”Nasty Brutish and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids” by Doctor Scott Hershovitz and “On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World” by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. Feel free to write to me at [email protected] and let me know what you think!
Finally, you can’t miss Selichot on the evening of September 9th. We will learn from our dear friend and teacher Professor Derek Penslar, celebrate with a festive Havdalah and dessert reception, and then enjoy Selichot tefilla in the round. Last year more than one hundred people attended this transformational and deeply musical evening. It is an incredible way to get yourself aligned with our sacred time.
In the month of Elul, God is waiting in the field… will you go seeking?
Thanks to a grant from the City of Toronto, we began experimenting with different native plants around the property such as wild ginger, black-eyed susans, and wild strawberry.
Initially, the plan was to plant multiple types of sunflowers near each entrance, but we soon learned our neighbourhood’s rabbits love the taste of sunflowers, from the seed to the stem to the petals. The only place to safely grow sunflowers away from our nightly dinner guests, was our courtyard outside the lower level gallery. The seedlings took to the courtyard right away and we realized all the coffee our visitors and staff enjoy in the building provides us with a constant supply of spent coffee grounds which helps fertilize the soil and ward off potential pests. Speaking of pests, slugs and snails became a common sight once the sunflowers had begun to mature. In the spirit of environmental sustainability, wheat bran around the base of each plant is a very effective non-chemical deterrent.
Considering we’ve never grown sunflowers before, we assumed they would at most be about 3-4ft tall. Imagine my surprise when they shot past me and now stand at about 9ft tall. We all learned about gardening this year, and I have plans and knowledge now to be sure next year the plant life at Holy Blossom will be a success.
As a camper of many years myself, and after having returned from visiting our HBT children up at URJ Camp George this past week, I’ve been thinking about how the magic of camp lies in those deep moments of connection, both big and small.
Whether it’s overlooking the stunning Maple Lake for a Pride Shabbat Service, working on prayer readings with a group of eight-year-olds, swimming in the lake, making pottery, riding bikes, sitting in the hallway preparing for the next program, chanting and singing loudly at mealtime, or simply hanging out in the cabins, each of these functions as an entry point to strong Jewish identity and Jewish friendships.
In turn, our campers are encouraged and enabled to live up to the injunction that is the namesake of this week’s parashah, Re’eh, which means “to see”.
They can see and discover who they are as their true and fullest selves, for all of their talents, their virtues and their potential.
They can see a Jewish way of life that is informal yet authentic, and learn through fun and lived experiences in an intensive and intentional community.
They can, as our parashah states, see habracha v’hak’lalah, “the blessing and the curse” (Deut 11:26), understand themselves and those around them at their highest and lowest points and choose for themselves the path of blessing.
It was a blessing to be at camp, and we are so fortunate that we have a number of ways to carry that spirit of blessing forward this coming year at Holy Blossom for our children and families, with that little bit of camp magic being found here on Bathurst Street as well, in deep connection to Jewish life, Jewish identity, and Jewish friends.
We start with Tot Shabbat this Friday evening, 11 August, at 5:30 pm.
We continue with our First Family Service of the season, Shabbat morning September 9, at 10:30 am.
Our YEC begins on Sunday morning 10 September (JK-Grade 5), and Monday night 11 September (Grade 6-Bagrut) respectively, and registration can be found here.
Then, of course, we have our many varied offerings for our families and for everyone over the High Holy Days of 5784, the details of which can be explored here.
May it be a year of magic, and may it be a year of connection, for our children and for all of us.
Zodiac Sign – Virgo
In Spanish, we know the month of Elul as ‘El ultimo’ meaning the last month of the year and the most sacred. Elul is the sixth month of the Jewish year (counting from Nisan), which immediately precedes Rosh Hashanah. It is traditionally a month of introspection and stocktaking — a time to review one’s deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming “Days of Awe” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The word “Elul,” aleph, lamed, vav and lamed, are an acronym for the phrase (from the biblical Song of Songs) ani l’dodi v’dodi li, which means “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.”
To uncover the essential meaning of the word Elul we need to analyze the letters that comprise it, their numerical value, their form and their meaning. “Elul” is comprised of an aleph, followed by a lamed, followed by a vav, followed by the final letter, another lamed. The first letter in “Elul” is also the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The letter aleph is numerically equivalent to one, which represents the idea of G‑d’s total unity.
