Rabbi's Message

Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah, begins next week. Elul is a time for reflection and 
introspection. Throughout the month of Elul, we sound the shofar each morning: a reminder to 
begin preparing our hearts, bodies, and minds for the High Holy Days. It is a time for heshbon 
ha-nefesh, soul accounting. It is a time in which we challenge ourselves each day to discover and 
grow.

A story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchiv (1740-1809), who, one year, at the beginning 
of the month of Elul, stood at his window as a traveling shoe-repairman passed by. Hoping for a 
customer, the repairman asked: “Don’t you have anything that needs to be fixed?” Immediately, 
the rabbi sat on the ground and began to cry, saying: “Woe is me, and woe to my soul, for the 
Day of Judgment is imminent and coming, and I still have not fixed myself!”

All it took was a benign question from a passerby to awaken in Rabbi Yitzhak the need to “fix 
himself”. Repentance was on his mind, and so that is what he noticed around him. Rabbi 
Yitzhak models for us the spiritual and introspective work we must do during this season.
The simplest (and, paradoxically, most difficult) thing we can do to begin preparing ourselves
now, during the month of Elul, before the High Holy Days, is to be constantly mindful of the 
ability to grow. Our lives are busy, and the world around us does not stop during Elul to give us 
time to think about teshuvah. Chances are, most of us will not hear a heavenly voice calling us to 
this task. But we can choose to take a few moments during the week, and especially on Shabbat, 
to ask ourselves, “What in me needs fixing? Which of my relationships need fixing? What in my 
Jewish life needs fixing?”. If we take this preparatory time seriously, we may suddenly find that 
– like Rabbi Levi Yitzchak – we are open to hearing this message from even the most 
unexpected places. Be on the lookout for shoe-repairmen this month. Don’t wait until Rosh 
Hashanah to start looking. May God bless all of us on our spiritual journey of teshuvah and 
growth.

Shabbat Shalom.