During the month of Elul, we go through many challenges that seem to be one after the other back to back, as if G-d is finishing up the last debts, before the coming of the new year.
If we were to compare Elul to something more tangible than a month, so to speak, it’s like a test. Let’s say there is a big exam once a year and there is a lot of studying to be done. Some people study the whole year and some people wait and cram it all in the last month in the last week before the test is scheduled. Another example can be a big bill that a person has to pay once a year. The smart person lays out the money to pay throughout the year, paying a little amount every month. On the other hand, there is another person who doesn’t put aside the money every month, and then has to pay one large sum at the end.
It seems to be that the last month before Rosh Hashana, the day of judgment, there is a lot we have to pay before we stand in front of the Almighty and beg and plead for another good year of health and happiness. We must make sure that we have done all that’s in our power to come clean from all of our wrong doings.
Each year Hashem grants us only one year ahead, which means every year our lease ends completely and we have to ask again for a new life. Before my lease ends in my apartment, things usually start breaking down. The knobs brake, the doors crack, the paint chips and different things get thrown out. There’s simply a feeling of wanting to leave all the broken things behind and start again elsewhere, someplace better and nicer. I can go months without any troubles with the car and then suddenly, this month I get a flat tire, day after day. There is also a set amount of money that is written down for each one throughout the year. How much will one give to charity? How much will one spend on their own personal needs? And how much money will a person lose? Now all this was written last year. And all these things Hashem sees and knows, because He is watching over us and cares about us greatly. Hashem wants to make sure that when we come to Rosh Hashana, we are clean and righteous.
We are the children of Hashem, and our Father looks out for us in every which way, even when it seems to us like things are hard and not going the way we have planned. If one can picture a small child that lifts up his hands to his father to have him pick him up, just imagine how safe that child is in the arms of his parents.
Firstly, he is close to his father physically. He feels the warmth and the love of the two hearts together.
Secondly, the child now can see far in the distance because now the child can see from on top. Before they were standing near the ground, and could only see everybody’s feet. Now that his father picked him up, he can seeinto the distance to the horizon.
Thirdly, he’s happy because he knows wherever his father takes him will be a good place.
Therefore, we ask our Father to pick us up, to dress us nicely, to give us all we need, and to keep us as close to Hashem as possible.
This extremely hard year that we had since last Rosh Hashana was all decreed and written down a year ago.
The new books of the new year have not been written yet, and the new decrees upon the Jewish nation have not been sent forth. We have just about two more weeks until the books open up again and G-d begins to write what good things will happen in the new year to come. So let us all lift up our hands and have Hashem lift us up higher and higher till we see the third Beit HaMikdash coming down to us. Amen.
