Elul Day 7

Dear Elul Writers,

Hope you had a sweet and restful Shabbat.

I know that the majority of people who get these prompts use them for reflection, and not necessarily for journaling (quick sidenote, you never need to apologize for not writing!). That said, if you could see yourself picking up a pencil and paper four times this month, then I encourage you to use the prompts that I send out on motzei Shabbos. Each year, usually on Saturday nights, I come back to a drash on the different sounds of the shofar. The teaching comes from R’ Isaiah Horowitz, an early 17th Century sage and scholar, sometimes known as the Holy ShLaH (sick nickname). He teaches that the calls of the shofar correspond to the fourfold path of teshuvah/return. 

Tekiah-Shvarim-Truah-Tekiah 

He teaches that we begin the journey of teshuvah with the full blast of tekiah– in a place of wholeness and sure footing. The three-part sound of shevarim demonstrates the fault lines that lie just below the surface within us, recognizable upon even a cursory examination. Digging deeper, peering into the depths of our souls, we must come to terms with our places of utter brokenness. It is this experience that is represented in the alarming and fragmentary call of teruah. Finally, once we’ve recognized our own shattered spots, we will, b’ezrat Hashem, return again to the full blast of tekiah. This final blast is a reminder that all of this self-work is for the purpose of being rebuilt, of returning to wholeness.

Prompt

There are four Saturday nights in the month of Elul; on each, we will focus on the journey of the shofar’s calls. For this opening blast of tekiah, I invite you to reflect on a moment from the past year where you felt very proud of yourself. Perhaps there was a professional success or a time where you showed up for a friend or family member or maybe it was just a quiet moment of living up to your own expectations. What did it feel like to experience fullness and self-actualization? 

Shavuah tov!

Jordan