Elul – 1st Day of Rosh Chodesh Elul

Posted on Aug 20, 2020 | 2 comments

1st Day of Rosh Chodesh Elul

Prayer for the day:

Message for the day:

By telling Abraham, “Leave your land, your birthplace, the home of your parents, and go to a the land that I will show you,” God instructed us, his descendants, that there are three forms of subjectivity we need to leave behind when we set out on the journey of self-discover:

‘Your land’ represents the first level of subjectivity – the influence of society, community and peer pressure, which affect us in deep and profound ways. We all want to be liked and accepted by others and we adjust our behavior accordingly.

The ‘home of your parents’ represents the second level of subjectivity – parental influence, which can be so subtle that we don’t eve recognize it. Often, we don’t realize how deeply the attitudes of our parents permeate our own attitudes and behavior, for good and for bad.

‘Your birthplace’ represents the third level of subjectivity – inherent self – love. Each person is blinded by his or her selfish interests, no one is immune from that.

This does not mean that we must completely discard all good things that we have learned from our parents or our community, but it means that, first of all, we must become aware of how these influences affect our behavior, our opinions and our thought patterns. Only then can we begin to know who it is that we are and what it is that we think, know and believe.

Similarly, personal bias or self love – which isn’t a crime in itself – becomes a crime when we don’t acknowledge it, and when ti begins to distort our vision.

Ask yourself: Are you able to identify where you blindly follow convention (or politically correct opinions) and where your path is truly your own, arrived at by you through careful consideration?

The message for the day was taken from the book “60 Days – A Spiritual Guide to the High Holy Days” – the book is amazing! You can order it HERE.