We are in an amazing month in the Jewish calendar - Elul. This year it will run from August 9 to September 6. Elul ends the Jewish calendar year. The name of this month is an abbreviation אלול, which stands for "Ani Le Dodi, Ve Dodi Li" - "I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine." Beautiful lines from the Song of Solomon 6:3! How can we live through the month of Elul in this holy stream without “falling out” of it, but rather rising higher and closer to Him? The lines from the Song of Solomon should become our motto!

Elul is a new season, autumn with God, Jewish autumn feasts, our sacrament and self-preparation for a new ministry to God, new offerings, and a new harvest that God has prepared for His Kingdom. And first of all, we must prepare our hearts, our faith, and our minds - and not just do as we please. Together we ascend into a new season of special intimacy with God.
If we prepare ourselves, adjust our faith, focus our hearts on God's desires, on the things the Lord wants, that will change our personal lives more than anything else as well as bring and reveal God's fruit in our ministry to God. Elul is the time when we tune in to God's frequency and choose God's righteous path for our lives.

God is a good tuner and He’s willing to help us tune our hearts so that we would fully enter His new season of harvest.

We need to make the most of this time to draw closer to God! And the main image for us at this time is the history of Israel at the time of Exodus into the wilderness. Then the whole people focused their attention on God's cloud, on where it was and where it was heading. God taught His people to depend on Him, on His desire, on His path, on His moving.

©Boris Grisenko, the Senior Rabbi of KJMC