2 Elul 5784

Rabbi Dr Orna Triguboff

Emanuel Synagogue

Cycles of Teshuvah
I have often heard people question the effectivity of having a month of inner reflection when they claim, ‘during the rest of the year, there is none.’

An important fact to know is that teshuvah is an integral part of everyday Jewish practice, whether daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

The daily Jewish prayer services include silent reflection time called tachanun to do one’s daily teshuvah. The nightly bedtime Shema recitation is prefaced by a prayer for forgiveness.

For the weekly teshuvah, there is a long-standing Jewish tradition to make time before the Sabbath begins, to review the week gone by, and consider what went well and what can be improved. The Kabbalists of the Galilee had a tradition of doing that with a chavruta – a buddy.

A monthly teshuvah reflection is done at the end of each chodesh, to ready us for the month ahead.

And now we are in the phase of reviewing the whole year in this month of Elul, before the New Year and before Yom Kippur.

As we explore our teshuvah (“At-One-ment”) process in Elul, let’s also think about how we can incorporate a few minutes of teshuvah into our daily, weekly, and monthly practice in the year ahead.

Wishing you a reflective and enjoyable day, and a good year to come.