Before Rosh Hashanah Asks Anything of You, Remember This | 10@9 | 2026.09.10

Good morning. Today is Thursday, September 10th, 2026. Today is the last time we will blow shofar during ELL in its capacity to awaken us, that Rosh Hashanah is coming, to remind us that this month of ELL is about to end. The next time we will hear the shofar after this morning will be on Sunday, when the blowing of the shofar will be completely different in the sense that it will be the fulfillment of the mitzvah of blowing shofar on Rosh Hashanah. The sounds may be the same, but the intent and the meaning of it will be completely different. And so I share this this morning as kind of a wrap-up for this year, for what the month of ELL should mean to us, a specific way that this month hopefully has prepared and is preparing us for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to come. I've mentioned this before in different contexts. The Jewish calendar is not just a way for Jews to mark time. It's also a textbook. It's a source of lessons about every aspect of life. And we are currently experiencing one of the most important lessons our calendar teaches. We're approaching the Yom Im Narayim, the Days of All, the High Holidays, with its heavy subjects of judgment and apologies and forgiveness. These are heavy subjects. These are hard conversations. And just as I am sure God has many pointed questions for me this year, I have questions for God about a number of experiences this past year. Why did this happen to me? To us. What do you want of me now? But this one aspect of what we face now is not unique because each of us has moments in our lives when we need to express to someone we love, our questions, and our expectations and our disappointments. How can we do this more effectively? And I want to suggest let's learn from how God does it in dealing with us. This Jewish month before Rosh Hashanah, near the end of which we find ourselves, is the month of Elul. We blow the shofar every morning, every weekday morning. We've been reciting extra prayers to allow this month to prepare for the challenges and potential uplift of the high holidays. Our rabbis teach us that the Hebrew word Elul, which is the name of this month, stands for an acronym, a quote from Shih Hashirim, the Song of Songs, Anil Adodhi, the Dodi Lee that could be paraphrased as God loves us and we love God. And that's the first step. The first step for any hard conversation in effectively holding someone responsible for their actions or expressing our expectations or disappointments. The first step is to convince the other of our love for them only when they are convinced of our love. Only when they are convinced of our love, beyond any doubt and convinced that we would only do or say what we feel is best for them. Only then can we say what otherwise might be harsh and probably ineffective. Our calendar teaches us that the first step God takes before the heavy conversations God will have with us over the high holidays is to give us a month of Elul, a month of Anil Adodhi, the Dodi Lee, a month to remind us of God's love for us. Only when we are assured of that can we accept God's words in the coming days, in the spirit they are truly given. This of course is a crucial lesson that we can emulate in every relationship between spouses, between parents and children, between a community and its leaders. First, convince your listener that you genuinely love them and then and only then gently start the hard conversation you need to have. Shabbos, especially this Shabbos, which is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, is a particularly suitable time to transmit this. Many parents have the custom on Friday night just before Kiddush to give a brachah blessing to their children. You can find a traditional brachah in any Sidur, any prayer book, or you can just express your own thoughts and words. What you say is less important than conveying your absolute and unconditional love for your child, just as God feels for us. And when that is clearly understood and only when that is clearly understood, everything else you say is heard differently. I'm sure you have questions for God this year, perhaps similar to mine, perhaps different. I can't promise you will find answers, though I hope at least you will find the strength to live with the questions. But I can promise this, our conversation with God will be substantially different when we spend the remaining hours of this month, Elo, reminding ourselves of the lesson of Elo, that God loves us. My friends, I wish you a great day, a beautiful and uplifting Rosh Hashanah, and I look forward to seeing you soon in person. Today is the last time for this year, the Jewish year 5786, that we will meet together in this context. I want to express to every one of you my deep gratitude for the learning that we have done together in the previous year. The opportunity I have to meet with you in this context enriches my life, gives my life purpose. I hope that there are people that at times benefit somewhat from what we discussed, but I can tell you this. Every single day that we're able to do this, it makes my day. And without you it would not happen. So thank you very, very much. I want to wish you, your family, your friends, all of us, Am Yisrael the Jewish people, Shnat Tovah. A new year 5787 of good health, of security, of spiritual growth, and of being able to continue to learn Torah together. Thank you very much.