Believing that the “beloved” refers to God, the sages take this verse to describe the particularly loving and close relationship between God and Israel. During Elul, then, is our time to establish this closeness so that we can approach the Yamim Noraim, or Days of Awe, in trusting acceptance of God’s judgment. We approach the trial not out of fear, but out of love. As the month of “Divine Mercy and Forgiveness”, it is a most opportune time for teshuvah (“return” to G-d), prayer, charity, and increased “Ahavat Yisrael” (love for a fellow Jew) in the quest for self-improvement and coming closer to G-d.
Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi likens the month of Elul to a time when “the king is in the field” and, in contrast to when he is in the royal palace, “everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all.”
The letter of the month is yud which signifies action. It is the smallest letter in the alphabet alluding to humility. Therefore, the attribute of the month is ACTION. Teshuva is a state of mind but it is not enough without the action. As it is said, we first do and then we will understand. We also need to review our Mitzvot and increase Tzedaka. The limb of the month is the left hand; Tefillin are worn on the left hand.
The permutation of the month hey-hey-vav-yud from Deutoronomy 6:25.
וּצְדָקָ֖ה תִּֽהְיֶה־לָּ֑נוּ כִּֽי־נִשְׁמֹ֨ר לַעֲשׂ֜וֹת אֶת־כׇּל־הַמִּצְוָ֣ה הַזֹּ֗את לִפְנֵ֛י יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽנוּ׃ {ס}
It will be therefore to our merit before our God יהוה to observe faithfully this whole Instruction, as [God] has commanded us.
During the month of Elul each day we strengthen ourselves to become warriors, we aim to be victorious to become a new vessel with G/d’s help. Ken Yehi Ratzon.
“May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year” (L”shanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim)
By Teresa Quiroz, on behalf of Women of Holy Blossom
Shacharit Service: Friday, August 18, 2023, 7:30 am ET, in-person or via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/93902401402?pwd=dGlOR2dEcGs1RVc0OVFwdkFtOVo5UT09
Password: 667580
For other upcoming dates and why Rosh Chodesh is special for women see https://holyblossom.org/rosh-chodesh/
The valedictorian of my undergraduate class was a remarkable guy: the oldest of four children raised by a single mother, he dropped out of high school at age fifteen, to work and help support his siblings. He was a bright kid stuck in a cycle of intergenerational poverty. Then one day, quite luckily his uncle came into a modest financial windfall, and he told his then twenty-six-year-old nephew that he wanted him to take this money and get a formal education. Marking a first for his family, he started studying and he quickly had the took top grades in all his classes. By his final year, he was serving as the president of the student association and was looking at a very generous package to support his graduate research at an Ivy League institution in the US.
No one questioned why he was named valedictorian, but some were surprised at the subject of his graduation address: Be wary of the myth of the self-made man! He was quick to note all the times he benefited from the kindness, support and guidance others gave him. His uncle wanted to invest in his future, a university system that admitted mature students, the faculty who identified and nurtured his talents. He named those who helped to “make” him what he is, thanked them and dedicated this moment of honour to their collective efforts. “Remember that we have due to our own hard work and be certain that is never the full story!” His message was clear: see the ways in which others have helped us get here, cultivate gratitude, and ensure we lift-up others in turn.
He could have been quoting from this week’s parsha…except the staunch Québécois secularist that he was, he was not about to bring God into the conversation!
In our parsha this week, Eikev, we read:
“For Adonai your God is bringing you to a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill, a land of wheat and barley; of vines figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat without stint; where you will lack nothing; When you have eaten your fill, you give thanks to Adonai your God for the good portion of this earth that God has given to you.”
It is from this particular passage that the rabbis of the Talmud derive the mitzvah, the commandment, to recite Birkat HaMazon—the grace after meals. Our Talmudic sages state the purpose of these blessings is to help each of us take note that it is not only through our own labour that we enjoy the fruits of creation, but that we must also recognize the Creator as the source of our blessings. This is not to take away from the efforts we make as individuals, but rather to help us acknowledge—as my class valedictorian preached—that we are part of an ecosystem greater than ourselves, and we need to be grateful for the ways that enhance our lives, and the responsibility we have towards that greater whole.
The author of Deuteronomy implores us to notice all the places and spaces in our lives where we have reason to be thankful. In Birkat HaMazon, this is expanded even further as we express our gratitude not only to God but to the one who prepared the meal and the ones with whom we eat! We daily give thanks to God for the gift of life, but then we take the opportunity to lift up each specific blessing that has enriched us, and our fellow travellers on this journey through Creation.
As hard as it may be to believe, we are already entering the final days of Summer. As we transition into the lead-up to our Days of Awe, it is important to note that gratitude and appreciation are not just prayerful themes but guiding principles for a life lived to its fullest potential.
1950 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5P 3K9
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Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.