Experiencing Elul
By: Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox
In our daily morning prayers, most of us close off the Korbanos section by reciting the lesson of Rabbi Yishmael which enumerates the 13 principles used in interpreting the words and verses of the Torah.
What many people do not know is that there is an alternate version of these principles authored by Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yose HaGalili, which includes 32 principles of exegesis or interpretation. One of the 32 principles is the use of Gematria, the numerical equivalent of a word, and finding a meaning based on that value. Another is Notarikon, which involves the acronymic interpretation of a word’s letters so the word can be understood as an abbreviation of other words. A familiar example of this is the word “Elul,” our current month. The four letters that spell Elul can be understood as an acronym of a verse in Shir Hashirim (6:3), “Ani le dodi ve dodi li—I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” The first letters of these words spell out Elul.
This acronym of Elul has been used to emphasize the potential of the days and weeks prior to the High Holy Days in our drawing close to Hashem through refined acts, repentance, and improving our way of life and Jewish observance. The full verse reads: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, the shepherd among the roses.”
Once we read the verse as an allusion to the month of Elul, it is worth exploring what our Sages say about the deeper or midrashic messages of the verse itself. One midrashic message is that of reciprocity. The Midrashobserves that the verse represents an implicit pact between the Jews and Hashem. When we orient towards Him with love, we will attribute to the Divine a sense of closeness and caring for us. This means that especially during Elul we want to cultivate a sense of love towards Hashem and to feel His love by envisioning His caring and protective mercy.
Another midrashic angle is that the verse refers to exclusivity: I am my beloved’s—we turn to no one and nothing else other than to Hashem when we struggle, when challenged, and when praying. In turn, we are Hashem’s beloved—the Jewish people are Hashem’s chosen nation, no other nation can claim that Divine symbiosis. Elul is the time to develop that sense of exclusive harmony. We choose Hashem and He has chosen us.
There is a Midrash that views the verse as dimensional. I am my beloved’s when I live my life in this world as a devout and committed Jew. My beloved is mine refers to the World to Come, when our spirits will reap that sense of having earned an eternal reward in the Spiritual realm. Elul is the month of investing in our spiritual future in the World to Come.
The Midrash also offers an anticipatory or temporal perspective: loving someone often involves a longing for them when they are not nearby. We can love someone when we are with them, but that love transposes into longing and anticipation when we miss them. This is a meaning of our verse: We long for redemption. We wait in anticipation of Moshiach. We also long for that time when we know the exile has ended and we can return in penance to the avodah in the Bait HaMikdash described in the daily Amidah in the Retzei prayer. We wait longingly for that time, and the verse adds that Hashem, so to speak, also waits longingly for us to engage in repentance. He will return to us when we return to Him.
Another angle looks at the latter clause in this verse. What is the Shepherd among the roses? The Midrashinterprets this concretely. When surrounded by roses, one is bound to pick up the lingering fragrance of these aromatic flowers. Fragrance gives us a sense in the absence of substance. Picture yourself walking past a spice factory. You inhale the scent of cinnamon or vanilla even though you cannot see or feel the substance. Our verse here makes this point: We are corporeal. We are human beings. Hashem sees us but we cannot see Him. We are our beloved’s and He is ours, yet He is the Shepherd among the roses. We can only sense Him. The heavens are filled with that sense of His glory and His sacredness. When we are attuned to that higher sense, we know that we are His beloved.
Lastly, there is a midrashic notarikon using the final letters of our four words. Each of the words ends with the letter yud, whose gematria equals 40. There are 40 days between Elul and Yom Kippur. We are our beloved’s yet this is circumscribed within a precise timeline. Hashem is always receptive to those who call out to Him yet this interval of 40 days is particularly special. We can actualize in Elul the reciprocity, the exclusivity, the ultimate consequence, the anticipatory longing, the love, the spiritual investment, and the opportunity when we return to Him in teshuva. May each of us feel the lure to be close, to savor the rose-like fragrance. n
Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist, and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email [email protected]. Learn more at www.chailifeline.org/crisis.
