Rosh Chodesh Elul

Today is the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul. But tomorrow is the first day of the month of Elul; today is the last day of Av. I was thinking about it last night and was wondering, why is it that every year, Av always has 30 days which means that there are always two days of Rosh Chodesh Elul?

Since Rosh Chodesh Elul is always two days, as soon as we hear it’s Rosh Chodesh, we have a day to think, “Oh! Tomorrow’s the first day of Elul! I better wake up and start to think about changing myself!” If Elul would have just one day of Rosh Chodesh, then we wouldn’t have that extra day as a reminder of what is coming and what is about to happen! That is such a chessed from Hashem – He is giving us a small wake-up call, a small reminder that Elul is about to arrive! Now it’s up to us to think about it instead of pressing the snooze button each morning, until we realize that Elul is almost gone!!

We know that Elul is a time for closeness and connection to Hashem, more than any other month. We’ve learned this since we were young - Elul is an acronym for, “Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li” I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me – we are soo much closer to Hashem this month. But do we really feel it? Will any of us wake up tomorrow morning and feel this unbelievable closeness to Hashem, like never before? What's the difference between today and tomorrow?

And I think that the answer is that it’s up to you. If you open your heart to let Hashem into your life, you will start to feel Him more. Yes, Hashem is closer to us this month – it means that it is easier for us to connect to Hashem this month, more than any other month in the Jewish calendar. If you want to get closer to your Father, now’s the time to work on it! But if ignore the fact that tomorrow is the beginning of a very special opportunity of closeness and connection to Hashem, then you can lose it!

R’ Shimshon Pincus zt”l gives a mashal: A husband and wife can have a beautiful relationship only if each one knows that the other one exists. If the husband goes about his everyday business without knowing about his wife, she can be in the house but if he ignores the fact that she is there, there is no relationship! And if she comes home and ignores her husband, doesn’t talk to him or acknowledge that he is there, there’s no relationship whatsoever! So the only way for us to have a relationship with Hashem is by knowing and realizing that He’s here, closer than ever before!!

And there’s something special about starting right away and building your relationship continuously. Just like you cannot compare an uninterrupted night’s sleep of 6 hours to sleeping for 3 hours, waking up for an hour and sleeping for another 3 hours (there’s something about the quality of sleep – ask me or any new mommy! ), you cannot compare a relationship of building one day and continuing to build on yesterdays achievements to an on-and-off relationship. This is what Hashem wants from you! He wants you to be consistent and He wants you to talk to Him and remember Him every day!

Tomorrow is the first day of Elul – give it a try and see how it feels to get close to Hashem.

But how does one get closer to Hashem?

One way is to notice the little thing Hashem does for you throughout your day and thank Him. An earlier post, Bringing Hashem into Your Everyday Life, speaks about thanking Hashem for the little things.

Another way is to use your free time to think about ways to improve spiritually. There are so many areas in which each of us feel we can improve (anger management, patience, tefillah, using our eyes the right way, brachos, judging favorably, smiling at others, making a Kiddush Hashem, speaking with respect to parents and elders...) and working on any of these things or on something you yourself know you need to work on will surely bring you closer to Hashem.

Any other ideas of how to connect to Hashem in the month of Elul, which starts tomorrow?