Today is ראש חודש/Rosh Chodesh, the day when the new month begins. This is a two-day ראש חודש which means today is actually the last day of the concluding month, אב/Av, while tomorrow is first day of the new month, אלול/Elul. אלול is the last month of the year and it’s one that’s set aside for deep introspection and preparation. It’s the beginning of the end of the year, which means we’re meant to spend time this month preparing for the new year.
The preparation we do during אלול isn’t merely meant for the holidays of ראש השנה/Rosh Hashana and יום כיפור/Yom Kippur – it’s meant to be for the year. When I work with couples as they prepare for their wedding, I spend a lot of time explaining why we shouldn’t be preparing for a one day ceremony so much as preparing for the rest of their lives… the marriage. That’s the purpose of preparing in אלול.
It’s not about the holidays so much as it’s about the year ahead. In order to prepare, it’s essential we look ahead while looking back. We need to reflect on the year that’s ending and make peace with the past. This process is called תשובה/Teshuva/repentance, but repentance is not the exact translation of the word, it actually means to return. This dual use of the word brings us to a deeper understanding of the idea of repenting. It means to return to who we were before making mistakes and to return to who we are naturally meant to be. We’re not sinful but we sin. We’re not bad but we do bad things. We’re not wrong but we do wrong things. If all these actions are aberrations, then we can look in the mirror and see the beautiful person looking back at us who’s trying to do their best while inevitably making mistakes.
Over the next month, I want to look at a variety of texts regarding the art of תשובה. For today, I want to begin with the most widely read source on תשובה, the writing of the רמב”ם/Rambam in his משנה תורה/Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish Law. He opens his laws of תשובה with a statement that “all of the commandments in the תורה/Torah, whether they are positive or negative, if a person transgresses one of them, whether intentionally or unintentionally, when the person does תשובה and returns from their sin they are obligated to confess their sin before God”. It’s not enough to simply stop the sin or bad actions, it must be matched with a confession. We’re obligated to not merely improve, but to have intention in doing so. By this I mean we can all change and do better, and we need to spend time reflecting on and recognizing what we’ve done wrong and what we want to do better. By confessing and not just changing, we’re backing up our actions with words and our words with actions.
As we work our way through our תשובה, let us each take a moment to see where changes can and need to be made, and begin to make those changes, intentionally and with open hearts ready to embrace the new year ahead and a better future.
