In everyday life, we invest a great deal of attention and energy, but they are not necessarily directed to the truly important channels. A great deal of mental and material resources are invested in momentary and unimportant things, both in personal life and in matters between one person and another.
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When we look back, in the perspective of time, we wonder how we gave so much weight to small and truly unimportant matters in our lives.
Life flows at a dizzying pace. Day follows day, weeks add up to months, and those to years. Yesterday's children are already fathers to children, and someone who was a young man just yesterday is already a grandfather to grandchildren.
This is how our lives pass, as the verse says, "For a breath is fleeting, and it is taken away." To this end, it is necessary to do a true soul-searching from time to time, which can give us tools to examine the meaning of our lives.
Assistance from above
It is precisely for this reason that God, the Almighty, gives us the system that begins next week – the month of Elul and the High Holy Days. This is the time to pause for a while in the flow of everyday life and look at our lives from a broader and more comprehensive perspective. Are we achieving the true goals of life? Are we investing our energies in the right and truly important directions?
These days of the month of Elul and the High Holy Days are very precious. Precisely because it is difficult to do true soul-searching, it is important to draw on the special virtues of these days. The blowing of the shofar, which stirs the hearts, the recitation of the Selichot (among the Eastern Orthodox), and the general atmosphere of the days of Elul, help us to stop drifting in the stream of time and pause for true soul-searching.
During the days of Elul, we also enjoy special help from above. In Hasidic teachings, these days were likened to a time when the king goes out into the field, to the people, and allows each and every one to approach him. While he is in the royal palace, it is not easy to approach the king, and only a select few manage to reach him; but when the king goes out into the field, each and every one can approach him and ask for the wishes of their heart.
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To congratulate, to wish
Thus, in the month of Elul, God, the Almighty, comes out of His 'palace', as it were. He reveals Himself and shines His face upon each and every one of us. God, the Almighty, grants great divine assistance to anyone who truly wants to mend their ways and make good decisions for the coming year. Things that are very difficult to change and correct throughout the entire year can now be achieved with much less effort.
These are also days of kindness and mercy, in which we must practice these virtues among ourselves. To bless one another, to wish each other good writing and signing, to teach merit, to find the bright spot in every person of Israel. The love that God, the Holy One, bestows upon us must be integrated with great love among us, His children.
If we properly utilize these days of Elul – both in our personal and public lives – and let an atmosphere of great love, charity and kindness surround us – we will surely merit that God, the Almighty, will bless us all with a good and sweet year, the year of true and complete redemption.
