In this week’s episode, we’re bringing back some wisdom from last year’s Elul episode and reflecting on the meaning of this month in the Jewish calendar that leads up to Rosh HaShanah and the high holidays. This time of anticipation calls us to prepare ourselves spiritually for the new year. We talk about the symbolic meanings of the holiday and how the ritual of hearing the shofar can be a powerful call to being “awake.”
And, we’re excited to hear from you! Let us know your insights or ask us a question at https://joyousjustice.com/jews-talk-racial-justice-questions. In the next few weeks we’ll be sending some questions we would love for you to weigh in on. Join our mailing list at https://joyousjustice.com.
Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com
Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com
Learn more about the month of Elul here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-is-elul/
Read more about the Senegalese holiday, Grand Magal of Touba here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Magal_of_Touba
Learn about the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute here: https://www.kohenet.com/
Read the Song of Songs here: https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs
Better understand Shekhinah, the Divine Feminine in Judaism, here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-divine-feminine-in-kabbalah-an-example-of-jewish-renewal/
Discussion/Reflection Questions for this episode:
In this week’s episode, we’re bringing back some wisdom from last year’s Elul episode and reflecting on the meaning of this month in the Jewish calendar that leads up to Rosh HaShanah and the high holidays. This time of anticipation calls us to prepare ourselves spiritually for the new year. We talk about the symbolic meanings of the holiday and how the ritual of hearing the shofar can be a powerful call to being “awake.”
And, we’re excited to hear from you! Let us know your insights or ask us a question at https://joyousjustice.com/jews-talk-racial-justice-questions. In the next few weeks we’ll be sending some questions we would love for you to weigh in on. Join our mailing list at https://joyousjustice.com.
Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com
Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com
Learn more about the month of Elul here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-is-elul/
Read more about the Senegalese holiday, Grand Magal of Touba here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Magal_of_Touba
Learn about the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute here: https://www.kohenet.com/
Read the Song of Songs here: https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs
Better understand Shekhinah, the Divine Feminine in Judaism, here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-divine-feminine-in-kabbalah-an-example-of-jewish-renewal/
Discussion/Reflection Questions for this episode:
- [Tracie] The month of Elul is upon us again. We’re reprising last year’s conversation about justice and spiritual practice, and justice as spiritual practice.
- [April] This is Jews Talk Racial Justice
with April and Tracie.
- [Tracie] A weekly show hosted by
April Baskin and Tracie Guy-Decker.
- [April] In a complex world,
change takes courage.
- [Tracie] Wholehearted relationships
can keep us accountable.
- Morning, April.
- Morning.
- So in this episode,
when our listeners are listening to this,
we will be a few days into the month of Elul.
- Woo sparkly sounds. La-la-la-la.
Elul has arrived, welcome Elul,
sacred holy month, guiding us toward a new year
and hopefully a newer, brighter world
and possibilities for us individually
and for us collectively.
- Yeah. Amen. Amen.
So Elul is interesting.
We were just comparing notes
right before we pressed record.
And some of the things that are fascinating to me
are the different customs and interpretations
that are associated with Elul.
The, we blow the shofar every morning,
except Shabbat between Rosh Hodesh Elul and Rosh Hashanah,
which is interesting, interesting that alone
I feel like, could be a whole episode of what
the hearing of the shofar every day does for us.
And there's also the custom of saying
Selichot prayers of repentance
and trying to get right before,
before Tishrei and Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, and the days of awe.
- Before the heat gets turned up.
- Right.
- Before the Book of Life is reopened and closed.
- So one of the things that you said about Elul
while we were comparing notes
that I really would like to hear you expound on more
is the idea of intimacy, that is in there,
intimacy with ourselves and the divine. Can you?
- Yeah, I'd be happy to speak about it.
And I might ask you to collaborate and tag team with me,
one of the interpretations of what Elul can mean,
what it's shorthand for.
- Yeah. Yeah. We were just reading this,
that Elul could be an acronym for "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li"
which is "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine",
which is a line from Song of Songs
and the beloved and the I are often interpreted as
God and Israel, God and the people.
- For the High Holidays.
So normally it's often referred to in the context of lovers,
but during this season, during Elul.
- It's both, I mean the, right the Kabbalists
definitely believed that the Ani and the Dodi
were God and the people.
