Elul: It’s the month that quietly ushers in one of the most spiritually significant seasons on the Jewish calendar, even though many Jews might not be familiar with it. It is the final month on the ...

Is it possible to do all your reflections about the previous year on a single day? And on a day when you do not even eat due to all the sins you committed? Of course not, according to the Jewish ...

Elul, the month immediately preceding Tishrei, serves as the spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe – Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. It is the month of repentance, when an honest cheshbon hanefesh, ...

Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more. Do you know the word, Elul? Elul is the name of the current Hebrew month on the Jewish calendar.

The new month of Elul has begun, the month prior to beginning the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Elul represents the spiritual alarm clock that reminds us of the period we are entering, the shift ...

Elul, the Jewish lunar month that began September 1, is a mysterious, emotionally fraught time in the ritual year. It is an annual event that has its own distinct message and special rituals. Elul’s ...

After Tisha B’Av (observed on Aug. 11 this year), most of us think about the upcoming High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Those holidays will be very late this year — Rosh Hashanah starts ...

With the month of Elul’s arrival this Shabbat, marking the weeks leading us into the High Holy Days, we are once again reminded that there should be more to one’s daily routine than tracking the ...

One month following the day of my mother’s death, I visited her grave. Not only did the occasion mark the conclusion of the sheloshim (30-day mourning period in Judaism), but also her first birthday ...

Abraham Joshua Heschel published The Earth Is the Lord’s in 1949. In his preface, he writes that, “The story about the life of the Jews in Eastern Europe which has come to an end in our days is what I ...

The Arizal (1534-1572) – the greatest of the Kabbalists – notes that the initial letters of the words “ina l’yado v’samti loch – [G-d] caused [accidental death] to happen to his hand, and I shall ...