This Shabbat includes a special blessing announcing the new moon: the Hebrew month of Elul begins next week.
We will be including special messages relating to our preparation for the Days of Awe throughout the month of Elul, but today I want to reflect on the actual blessing for the new month.
It begins by asking God for all sorts of good things for us and our world: health, long life, peace, prosperity, dignity, a love of learning, reverence for God, and the hope that our people might be gathered together from all around the world in unity. We call upon God—the one who showered these blessings on our ancestors—to grace us with the same goodness.
And then, just before the name of the new month is declared, as well as the announcement of the precise day of the new moon, comes what for me is the best part, something that appears at first to be a non sequitur. We read: “All Israel are friends! Let us say ‘Amen’ (חֲבֵרִים כָּל יִשרָאֵל וְנאמַר אָמֵן)!”
Why this line? What does it teach us?
One lesson is that even as we call to God expressing our hopes for the future, we remind ourselves that it is in community, working together that we have the best chance to make our own mazel, to make our own good fortune. We can’t do these things alone. We need our family, our community, our people to realize these collectively.
A brighter future for ourselves is dependent not just on God‘s grace but also on our ability to form loving, lasting relationships with members of our own community.
May this be God‘s will and may this be our will as well—for the coming month and always.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi