Changes In Elul And After

Each year at the end of summer we usher in the month of Elul by preparing for the Yamim Noraim that await us. Sephardim begin the month of Elul by getting up with the roosters at 4 a.m. each day to daven Selichot. Ashkenazim have it a little easier. Their Selichot does not require that extra hour each morning.

There’s a joke that the reason Sephardim have this extra burden is because they’re allowed to eat rice on Pesach. Either way, it shows how the different minhagim that Jews practice in their religious life create a need for different havens of davening. What do I mean? Somehow Elul is the month when groups of guys (and sometimes there are as many as 10-20 different groups) start to create a new shul or at least a new minyan for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

I think there’s something in the air on Rosh Chodesh Elul that starts them off, since you don’t see this kind of shul-creating activity going on during the rest of the year.

We already have lots of people in Cedar Bay Park going to the Red Shul and Edward Ave. as well as to the Young Israel and Island Avenue Shul, and the K Shul and Agudah, not to mention all the satellite shuls and minyanim floating around, so now we will have to make room for these new minyanim. We, of course, have our good and faithful longtime minyan on Halevy Drive (my house, of course), where we’ve gone from having just Minchah and Ma’ariv only on Shabbos, which started 20 years ago, to now having a full Shabbos davening, and also a Shacharis minyan on Sunday morning and holidays. All this, you know, is real progress.

During Covid, we also put up a large tent for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur davening, like many other minyanim around the Five Towns. At the time, we thought it would be a one-time development for that year and then we’d go back to the way things were before.

Ironically, everyone enjoyed the yom tov davening in the tent so much that the minyan continued to make a yom tov minyan in the tent every year since Covid. This year marks our fifth anniversary of hosting a tent minyan in our neighbor’s yard and we hope to make this tradition a kavuah (if it’s not kavuah already) going forward.

Part of the enjoyment is being able to daven in the open air of beautiful weather (we have been very lucky with the beautiful weather we enjoyed these past five years) and the warmth and camaraderie of the minyan families, who are also our neighbors and friends.

I wish everyone an easy fast and healthy and happy new year! 

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering full service residential, management and commercial real estate services in the Five Towns of Long Island as well as the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007. Readers are encouraged to send any questions or scenarios by email to [email protected].