MEDITATIONS FOR THE MONTH OF ELUL
Sundown on August 21, 2020, will mark the beginning of the month of Elul in the Hebrew reckoning. While Elul is the sixth month of the Biblical calendar, in the Rabbinic tradition it is the last month of the year—a time for repentance, reconciliation, and spiritual preparation for the high holy days of awe and atonement: Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur.
Elul is an especially appropriate time to seek forgiveness and repent (תשובה “teshuvah,” or turning back to God) because this month is closely associated with divine mercy and lovingkindness (חסד or “chesed”). Why is this particular month associated with God’s forgiveness and love, since these attributes of YHWH never change? There are, perhaps, several good answers to this question, but I would like to explore one that closely links repentance to being God’s beloved.
The first hint at the connection between these concepts has to do with the name of the month itself. The month of Elul is simply referred to as the “sixth month” in the Torah. However, Jews returning from the 70-year exile in Babylon seemed to have brought back the name “Elul” with them. Some think perhaps it is an Akkadian import, while others contend its roots are Aramaic. Whatever the origin, Elul (אלול) later became closely associated with Song of Songs 6:3, “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.” (אני לדודי ודודי לי) because the month’s name forms an acronym of the words of the verse. How can such an intimate and affectionate phrase sum up a month meant to be spent soul-searching and repenting? What is the connection?
The connection might be found in Biblical history traditionally associated with the month of Elul. The story begins long before Elul does in Exodus 6:7, when God states His intentions toward the nation of Israel whom He would rescue from slavery in Egypt: “I will take you for My people, and I will be your God….” He then shows His mighty power in ten plagues and defeat of Pharaoh’s army, and His care as He sustained the Hebrew people in the wilderness. When God then met the Israelites at Mount Sinai, He dictated the covenant between Himself and Israel to Moses. When Moses read the covenant conditions to the Hebrews, they agreed to all the Lord required of them.[1] The covenant was then sealed in blood, showing that the breaking of it would result in death.[2] The elders of Israel feasted atop Mount Sinai in celebration, and an outward sign of the covenant—a ring on the finger of the bridal people—was given in the form of the Sabbath observance.[3] Ketubah-like tablets of stone recorded the covenant, written by the finger of God Himself, and given to Moses.[4]
After this remarkable series of events that closely mirror courtship and marriage, it is clear that Israel is called to be in a uniquely exclusive and permanent relationship with YHWH. But alas, it was not “happily ever after” as fairy stories would sometimes lead us to believe.
The wedding ceremony was not even over and Moses was still up on Mount Sinai, when the Israelites demanded that Moses’ brother Aaron make them an idol of a golden calf, breaking several of the most elementary aspects of their recent vows.[5] They even dared to attribute the mighty saving acts of YHWH to the Egyptian image that was part of the oppressive system that they had been rescued from: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”[6] All this was even more brazen because the people were in sight of numinous chuppah-clouded and fire-capped Sinai where the glorious presence of the Lord still resided. Of course, the Lord was painfully aware of the actions of the people below, a people who were given to corruption as those of Noah’s time.[7] And as in the days of Noah, the Lord’s anger burned against those who so flagrantly violated His justice and who committed blatant treason against His love. He offered to make Moses a sort of second Noah, and build a new people through Moses’ line, but Moses deviates from the Noahide precedent by instead interceding for the “stiff-necked people.”[8] The Lord relented in His suggestion of utterly destroying the Israelites, but the consequences of their sins remained.
Moses went down the mountain, and seeing the corruption with his own eyes, broke the stone tablets YHWH had handwritten—concretely demonstrating the state of the already-breached covenant.[9] Moses burned the idol, threw the ashes in water, and made the people drink it.[10] He then called those who were on YHWH’s side to kill their faithless brothers and neighbors, and 3,000 men died as a result.[11]
Moses then tells the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”[12] For a second time, Moses goes up to the peak of Sinai and there he asks God to forgive the sins of the Israelites. In a sentiment later echoed by Paul in Romans 9:3, Moses asks that if the Lord does not forgive the people of Israel, that he too be blotted out of the book of life.[13] The Lord affirms that sin must be punished by death: “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.”[14] But God then offers to still lead the people into the promised land, but rather than His presence personally escorting them as He had when He led them up out of Egypt in the pillar of fire and cloud, He would send an angel to lead them instead. This is not so much to punish the people, as much as it is to preserve them, for the presence of a Holy God would consume the sinful people He accompanied.[15] The Lord then sent Moses with this message back down the mountain.
