Rabbi Sam Trief
Elul has arrived. It is, without question, the most intense month of the Jewish year. It marks the true beginning of the High Holy Days. I really do love this season: when our building is bustling and full, when music rises in our sanctuary, when I get to hug people I haven’t seen in a while, when we share the work we’ve been preparing together as a clergy and staff team.
But Elul is also layered with personal markers in my own life: Natan’s mother’s yahrzeit (September 9), Natan’s birthday (September 18), our anniversary and my parents’ anniversary (September 29), Rafi’s birthday (October 7), Maya’s birthday (October 23), more yahrzeits, and of course all of the holidays stacked one after another. It’s a lot, and I often feel like I cannot recognize each date with the intention it deserves. Sometimes it feels impossible to catch my breath, let alone pause to reflect. Natan and I have even joked about moving our anniversary to a calmer month like March!
And yet — maybe that is exactly the work of Elul. Not to wait for life to quiet down (because does it ever really?), but to find moments of reflection within the whirlwind.
That’s why Psalm 27 is so powerful to me in this season. Since the 17th century, Jewish communities have recited it daily from Elul through Sukkot:
“One thing I ask of God, this I seek: to dwell in God’s house all the days of my life.”
This verse reminds me that in the busyness of it all, we are invited to focus on one thing. Not everything, but one thing and to return to our deepest values, to ground ourselves in presence, in community, in holiness.
So my prayer this Shabbat is that we allow the swirl of birthdays and yahrzeits, services and celebrations, to become opportunities for grounding. That every hug in the lobby, every candle lit, every song lifted up together reminds us of the one thing we seek: to dwell in connection, love, and meaning.
