Sacred Cycles of Elul
Words of Wisdom with Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
This Dvar Torah was written by Rabbi Eliezer Wolf Rabbi, Spiritual Leader at Beit David Highland Lakes Shul.
Life moves in cycles.
The world around us is never static: days rise and fall, seasons turn, tides ebb and flow.
Scientists tell us that even the tiniest parts of our bodies - every cell - operate on a circadian rhythm, a 24-hour clock that governs sleep, metabolism, mood, and even immunity.
When we live in harmony with these rhythms, we thrive. When we ignore them, everything feels out of balance.
The natural world preaches the same lesson.
Trees shed their leaves in autumn, not in despair, but in preparation.
By letting go, they conserve energy, store life within their roots, and ready themselves for renewal in the spring.
What looks like loss is in fact a cycle of strength. The Jewish year is built on this wisdom of cycles.
The moon waxes and wanes; each month brings a different energy.
After the three weeks of mourning for the Temple, we now find ourselves in the seven weeks of comfort - a slow and steady rising of hope, consolation, and rebuilding.
Our lives, too, move through valleys of sorrow and peaks of joy; each stage has meaning, each turn of the cycle has purpose.
And now, this week, we step fully into one of the most profound cycles of all: the month of Elul.
This is the final lap of the year, when the past and future meet.
Elul is not a time of endings but of preparation and renewal.
The Chassidic Masters taught that in this month, “the King is in the field”: G-d is not distant, locked away in a palace, but walking among us in the everyday field of life - approachable, near, attentive.
The spiritual atmosphere of Elul is suffused with the 13 Attributes of Divine Mercy: compassion, patience, forgiveness, kindness, truth.
Just as autumn carries seeds hidden within fallen leaves, Elul carries seeds of our own potential, waiting to be planted in our year ahead.
It is a time to reflect, to reconcile, to return to ourselves and to G-d with faith, love, and sincerity.
The Baal Shem Tov once met a wagon driver who bragged that he never stopped, day or night. The Rebbe asked gently: “And when do you oil the wheels?”
If we never pause, never honor the rhythms of our souls, we eventually break down.
This Elul, let us pause. Let us notice the sacred rhythms of life - our bodies, our seasons, our souls, our spiritual growth.
Every cycle has a gift.
May we enter this cycle of mercy with open hearts, and may it carry us with strength, clarity, and blessing into the new year.