When the people hear the disastrous word that the Lord will not be going with them personally, they mourn. Like the beloved in the Song of Songs, they realize what they have lost[16] and in desperation they strip all their ornaments off, turn back to God, and refuse to leave without Him—and Moses advocates for them a second time.[17]
Moses begins his intercession with an appeal to his belovedness before YHWH: “Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in Your sight, please show me now Your ways, that I may know You in order to find favor in Your sight. Consider too that this nation is Your people.”[18] God agrees with Moses reasoning, saying, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest…You have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”[19] Then, in a flash of boldness, Moses asks God, “Please show me Your glory.” A tender and protective God answers by revealing His goodness, His name, and His back—for a full revelation of His face and His glory would kill Moses instantly.[20]
Now, we finally get to the part where the month of Elul comes into the narrative. After Moses’ beatific vision, God instructs him to cut a second pair of tablets and ascend Mount Sinai for a third time. According to tradition, on the first day of Elul, Moses ascends the mountian of the Lord, and presents the blank tablets to the Lord as He commanded.[21] The Lord descends in a cloud and proclaims His Name, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”[22] God renews the covenant, and reaffirms the sign of the Sabbath observance. Moses tarries with the Lord and fasts forty days and forty nights without food or water.[23]
After this third mountaintop experience, Moses descended to the people again with the good news that the Lord was giving them another chance and that His presence would indeed go with them.[24] This gospel was said to be given at the end of Yom Kippur[25]: the day of Atonement, the day the sin of the Israelites was forgiven.
Because national sin and betrayal were so starkly evident in the idolatrous incident of the golden calf, so too is the glorious character and nature of God in full display. Nothing the people could do would save themselves—they had grievously sinned and so deserved to be blotted out of the book of Life. But one man—a man beloved by God—stood in-between the Holy One and His wayward people and begged for mercy. The Lord saw that Moses knew Him and His character, for He is a God of lovingkindness and forgiveness, and it was these attributes, part of the name the Lord proclaimed, that Moses was trusting in and could not bear to see maligned or misjudged. This beloved Moses and the covenant people who had turned back to their Lord would again turn towards God—that is, repent—and be able to walk with His Presence.
Of course, Moses was a type of Him who was to come—while Moses was a servant,[26] Jesus is a Son, and therefore a more glorious and perfect intercessor and atoning offering for our sins.[27] Like Moses, Jesus, upon the declaration of His favor: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and a baptism of repentance,[28] would fast for forty days and forty nights,[29] and then began His ministry of preaching the Good News, ultimately making atonement for the sins people of the covenant.
So we see that repentance, or teshuvah, is not so much of a grieving our sinfulness and resolving to do better—though these are beneficial and necessary actions surrounding repentance—but it perhaps more closely resembles the woman of Song of Songs desperately searching for her beloved after she has rejected him, and in seeking him, finds him and is joyfully able to affirm, “I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.”[30]
With these things in mind, I wish you the traditional greeting of Elul: “K’tiva VaHatima Tova!” May you be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life, clinging to your Beloved and secure in your belovedness, repenting of your sins, knowing and trusting the One who has interposed His blood between you and a Holy God, and lives to make intercession before the throne of grace.
Amen and Maranatha.
Devon Phillips is just a pilgrim longing for the Day of the revealing of the sons of God and the redemption of our bodies. Meanwhile, she is privileged to serve in the Middle East with Frontier Alliance International and contributes regularly to THE WIRE. She can be reached at devon@faimission.org.
[1] Exodus 24:3
[2] Exodus 24:6-8
[3] Exodus 31:12-13
[4] Exodus 31:18
[5] Exodus 32:1
[6] Exodus 32:4
[7] Exodus 32:7-8
[8] Exodus 32:9-14
[9] Exodus 32:19
[10] A similar process to the test for adultery found in Numbers 5:11-31
[11] Exodus 32:25-28
[12] Exodus 32:30
[13] Exodus 32:32
[14] Exodus 32:33
[15] Exodus 32:34
[16] Song of Songs 5:6
[17] Exodus 33:4-6
[18] Exodus 33:12-13
[19] Exodus 33:14, 17
[20] Exodus 33:19-23
[21] Exodus 34:4
[22] Exodus 34:6-7
[23] Exodus 34:10, 21, 27-28
[24] Exodus 34:29, 32
[25] Interestingly, in Modern Hebrew, the word kapara (כפרה) formally means “atonement” and is where we get the word “kippur” from in the holiday name, “Yom Kippur.” However, has come to mean “darling” in Hebrew slang—implying that the speaker would die for you, or that you are your atonement for their sins.
[26] Numbers 12:7
[27] Hebrews 3:1-6; 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
[28] Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22
[29] Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1–13
[30] Song of Songs 5:2-6:3
