Saturday, August 24, 2013

Engaging w/ Elul August 25, 2013

Shavua tov!  As Shabbat departs and we extinguish the havdalah candle we enter into a kind of darkness.  It is the sadness that Shabbat has ended, it is the physical darkness of night and the awareness that our sense of a day different has departed.  I cannot help but include in these feelings the reality that all of us in the Carson Valley, Tahoe Basin and Reno are engulfed in smoke, a thick grayness that limits not just our visibility but affects our breathing and mood, for sure.  It is with these ideas in mind that I consider the connection to Fall and this season.  Elul eases into the High Holy Days over a month.  The High Holy Days lead us into the darker time of the year.  As the days get shorter, we not only say goodbye to the long days of summer light, but also to the past year.  I wonder how the spiritual work of Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are aided by this weaning from long hours of light.

Shavua Tov - To a Great Week,

Rabbi Evon

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