One of the most beautiful and steamy love poems appears in the Hebrew Bible. No doubt, some of you have words from that poem on your ketubah or wedding ring: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
In Hebrew: אֲנִ֤י לְדוֹדִי֙ וְדוֹדִ֣י לִ֔י (Song of Songs 6:3).
The ancient rabbis, though hardly Puritans, eschewed the literal sense of the poem and opted to read it as a parable for the relationship between God and Israel. They read the name of this coming Hebrew month— אֱלוּל —as an acrostic for the phrase quoted above; the first letter of each word spells the name of the month.
Elul is the month directly preceding the High Holy Days, the time when the largest numbers of Jews (and perhaps their non-Jewish partners) find themselves in synagogue. Arguably, it is the time of the year when many of us, simultaneously, contemplate our own understanding of what it means to have a relationship with the concept that reflects how we understand the word “God.” I recognize that’s a bit of a convoluted sentence that seems to complicate the notion of belief in God. It’s intentional. This week’s Kavanot will, as succinctly as possible, capture this rabbi’s insights into the complex idea of God. The goal is not to be prescriptive (I’m not telling you what to believe), but rather to pose questions, challenge some ideas and, as always, invite those of you who’d like to continue the conversation with me.
So, in anticipation of tomorrow’s Kavanah, take a moment to capture your own understanding of God and the ways that you might experience God’s presence in your life.
—Rabbi Ron Stern