Shabbat Shoftim & Rosh Chodesh Elul ~ At the Confluence of Justice and Love

As we entered Shabbat last weekend, we also turned from the month of Av to the month of Elul on the Hebrew calendar. The month of Elul is the last month before the beginning of the Jewish year ~ Rosh HaShanah ~ and the period of time that we call the Yamim Nora’im ~ the Days of Awe, ten days of deep introspection and reconciling in which we recalibrate our internal compass to ensure that the direction we move in the coming ye ar is toward our highest and best self. Our kehilla had the opportunity to turn in that direction in a profound way with the Mincha (afternoon service) Bar Mitzvah of Julian Weiss. At mincha on Shabbat, we read a taste of the coming week’s Torah portion. Set in a beautiful space surrounded by farmland and trees, on an extraordinarily gorgeous, “humid-less” (a big deal for this central Ohio summer) day, Julian (and the anecdotes shared about him by family and teachers) taught us a great deal about how to live into our best selves, how to treat strangers, friends and loved ones, and what it can mean to pay attention to the God-ness in the world.

During the month of Elul it is traditional to engage in cheshbon ha’nefesh ~ soul accounting ~ an internal audit of our activities and behaviors in preparation for the t’shuvah (turning) that we do during the Days of Awe. Elul also reminds us, with its very name, that at the root of our internal reckoning and reconciling we must place self-love. Elul (spelled, in Hebrew, אלול) is an acronym for ani l’dodi v’dodi li (often translated for wedding rings and ketubot as “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”), text from the Song of Songs (6:3), which one can read, easily, as love poetry between lovers, a very valid interpretation of the text. However, when one reads the text as allegory for the relationship between the Beloved (the Divine Mystery, Source of Blessing, the One, or God) and us (human beings), the message is about an energetic one-ness of unconditional love. אני לדודי ודודי לי becomes an affirmation that I am to my Beloved, and my Beloved is mine. We are encouraged to begin our month of soul-accounting and to continue that work from a place of unconditional love and appreciation for who we are ~ not in our most perfected form (the me that I aspire to be) but exactly how we are at all places and times along our journey. It is just as we enter this period that could be filled with our own harshest criticism and self-disappointment that our wisdom tradition reminds us that we are loved exactly as we are ~ in both our most magnificent, delightful, intelligent, luminous ways of being AND in our darkest, most painful and humiliating moments of personal failure jordans sale (in those times that we are most in need of love and most unlikely to see ourselves as worthy of it).

This is also the week when we read Parsha Shoftim. In addition to many other ideas, this Torah portion brings us the very well know line: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof ~ Justice, Justice shall you pursue. As Julian shared in his d’var Torah, Judaism survives and remains meaningful in large part because it is about pursuing justice and making the world a better place. “In fact,” shared Julian, “‘tzedek, tzedek tirdof’ tells us that we don’t simply have to live within the rules of society, we actually have to PURSUE justice. To me, that means tikkun olam – a commitment to [actively] repairing the world.” He went on to share his own personal experience with what justice means air max .

During this election, we keep hearing the term “illegal immigrants.” When we think of someone doing something illegal, we think of needing to stop them and perhaps even punish them. But two people that I love very much are here without documents. These two people have cared for me since I was a baby; they never forget to send me a giant present for my birthday, and I have spent many holidays celebrating with them and their family. They are kind, honest, generous, and hard-working. Because I have the opportunity to be close to these wonderful people and know their circumstances, I understand that what is legal is not always the same as what is just. I think Judaism asks us to choose what is just over what is currently considered legal.

Julian worked with these words to find their relevance and meaning in his life. Torah comes alive ~ vibrant, relevant, meaningful  ~ when we wrestle with the text, questioning and appreciating it, “discussing” it with the great sages of generations and with our friends and family. We are not asked to just swallow it as “the truth,” but rather, as, we learn from ben Bag Bag in Pirkei Avot 5:22:

בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר, הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ. וּבָהּ תֶּחֱזֵי, וְסִיב וּבְלֵה בָהּ, וּמִנַּהּ לֹא תָזוּעַ, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ מִדָּה טוֹבָה הֵימֶנָּה

Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it. And in it should you look, and grow old and be worn in it; and from it do not move, for there is no measurement of character greater than it.

At this time of year, when we prepare to recalibrate our moral compass, our measurement of character, and turn, as we work to do regularly, toward our highest and best selves, let us be blessed to remember that justice and love touch and that, in the world we work together to build, they embrace.