By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — Rosh Hashanah is almost here! According to Jewish mystical tradition, Elul is a period of spiritual awakening. The name of Elul is an acrostic for: אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי “I belong to my beloved and my beloved belongs to me …” (Song of Songs 6:3). Hence, the time of Selichot Prayers, which begin this coming Saturday night begins a time of soul-searching and discovery.
Ellul portrays God not as a Creator, Judge, or Father figure—but through the metaphor of lover and relationship partner. As with human relationships, sometimes we feel wonderfully surrounded by the love of our Beloved, and other times we sometimes feel estranged or ambivalent. These qualities pertain no less to our relationship to the Divine. At times, we feel profoundly alive in matters of the spirit and soul, But at other times we wonder: Are we really in a relationship with God? Does God really exist? And if S/He does exist, is it really apropos to refer to God as a Relationship Partner? These are obviously sobering questions to consider as we reflect the meaning of the holidays.
There is no doubt that the Song of Songs stretches our imagination to conceive of God in romantic terms we probably never imagined before. This particular book almost didn’t make it into the Bible because of its racy passages about love between a man and a woman. Yet, Rabbi Akiba, a second century leading sage, said that if all the other books of the Bible are holy, then the Song of Songs is the holiest book of the Bible.
Indeed!
The metaphor of God and humankind entwined as lovers is as radical sounding today as it was nearly 2000 years ago. Jewish theology teaches that God creates the world in order to enter into a relationship with it. Creation mysteriously brings fulfillment to God’s own ontological Being. In simple layman terms, by creating the universe, God entered into a relationship with some other entity than Himself! If you think about it, isn’t that what love truly is? If the cosmos did not exist, God would be all-Powerful, yet without God’s Creation, He would be entrapped in a reality that is incapable of showing and manifesting love … The Bible teaches us that God is a relational Being.
Love also teaches us to respect the Other. Love teaches us to respect our beloved’s freedom and feelings. Love teaches us also to act responsibly toward the one who loves us.
During the month of Elul, Kabbala often speaks about the two ways we discover inspiration in our lives. Sometimes, we will have “a great Arousal from Below,” which stems from our deep hunger for spiritual fulfillment. Realizing our potential both as Jews and as members of the greater community sometimes occurs when we feel that we need to renew and reaffirm the values that define our lives. At times, this can come because of feeling as though we have failed to live by our highest values and ethics. A part of us wants to make right the wrongs we have committed—and yes, Judaism teaches us that life is all about redemption and committing ourselves to something greater than ourselves that will live far beyond our years.
Then there is a second kind of awakening, “The Arousal from Above,” which occurs whenever we feel an awakening from God to change and better our lives—as we strive to bring tikkun (spiritual repair) to ourselves and to others.
During the month of Ellul Rosh Hashanah—God arouses us to awaken and get our moral and spiritual lives in sync with our highest values.
The Hebrew word for “year” is שָׁנָה (shana), which also means “change.” The one thing we know about life is that change is inevitable. Yet, remarkably, change can seem as if it is slow, and in other times, our world can change in the twinkle of an eye (when we fall in love, or win the lottery). Let us pray that this month of the year and the High Holiday season lead to positive changes that will add vertical depth and meaning in our lives in the lives of our families and communities.
Change your lives, and change the world for the better.
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Rabbi Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Sholom in Chula Vista. You may comment to him at michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com