Elul readings to prepare for teshuva

This coming Shabbat heralds the upcoming High Holiday season with the ritual of the blessing of the dates for Rosh Chodesh Elul, to be observed on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 26 and 27. The following reading suggestions are made to help enhance the spiritual aspects of the new month.

This year witnessed the publication of a long awaited work by Rabbi Shimshon David Pincus, of blessed memory, entitled, “Moadei Hashanah: The month of Elul and Rosh Hashanah” (Feldheim, 2014). This work consists of some of the finest essays and teachings in English translation by Rabbi Pincus. Below is but a sample of some of his work that should tempt you to explore his work further, in preparation of the upcoming holiday season.

From an essay entitled, “Establishing a New Relationship with Hashem,” Rabbi Pincus teaches us the following:

“The zodiacal sign for the month of Elul is ‘besulah,’ ‘the maiden,’ known as Virgo in English [from Latin]. The Ramban explains that this fact signifies Hashem’s love for Kenesses Yisrael.

“It seems to bear another meaning as well. We know that a sinner is likened to a wife who was unfaithful to her husband. And the halachah states that a wife who commits adultery is forbidden to her husband. If so, how can Klal Yisrael return in teshuvah to Hashem, after they betrayed Him?

“The power of teshuvah creates a reality in which Hashem calls out to the Jewish People: ‘ Return, O maiden of Yisrael!’ Hashem calls the Jewish people a ‘maiden,’ i.e., a girl. It is as if they never sinned at all.”

Rabbi Pincus goes on to develop this on the value that repentance represents to us during the month of Elul, and of the value that it has for all of us by instilling within us all, the need to take these concepts more seriously as we approach this most holy of seasons.

In reading through these teachings, we come to better appreciate the value of Rabbi Pincus’ teachings as they come to be applied to our day-to-day lives year round, and of the value that will most certainly be applied by all both spiritually, and practically. Consider, further, the following: