I’m sorry to be sending this final week of prompts a bit late. Truthfully, I’ve spent a lot of time on Week 2 and only am just now ready to start Week 3! I seem to be approaching the themes all in a jumble this year. That said, I’ve been doing the deepest Elul work I’ve done in years, and as a result of a session on Psalms of Elul led by my husband Eddie this past week, I have had some much needed spiritual epiphanies on the themes of Week 4. So go figure…
I hope that this week of writing will be filled with discovery and insight, and that you will be cumulatively enriched by the good hard spiritual work you’ve done this month “showing up for the page,” in whatever order insights have come to you. I encourage you to do as I intend to do and continue mining these Elul prompts in the weeks ahead during the Yamim Noraim.
May you be blessed in this new year and may you go from strength to strength!
Prompts for Week 4
~ What do you need this year from your holiday experience? It’s likely that some of your time will be spent in synagogue - how will your celebration be enhanced by participation in particular community/ies? What home experiences , what festive meals, are you looking forward to and how might you plan ahead ways of sharing gratitude together? moments of deep conversation about the year that has passed? What solitary time for introspection might you build into your plans? Are there new rituals you might create for yourself, for family, friends, community?
~The shofar blasts evoke multiple meanings: In ancient times, the blasts were a call to our people who dwelled in separate camps to gather, to come together as one community. Then and now, fundamental conflicts pulled us apart – it has always been hard to sit together in unity and mutual respect. Understanding that, are there ways you might see to bridge differences in the people Israel, in your own particular community? Is there someone in a “different camp,” someone with whom you nonetheless share concerns and commitments, with whom you might open a conversation?
~I have always heard in the shofar blasts the animal cry of “the wounded beast,” cracking our hearts open to teshuvah/repentance. It is a primal call waking us from our slumber. Can you identify your spiritual somnolence? What seems to cause it?How can you tell when you are sleepwalking? Who in your life will help rouse you when they see you fall asleep?
~A central theme of Rosh Hashanah focuses on Zichronot/remembrances of loss. In a “normal” year, we may mourn a beloved who has died; a relationship that ended, badly or well; a hope or dream whose time has irrevocably passed and needs to be honored. Within the intimate circles of your family and friends, what has been one very particular, powerful loss you have experienced this year? Tell the story – how have you mourned? how have you changed? Sometimes it is possible to find healing, a sense of peace, sometimes the loss never fully heals. What need for healing remains?
~In addition, in no possible order, this year we have mourned together the vast and unspeakable tragedies in Gaza and increasingly on the West Bank; Israelis huddled night after night in their shelters with losses of soldiers and reservists, their personal and national sense of safety hollowed out; in our midst, the illegal deportation and brutalization of immigrants, the dismantling of Federal social services; in Ukraine, relentless bombing, war weary soldiers fighting for their lives and way of life… Never in my lifetime have I felt so flooded by waves of grief, and then the aftershocks of that grief, facing an uncertain future. How have national and world events reverberated within you? The feelings are so large, they overwhelm. So begin by choosing one particular haunting image - describe what you see, give words to that pain. Perhaps choose a few other images and write about them as well - what waves of grief - or rage, or both - have you felt moving through the year?
~ On Rosh Hashanah the liturgy invites us to experience images of God as Creator. We celebrate the birth of the world, welcome new life, are attuned to, pray for, the birth of new hope. What new world/s can you envision in the coming year? Allow yourself to fantasize, be playful, dream. Summon your full steam energy to fuel such fantacies.
follow-up – Consider the ways in which you are a creator – what is your creative life and what do you want it to be? How can you infuse your daily life with freshness, with wonder? What new interest, new passion, will keep your brain alive and supple this year?
~ Identify one or two people in your life who can serve as teachers/mentors for you – perhaps a rabbi, a spiritual director, a counselor, a friend, a loved one – choose one or two individuals and schedule regular time to meet with them. When you feel ready, discuss with them your hopes for yourself this year, your fears, your concerns, your goals. Invite them to listen, to witness, to support your desire to be your truest self in the coming year.
~ Write a tefillat haderech for yourself - a traveling prayer for the road - for the journey of this new year.
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It has been a privilege to lead on your behalf, to support your efforts to create a meaningful spiritual framework as you move into a new year. I’ve enjoyed guiding you and invite you to use the Contact page to offer feedback on “Elul, a time for turning” - What was especially meaningful and why? How often did you write and in what other ways did you engage with the materials? Did you wind up writing with a partner or a group? What did you struggle with? How might this program be of greater help to you?
If these weekly offerings have provided you with sustenance, consider emailing me to discuss how you might help support this program and my ongoing mentorship of rabbis across denominations throughout the year.
Let me offer several parting gifts: Each of my books is appended with writing/discussion prompts for further journaling in conversation with the themes of my poems - the riches there are similar to the riches here. I also recommend another writing program on this site, Writing in the Paradigm of Prayer. If you’ve enjoyed this approach as accompaniment through Elul, I think you will find my daily writing prompts worthwhile as well. Feel free to reach out with questions, feedback or just to check in and say hello.
I end with gratitude. I am deeply appreciative of our webmaster, Rabbi Lisa Feld, for all she provided to birth this project and for her support – her competence, patience, counsel, kindness and creativity are unparalleled, all the more so as she is busy preparing to lead her own congregation, Congregation B’nai Tikvah in Canton, MA through the Yamim Noraim.
Shana tova umetuka. May we all be inscribed and sealed for a sweet new year of health, of peace, of promise and fulfillment!