The Month of Elul

When we decide to improve, to mend, to advance, we expect a swift resolution. Repair now, peace now, victory now, the Messiah now, wealth now, and so forth... We want repair, but we are frightened by the very process. Instead of persevering in the process, we freeze, flee, or return to old patterns. This also happens to us as a people in moments of national crisis. When it does not come, weariness, disappointment, and frustration steal in. Instead of holding to the path, we tend to cast off the yoke, sink into criticism, or try to escape the burden. Rav Kook calls us to patience. Not to see repair as a burden that cannot be borne, but to turn it into an inner song that revives and encourages. To understand that deep processes, and certainly national ones, take time.

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