Elul Warm Up by Rabbi Sandra Kviat

We’re nearly half way through Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah. Most years we only catch a snippet of it, as it usually falls during the summer holidays, but this year, it fits nicely into September. It’s one of the few times when Jewish tradition aligns with the favourite warnings of my old PE teacher - ‘you must warm up!’ If you don’t you might overstretch a prayer muscle, or be too cold to do the word sprint through the pages, or just not have your head in the game, so to speak. Elul is an opportunity to get yourself ready for the introspection and reflection of the High Holy days. 

There are many ways to do this, one of my favourites is the app ‘Psalm 27’ by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which focuses on one word or verse from the psalm (read throughout Elul), with the aim of opening up our hearts. Through focused reflection you are encouraged to sit quietly and to write,  but not before a warm up of contemporary musical settings of the text.

At the end of a day’s meditation you are asked to consider three fundamental questions:

I forgive myself for…
I want to remember…

Thank you God for…

Forgiveness, remembering and celebrating is part of the Elul warm up, and a good way to stretch our souls. 

There are many other ways to get ready, whether reading seminal books like ‘This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared’ by Rabbi Alan Lew, or poetry, through art or perhaps the woodland walk this Shabbat.  Elul is a time to open up our hearts with a little help.