Bringing hope and joy into the world!

Tonight, with the darkness of the new moon, we enter Elul, the month which ends the Jewish year and ushers us to the edge of the new one on Rosh Hashanah. It is traditionally a month wherein we focus on t'shuvah, returning to our spiritual base, reviewing our year's behaviors, actions, and attitudes, and renewing our resolve to learn from our mistakes and move forward again.

Ten days after the new year begins, we pray our way through the most somber day on our calendar, Yom Kippur. So the tone of Elul is usually on the more serious and somber side of things.

However, it is important that we also not get lost in the abyss of self-recrimination, for that is not at all what Elul and t'shuvah are about! 

A disciple of the great Seer of Lublin taught, "When you pray about t’shuvah,  express your hopes! Come into a state of t'shuvah  in joy and expansiveness of spirit! Not from sadness, stress and feelings of impoverishment."  (Menorat Zahav). Furthermore, Jewish tradition teaches that our neshamah, our soul, is pure and good. It is a holy spark. No matter what of life's hurts and errors may have layered tarnish on our souls, t'shuvah is the polish and elbow grease which can bring that shine, and lead us back to our fundamental goodness and godliness, our purity of soul.

So this year, rather than focusing on mistakes, I think perhaps it is more productive if we look instead for our best parts, our inherent goodness, and the times we've been generous, thoughtful, considerate, and helpful to others, and simply resolve to do more of that. This is really what returning is about!

We are often told to focus on ourselves when we have problems. The advice usually includes doing healthful things like reading and implementing the advice of self-help books or even going to therapy, and it sometimes includes doing numbing things like soothing ourselves with computer games or comfort food, or even venting and complaining to friends. There are times and places for these, but when we rely on them to get us through all of the sadness around us, they will eventually fail.

Perhaps the best tool for lifting oneself out of sadness and depression, as well as being a very Jewish way to lift oneself up, is very simple and easy to do. It perfects this concept of t'shuvah, of turning away and turning to.

In simple terms, we turn away from our small selves, and we turn towards others, and look for ways to be kind and helpful to others. For example, lifting up another person through meaningful volunteer work is a remarkable tikkun, a way to repair the world. Or maybe it's something even simpler, like baking (or buying) cookies and taking them to the neighbors next door, a very easy thing to do, since we have to get groceries anyway. Even simpler, sending a text to cheer someone who is alone, or writing a cheery email or making a phone call to see how someone is doing. (I admit that I dislike phone calls immensely. I am much better with the written words. So the point is to do things we can do easily given our strong points.)

One of the ways I am currently lifting up others is through my posts on a knitting site, where I am leading a little group of us through a pretend pirate adventure, in honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day on September 19th. We're having fun, knitting and crocheting our way through the month, being silly and laughing and posting in "pirate speak." It might not sound like much, but this is certainly a small and easy way I can bring that tiny spark of hope and joy and laughter and fun and downright silliness into the world. And the more of THAT we do, the more we elevate the world.

Let's face it, there is NOTHING more the world needs right now than our laughter and joy and hope!

The Christian mystic Meister Eckart taught, "Know that the eye through which you see G!d is the same eye through which G!d sees you."

T'shuvah asks us to see through different eyes, to put on a new pair of glasses, or at least clean the dirty lenses in the pair we have on, to see things the way we want and need to be seen by G!d or whatever our concept of holy might be. If all you see around you is the dark and negative and sad, struggle and pain, that is the same eye with which you will be seen. And focusing on the negative does not serve you, nor does it encourage anyone to aspire for hope and joy.

So this Elul, this time of review and returning our souls, let's focus on reviewing our goodness, our godliness, and returning to that which brings hope and joy into the world. This is the truest and deepest form of t'shuvah and tikkun (repair), and exactly what we, and our world, needs!

Questions to ask yourself: What are my good points? How do I bring laughter and joy into the world? What can I do more of to ignite that holy spark within? How can I be a voice of hope and a beacon of love?

The world has enough darkness and gloom and doom. Let us begin to be the holy sparks shining our light of hope! Let us begin Elul tonight at the dark of the moon, seeing through eyes of brightness and joy. Let us light our soul lamps and bring that light out into the world!

What are you doing to be the light of hope and joy instead of the voice of complaining and gloom and doom? Is your focus on you, or can you find another person to lift up and encourage? What are some small ways you can ignite your holy spark and reach out and encourage another?

Let us begin the soul work of Elul!