What if today was your wedding anniversary, and you had plans for a romantic dinner? Would you be able to disengage from your work stresses, frustrations over the Iran deal and ordinary distractedness?
I hope so. Because it's more than worth the effort. Every relationship needs its pause button, a sacred time when the partners put aside their busy pursuits and focus on each other, re-committing for an even stronger future together.
It works the same way in your relationship with your Creator. The High Holidays, which are basically 30 days away, aren't just a time to show up in synagogue. They are special days, set aside for spiritual intimacy; days when we focus on the purpose of our lives, our personal relationship with G-d and with life itself.
Ideally, one doesn’t just walk out of a business meeting and sit down to an intimate dinner. One first takes the effort to mentally disengage from one's distractive world, shut one's smartphone, and mentally zero in on the importance of the relationship.
Similarly, we have the month of Elul, which is the preliminary month leading us up to Rosh Hashana. During Elul, G-d helps us edge out of our own self-absorption, so that we’re in psycho-spiritual shape for our ‘anniversary get-together' on the High Holidays.
Easier said than done.
In Jewish tradition, Elul is known as the 'Month of Mercy'. It's a time when we each go out of our way to help others. We give more charity etc.
Mercy means compassion toward someone who doesn't necessarily deserve the goodness (like a judge's mercy toward a convicted offender). You rise above the 'normal' metrics with which you usually guide your choices, and just allow yourself to feel the closeness and caring. So Elul is a time when G-d gives us extra capacity for compassion, and it doesn't stop there. When we rise above our usual self-interest to feel for another, G-dliness shines into our souls and primes us to be appropriately engaged during our intimate time with G-d on the High Holidays.
Elul begins this coming Shabbos. G-d will be knocking on our door, trying to draw us out of our self-absorbed status quo, prepping us for Rosh Hashana.
Answer the door.