AUGUST 5 • 2021 | 41

we say the Shema and the Amidah.
But the siddur is structured in such
a way that we don’t just rush headlong
into the Shema and Amidah. There is a
process of preparation. First, we say the
morning blessings, and then the special
passages from the Book of Psalms
and other places in the Tanach, which
are filled with words of praise and
reflection about God and His greatness.
These pesukei dezimrah — the “verses
of song” — prepare us for the climax of
what is contained in the siddur in the
form of the Shema and the Amidah.
We also prepare for Shabbos each
week, not just practically, i.e. food
and home preparation, but rather,
we go through a process of mentally,
emotionally and physically preparing
ourselves to accept the holiness of
the Shabbos experience, which is
enhanced through our preparation.
This is why the prayers that begin the
Shabbos service, taken from the Book
of Psalms, are called Kabbalat Shabbat,
the receiving of the Shabbos. We don’t
just walk into Shabbos, we prepare to
receive Shabbos.

LEARNING TORAH
One of the greatest mitzvahs of
mindfulness is the mitzvah of learning
Torah. Firstly, this mitzvah is preceded
by blessings, where we acknowledge
that God is the giver of the Torah — so
we prepare ourselves for the experience
of learning Torah. It is not merely a
dry intellectual activity, but rather an
experience of receiving the wisdom of
Hashem in this world and appreciating
the privilege of what that is and what
that means.
To divorce Torah from its Divine
origins and just to experience it as
one would experience any intellectual
pursuit is to drain it of its holiness and
its significance, and to severely limit
its capacity to impact our lives. In fact,
the Gemara says one of the reasons for
the destruction of the Temple is that
the Jews of the time did not say their

blessings before learning Torah. They
approached Torah with a lack of awe for
its greatness.
As we approach Elul with awe,
mindful and aware of the opportunity it
gives us to prepare for Rosh Hashanah,
what should we be focusing on? Our
sages teach us that the month of Elul
corresponds to the verse from the Song
of Songs: “I am for my beloved and my
beloved is for me.” In Hebrew, the first
letters of words of the verse: Ani ledodi
v’dodi li make up the letters of Elul. So
Elul is about our love for God and His
love for us, and about our closeness
to God. And an important part of
the preparation of Elul is to feel that
closeness to God.
Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv — the Alter of
Kelm — links this to the famous prayer
we say over Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur: Avinu Malkeinu — “Our Father,
our King.” First, God is our Father, and
that represents the relationship of love,
connection and bonding. And then He
is our King who judges us. So, before
He is our King, He is our Father. The
Alter of Kelm explains that before we
can embrace the experience of being
judged by God, we need to embrace the
experience of being loved by God.

GOD’S LOVE
Whatever He does is ultimately because
He loves us and because He wants
the best for us. In the same way that
a parent loves a child and only wants
the best for a child, so, too, God loves
us and wants what’s best for us. We
need to enter Rosh Hashanah deeply
connected to God’s love for us and
our love for God. Then the process of
judgment, introspection and repentance
can be so much more powerful.
We also prepare for Rosh Hashanah
during the month of Elul by blowing
the shofar. The shofar blowing, says
the Rambam, is to “awaken those who
sleep.” We need to awaken ourselves
spiritually, and this connects deeply
with the idea of mindfulness and living

with intent and heightened awareness.
Habit is one of the most powerful
forces in human life. This can be used
for the good, because if we adopt good
habits then they can be effortlessly
implemented without us having to
think about them. On the other hand,
habit can lead us to living without
intent.
In preparation for Rosh Hashanah,
we need to step out of our habits and
reconsider, look at everything afresh,
renew ourselves and reawaken ourselves
spiritually. The message of the shofar
sounded throughout the month of
Elul is a reminder to prepare for Rosh
Hashanah. It is actually preparing us
for the mindfulness with which we
need to engage Rosh Hashanah, and
it’s reminding us to live our lives with
mindfulness, so it touches on both
aspects.
Elul was the time, historically, when
we were forgiven for the sin of the
golden calf, which culminated in Moshe
bringing down the second set of tablets
from the mountain on Yom Kippur.
It was a time of acceptance by God,
a time of closeness to God, a time of
opportunity and a time of preparation.
Our sages describe these days
as yemei ratzon — “the days of
acceptance.” It is during this time
that we are especially close to God
and that our prayers, repentance and
introspection are more easily accepted
by God. In fact, the entire period,
beginning with Rosh Chodesh Elul
leading up to Yom Kippur, is a time of
acceptance.
So, as we take the time to carefully
prepare for Rosh Hashanah this year,
let us be mindful of the fact that this
is a time in which the gates of heaven
are wide open for us, and let us use this
opportunity to truly connect with and
be embraced by Our Father, our King
— Avinu Malkeinu.

Rabbi Warren Goldstein is the chief rabbi of South

Africa.