CBI Blogs

On Fridays, we email two Elul Thoughts, out of respect for those of us who choose not to look at email on Shabbat. We wish you a blessed and restful Shabbat and hope you continue finding inspiration in our Elul Thoughts.

September 27-28, 2024/24-25 Elul 5784
Cantor David Berger

If you've ever been in a beit midrash (a traditional Jewish study hall), you know it's anything but quiet. Unlike a typical Western library, which it might physically resemble with its rows of bookshelves and study tables, a beit midrash is loud and lively. While Western learning often idealizes the solitary scholar, quietly reading and taking notes, the Jewish model of learning thrives on conversation and even confrontation between study partners. A study partner, often called a chevruta (from chaver, meaning “friend”), is also known as a bar plugta – a “sparring mate.” At its core, Jewish study is about the clash of individual understandings of sacred texts, rather than the smooth transmission of preexisting knowledge.

Avot D’rebbe Natan, an early rabbinic text based on Pirkei Avot, says: “When three people sit and engage in Torah together, the Holy Blessed One considers it as if they had become one unified troop (agudah achat) before God” (8:4). This agudah achat is unified not because they all think alike, but because their disagreements and constant sparring lead to a deeper understanding of each other. If only our public, political, communal, and global arguments could achieve the same. Our High Holy Day Amidah prays that all humanity may join together in agudah achat, “a unified troop,” to do God’s will with a complete heart. May we indeed find understanding in disagreement and grow in knowledge and wisdom through holy confrontation and conversation.

Rabbi Michael Weinstein

Each day of Elul we are given the opportunity to reflect, heal, and change in prep for the High Holy Days and Yom Kippur. We often read Psalm 27 in s’lichot practice: 

The first half of the psalm conveys assurance. The second half of the psalm depicts a world 

opposite. The clear inclusion: the name of God opens and closes the first half.

Throughout the second half, the reader hears the echo of the central term: One. For us as Jews, this is ideal preparation for the work of Elul. Before we can approach repentance or the joy of the Holy Day, we must honestly confront again our own faith and belief. 

The psalmist testifies that love of God is achieved through effort, honesty, and open confrontation. The psalm demands oneness, reflecting an integration of difficult circumstances and security. First, we wrestle with our inner strife; only then may we approach our relationships with others. This work is all in the preparation for making things right with God. 

Questions we might ask:

• How strong and open are our hearts? 

• How are they blocked by anger, sadness, fear, or shame? 

• Are our thoughts, feelings, and actions in alignment with our ideals? 

• How well can we love the ones who are close, or bring closer the ones from whom we’ve drifted away? 

Elul is the season of love – a time to reconnect with our best selves and to open ourselves to the God who summons us to a better life.