As I was driving my kids to school the other day, the radio announcer made a comment that my kids thought was cute but got me nervous. “Today is the last Tuesday of 5785,” he said cheerfully. That meant Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, was in less than a week.
Why did this make me nervous? It wasn’t just the physical preparation I needed to tackle—two days of holidays meant hours of elaborate meal planning and cooking. It was the spiritual preparation that I hadn’t even begun to think about. Like many of us, I had let the month of Elul slip by without giving it the attention it deserves.
But what makes Elul so special anyway? Why does this month hold such deep significance in Jewish tradition? How did it come to be associated with return and renewal? And what are we actually meant to do during these weeks leading up to the High Holidays?
To understand Elul‘s profound meaning, we need to travel back to one of the most dramatic moments in Jewish history: the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Picture the scene: Moses has been up on the mountain for forty days receiving the tablets directly from God, while the Israelites wait anxiously below. But as the days stretch on, fear creeps in. What if Moses doesn’t return? What if they’ve been abandoned in the wilderness?
In their panic and uncertainty, the people make a catastrophic decision. They fashion a golden idol and begin worshiping it, breaking the very covenant they had just made with God (Exodus 32:1-6). When Moses finally descends from the mountain and witnesses this betrayal, his reaction is swift and decisive:
Moses throws the tables to the ground in anger, shattering them into pieces.
But the story doesn’t end there. Moses, understanding the gravity of what has happened and the need for divine forgiveness, ascends Mount Sinai again, this time to seek atonement on behalf of his people. This second journey also lasted forty days, beginning on the first day of the month of Elul and ending on the tenth day of Tishrei—what we now know as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
It was on that final day that something extraordinary happened: God granted forgiveness and gave Moses the second set of tablets. Those forty days had become a period of divine mercy, a window of opportunity for spiritual renewal and return.
This ancient story gives Elul its character and purpose. Just as Moses spent those forty days seeking atonement for the nation, beginning with the first of Elul and culminating on the tenth of Tishrei, we too are invited to use this time to seek forgiveness and return to our highest selves. Just as Moses ascended Mount Sinai to seek forgiveness and to receive the second tablets, Elul becomes our opportunity to climb back up spiritually, knowing that forgiveness and renewal are possible.
The month of Elul isn’t about perfection—it’s about return. The Hebrew word for repentance, teshuvah, literally means “return.” It’s the recognition that we’ve wandered off course and the decision to find our way back. During these weeks, we’re encouraged to look honestly at the year behind us, acknowledge where we’ve fallen short, and commit to doing better.
This might mean reaching out to someone we’ve hurt, changing a habit that’s been holding us back, or simply paying more attention to the moments that matter most. It’s about preparing not just our homes and our kitchens for the holidays, but our hearts and our souls.
As I sat in my car that morning, initially anxious about my lack of preparation, I realized something comforting about that radio announcement. Yes, Elul was almost over, but its message isn’t about perfection or having everything figured out. It’s about the possibility of beginning again.
The story of the broken tablets teaches us that even our greatest failures aren’t final. Moses didn’t give up when the first tablets were shattered; he climbed the mountain again. God didn’t abandon the people despite their betrayal; divine mercy prevailed. And we, too, can always begin again, no matter how late in the month—or the year—we start.
Elul reminds us that second chances aren’t just possible; they’re built into the very fabric of our spiritual calendar. Whether we’ve spent the full forty days in preparation or we’re just beginning to think about it now, the opportunity for return, for renewal, for climbing back up that mountain is always there waiting for us.
Sometimes the most powerful spiritual preparation happens in a moment of recognition—when we hear a radio announcement and realize it’s time to begin again.
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