Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Elul--A Time to Prepare

I was telling the rabbi about the nature of my cycling journey--that the challenges and the learning has been more than merely physical. He responded by asking me to write a piece about it for the September congregational newsletter. The deadline was four weeks away. Nonetheless that night it crossed my mind that the newsletter would be issued during the month of Elul--the Hebrew month that precedes Rosh Hashanah. Immediately I felt a connection between the preparation we are obliged to do for the New Year and the preparation I was doing for the Israel Ride. Even though it was midnight, and I was preparing to go to bed I had to stop first and see where these thoughts would take me. Even though it is still July--the month of Tammuz, that is--I have written the following Elul piece for the shul. Here is your sneak preview!

.........................................................................................................................................

A month to get ready.
That should be ample.
Every year we have this gift,
like football players going to summer training camp before the big Fall kickoff—
only ours is a spiritual kickoff.
You know what happens to the holdouts—the ones who don't show up for camp?
They are in no shape to play the game.


This is an excerpt from my ethical will (viz., www.Yeshaya.net). I included a page on Elul in my ethical will because the month preceding Rosh Hashanah usually has two levels of significance for me. Like all of us I have the opportunity to use Elul to make spiritual preparations for the High Holy Days. I can, and sometimes do take advantage of Elul to reflect on where I have missed the mark, and to seek forgiveness. As ba'al tekiah--the carrier of the shofar blast--I also use this time to prepare myself physically for the high honor and solemn duty of sounding shofar on Rosh Hashanah morning. In very practical terms it is time to get my lip in shape. As a former French horn player that means practicing scales and especially long tones.

This year there is a third focus in my practice of preparation. A few short weeks after the chaggim are complete I will, God willing, sound shofar again--this time in the Old City of Jerusalem to mark the commencement of a 300-mile bicycle ride in which I will be among over 100 cyclists wending our way to Ashkelon, then through the Negev to our ultimate destination, Eilat, to raise awareness and money to save the endangered environment of the Negev.

I have been preparing my heart, my soul, and most assuredly all my might since April for this journey. I have felt the significance of the Israel Ride and my preparations grow steadily since I took on this challenge. I have very high expectations, based on all I have heard from previous riders--our own Greg Sterling among them--that this will be more than an exotic tour. It will be a mission that will have lasting significance to me personally even as I make an important contribution to a dialog among Christians, Moslems, and Jews whose objective is not only to protect and preserve the Negev, but to enhance the environment for peace among the peoples of Eretz Yisrael.

I feel exceedingly blessed to have so much to look forward to. I experience an even greater blessing by turning the anticipation of the ride and the High Holy Days into actions that enrich the present as well as the future.

I recently received a teaching that said that even greater than to perform a mitzvah is to inspire and motivate others to perform mitzvot. In that spirit I ask that you visit www.Yeshaya.net. I hope you will be inspired to learn more about ethical wills and to create one of your own. While you are there, please click on my Israel Ride link and make a donation to be shared by two truly outstanding organizations--Hazon (www.hazon.org) and the Arava Institute (www.arava.org). Most of all, use the remaining days of the waning year to go to "training camp!" Once again, Naomi Palmer is leading an Elul workshop for the shul, this year using the inspiring text Forty Days of Transformation by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins.

Finally, I pray that we all have a meaningful and productive Elul that prepares us for teshuva, for a year of growth, a year of health, and a year in which we make great strides in repairing the world.

b'shalom
Yeshaya

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