Word Prompt – DODI – Yitzchak Sprung

I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine. This idea is cited so often each year in Elul that its central idea – that the Jewish people are in a love affair with G-d – may be easily overlooked. Yet, this is a fundamental principle that can change our lives: we are in a covenant, a marriage of sorts, with the Almighty: “And I will betroth you to Me forever” (Hoshea 2:21). “This concept was implied by Solomon [Song of Songs 2:5] when he stated, as a metaphor: "I am lovesick." [Indeed,] the totality of the Song of Songs is a parable describing [this love]” (Rambam, Teshuva 10:3).

In other words, our relationship with G-d is anything but impersonal. Like a marriage, it takes body and soul, words and actions, commitments, failures, and fixing. Every marriage has rules and boundaries, aspirations and dreams, expressions of love, moments of closeness, distance, and closeness again. Each year in Elul, we think on this and we remember to approach G-d from wherever we are, near or far, and we fix our relationship and come even closer.