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.