Excerpt from
60 DAYS: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays

We stand now in the days of the Hebrew month of Elul, a powerful month that radiates with intense spiritual compassion. This month prepares us for the awesome High Holidays. In this spirit we bring you another excerpt from Simon Jacobson’s new book, 60 DAYS: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays. Each of the 60 Days comes with a calendar, inspirational quote, facts and historical events, laws and customs, a relevant insight and a daily exercise.

ELUL 15
FACING YOURSELF

The Baal Shem Tov [1] taught that everything we see, whether good or bad, is really a reflection of ourselves. If it was not, we’d simply not see it.

This phenomenon is part of a merciful way that G-d has of teaching us lessons in life. Most of us have a difficult time hearing from others that we have a flaw which we ourselves don’t recognize. Therefore, G-d sets us up to have a confrontation with a person who exhibits that same flaw in some form. We see it and we say “how terrible.” But then it dawns on us that we exhibit the same behavior, though perhaps in different form.

The same is true for positive things. We recognize a positive characteristic in others because we have it in ourselves. If we didn’t have any element of it, we wouldn’t recognize it.

In other words: You are what you see. And you see what you are.

Many Jews living in Germany in the 1930s didn’t recognize the evil of the German people because they had none of it in themselves. They couldn’t fathom that anyone could murder them in cold blood. If you are incapable of a crime, it’s impossible to imagine that someone else is capable of it.

There are atrocities that we can’t even relate to because we’re not capable of doing such a thing ourselves.

The same is true for goodness or holiness. Many of us are cynical because we never met anyone truly holy or truly pure. So we don’t believe that it’s possible to be that way because it’s not part of our own experience.

Ask yourself: Are you cynical about the holiness of others?  Do you see the goodness around you?  When confronted with a behavior that you dislike are you able to see the same flaw, in some form, in yourself?

Exercise for the day:

~ Of the events of the past day, select a positive experience and identify how the goodness you encountered is embodied in you.

~ Of the events of the past day, select a negative experience and identify how this reflects a negative characteristic that you possess.

“Elul’s unique power (even over Tishrei) is that the Thirteen Attributes of Divine Compassion radiate even when we are immersed in the mundane activities of the weekday.” 

This fulfills the ultimate purpose of life, but it requires the most powerful energy of all: to integrate the Divine onto our material lives.

Facts

Today is the full moon of Elul, which symbolizes fullness in all our activities of the month, in our case: fullness in our soul-searching work. What makes the moon full? When the moon is aligned with the sun and earth in the exact angle that allows its entire body to reflect the light of the sun to us on earth. The moon is the embodiment and epitome of bittul (suspension of self): Having no light of its own it reflects the light of the sun. Bittul is the primary ingredient in our teshuvah work in Elul. According to Jewish mysticism the full moon represents the fullness of malchut (“sovereignty” and “dignity”). As we prepare in Elul to rebuild malchut on Rosh Hashana, the full moon of Elul gives us special power to intensify our work.