Elul: A Special Time to Remember and Honor

By Rabbi Deb Smith

This past week we welcomed the month of Elul, the month  that precedes the special time of the High Holy Days in Tishrei.  Elul is typically a time when we reflect on our past year and think about how we can repair fractured relationships with others and with ourselves and how we can draw closer to the Holy One.

During this period of time many Jews typically take time to visit the cemeteries where their loved ones rest. We place a stone of memory and presence on the headstones of those we visit and we re-establish our connections to those loved ones.  It is a very special and spiritual time.  It is a time to honor and remember those we have lost:

Remembering
By Rabbi Debra Smith

Eternal G!d!
We thirst for our beloveds daily
We long for their touch
We remember them.

We recall the feel of their skin; the scent of their clothing
The touch of their lips on our cheeks
We remember them.

We reach for our beloveds daily
We speak silently, we share our lives, our memories
We remember them.

We miss our beloveds daily.
They are forever gone
They are eternally present.
We will  forever remember them

May your Elul be blessed with wonderful memories of people who graced and blessed your life with their presence.

Join us tonight, September 9 at 7:00 PM ET for the first session of a new virtual pilot group, Their Memory for a Blessing, a warm, guided 10-month journey to creating meaning in the face of loss and keeping our loved ones in our hearts. We will remember our loved ones through the lens of the Core Values of the Ten Commandments, which will help us gain a deeper appreciation of who they were, what they stood for, and how they faced their challenges. Additionally, it will allow us to think about them in terms of legacy — what we can emulate and pass onto those we love. Here is the link to join.