Elul Day 3

Dear Elul Writers,
I recently encountered a poem by the wonderful Ellen Bass and wanted to share it here.

Any Common Desolation

can be enough to make you look up

at the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the few

that survived the rains and frost, shot

with late afternoon sun. They glow a deep

orange-gold against a blue so sheer, a single bird

would rip it like silk. You may have to break

your heart, but it isn’t nothing

to know even one moment alive. The sound

of an oar in an oarlock or a ruminant

animal tearing grass. The smell of grated ginger.

The ruby neon of the liquor store sign.

Warm socks. You remember your mother,

her precision a ceremony, as she gathered

the white cotton, slipped it over your toes,

drew up the heel, turned the cuff. A breath

can uncoil as you walk across your own muddy yard,

the big dipper pouring night down over you, and everything

you dread, all you can’t bear, dissolves

and, like a needle slipped into your vein—

that sudden rush of the world.

Tekiah-Shvarim-Truah-Tekiah 

Each year, on motzei Shabbat, as Shabbat goes out and the week begins, we reflect on the cycle of the shofars blasts. Following a teaching by the great 17th Century sage, R’ Isaiah Horowitz, we consider how the calls of the shofar align with the journey of teshuvah. From a place of wholeness, we begin with the full cry of tekiah. That fullness cannot last, though; as we begin to interrogate our lives and our decisions, we recognize the cracks, the tension points and divisions within us. This initial breaking apart is represented in the tripartite call of shvarim. As the path of teshuvah continues, we journey even deeper into ourselves. It is this part of the process that reveals the places of utter brokenness within us. The shattered shards and the rough edges are called to mind when we hear the broken call of t’ruah. Yet, our journey of repentance and repair does not end there; it must return to a sense of fullness. The goal of teshuvah is not about breaking ourselves down, rather, it is about building ourselves up. So, we conclude with the full-lunged blast of tekiah– a full-throated call to return to the most complete version of ourselves.

Prompt

On this third day of Elul, as the first Shabbos of Elul departs, I invite you to call to mind a moment of fullness from the past year. It can be a simple memory where you felt that ‘rush of the world.’ I encourage you to engage your senses as you consider your own ‘sound of an oar in an oarlock / The smell of grated ginger / The ruby neon of the liquor store sign / Warm socks. How did that sight, sound, smell or experience help you feel the wholeness of tekiah?

Shavua tov,

Jordan