Elul is the month of preparation for the Yomim Nora’im. The holy seforim mention that a hint at the meaning of Elul lies in its name: Elul is roshei teivos (an acronym): ילדודי ו דודי לני א אלול = – “I am for my beloved, and my beloved is for me” (Shir HaShirim 6:3). I love Him, He loves me.
Rav Yisroel Eliyahu Weintraub, zt”l, said that Chazal are telling us that the best way to prepare for the Days of Awe and Judgment is to become close to Hashem, to make Him our beloved.
In order to accomplish this, we have several minhogim during the month of Elul. Twice a day we recite Mizmor LeDovid Hashem is my light... (Tehillim 27). After Shacharis we blow the shofar as a reminder to awaken our spirits and inspire us to begin soul searching in preparation for the High Holy Days. The Sephardim start Selichos before daybreak already from the beginning of Elul. The Mishnah Berurah explains that towards the end of night, HaKadosh Boruch Hu comes down to this world. That means that during Elul, Hashem is close. It is our job to seek Him.
There is another Mizmor LeDovid that we say before Birchas Hamazon, Hashem is my shepherd... (Tehillim 23). This mizmor is divided into two sections. In the first half Dovid HaMelech describes the most wonderful times of his life:
A song of Dovid. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He causes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
What could be better than all this? Everything is wonderful.
The second half discusses the turbulent dark times that Dovid HaMelech endured: Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.
Upon looking at this mizmor we find a very strange thing. Imagine meeting a good friend and you ask him, “How is it going?” “Oh, wonderful. Hashem is so good to me. Parnosah is flowing, the boys are all learning, my wife is wonderful. Everything is great. It should only continue this way.”
A while later you meet him again and his face has turned sour. “What happened?”
“Oh, don’t ask. What didn’t go wrong? I have no parnosah. My kids are going off. My sholom bayis is a wreck. Hashem seems to have deserted me.”
These responses are very normal. Things are good, Hashem is close; things are bad, Hashem has disappeared.
But Dovid HaMelech turns everything around. When he discusses the most wonderful times of his life, when Hashem is shining His face upon him, he speaks of Hashem in the third person. He is my shepherd. He causes me to lie down in green pastures; He restores my soul; He leads me.... During the times when everything is rosy, he doesn’t describe Hakodosh Boruch Hu in the personal, as one talking to Him face to face; rather he describes Him as being distant. And from that distance, Hashem showers His bounty upon him. During the best days of his life, Dovid HaMelech didn’t see Hashem as being close to him.
Then, during the second half of the mizmor, when he describes the darkest days of his life, he refers to Hashem as You. Even when I walk in the valley of shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff-they comfort me. Suddenly he switches tense and speaks to Hashem directly. YOU. Here in the shadow of Death, now he is able to see Hashem standing there with him. Difficulties and misfortunes are the paths to gain awareness that Hashem is there with you, and you can talk directly to him. This is just the reverse of the way we think!