- Right. And I think in common everyday use
for a number of people it's often used in the context
for those who aren't aware
around to be inscribed and within wedding bands
or scarves or necklaces or things like this
that two lovers exchange to each other.
But to Tracie's point, traditionally,
this has also been understood
to mean each individual's interconnected
relationship with the divine.
And so I loved this thought, right.
And in my own language,
as Tracie was alluding to,
thank you for the prompt to share,
is that the way I thought about it is
intimacy with ourselves and the divine
and what might it look like
or mean for us as individuals? Right.
We'll talk a little bit about,
as Tracie started to allude to
what our tradition says about
what that might look like.
And as someone who believes
both in choice through knowledge,
as well as ongoing, more freeform exploration
and creative engagement with these materials,
I just love this idea for Elul, right?
I think to kind of move
the conversation forward a bit more too,
is that I think we have a special opportunity,
and I've been thinking about this as August approached.
And now we're in the midst of August
of this is the last fully fledged month of summer,
before things start to pick back up.
And I like that timing and this idea, I'm like, just,
I just want to play with themes.
I don't have a specific idea
of precisely where I'm going here,
but I'm just playing with multiple things
that are coming up in my mind around,
depending upon where you are in the world,
but certainly in the United States
and in West Africa, it's hot right now.
There's heat, there's perspiration.
There's also at times both some speed
and also slowness because of the heat,
of being in the presence of this awesome power
that is this August sun.
A number of people are taking vacation.
And I think that though, not everyone,
so shout out to folks who
are not taking vacation this month,
particularly those who might feel like you need a rest.
Hopefully you can find
spaciousness and nourishment this month.
But now that I've done a little bit of freeform exploration,
just to kind of ground us back,
I think this Elul,
I would love Tracie for you and me,
I think that's grammatically correct,
to invite folks, yeah, to consider
this Elul of what does it look like
for you to be in intimate relationship
with yourself and the divine.
And I want Tracie to pick it up in a moment,
but you know, Tracie really brought in,
as we were thinking through this a few moments ago
before we hit record, but about the way
that it both seemingly contradicts
and also really aligns
to be blowing the shofar every day.
And Tracie had one thought about it
and I had a similar-ish thought,
but I think I phrased a little differently
about it being a pattern interrupt.
So I find it actually interesting.
I was thinking,
and I wrote this down to make sure I say it
that conveniently with Elul approaching,
and by the time this airs that it will be in full swing.
That both my partner and I,
and Assane, as a number of you may know, is Muslim.
And I don't want to overly share what's intimate for him,
but it was really beautiful to notice
for me over this weekend,
that both he and I, in our own ways,
rooted in our own traditions
are feel called and compelled by the divine
to go inward right now,
not having anything to do with a particular calendar piece,
but just what's the rhythm of our lives
that we're both being called
to prayer, to connect, to slow down.
And we were both feeling that in part,
because we both just navigated contracting COVID.
And so we've both literally been slowed down a bit.
I mostly didn't, I had almost no symptoms, thank God,
but Assane was knocked out for a couple of weeks in bed.
And so all of this to say, and so I love,
I'm just feeling a little humbled and inspired
by the calendar or my alignment with the Jewish calendar.
And similarly actually Assane is also,
whether or not he meant to be or not,
in alignment because the huge Muslim holiday
that in Senegal here, they call Magal Touba,
which is like this pilgrimage holiday
to be in deep prayer and observance.
I think it's shortly after our High Holidays conclude.
And so anyways, so I would say, you know,
to those of you who are on a similar path, yay.
Look at us being in alignment with the Jewish calendar.
And I think the vast majority of the years of my life,
like maybe almost every other one, I don't know.
And for a lot of people in the world,
I think this practice of blowing the shofar
can be helpful.
You know, it's interesting to me how relevant this,
such an ancient practice is,
but it's certainly a helpful contradiction
to capitalism and to urgency and to the rushed nature
that many people have even in summer months.
And it's not just any sound,
it's specifically a nature-based sound
of the blowing of a ram's horn to me in a way
that could arguably also be seen.
And I so want to hear your, what you have to say about it,
Tracie, but like through this natural,
like natural biological instrument of a ram's horn
to listen in, to notice, to pause, to stop,
to hear that sound and similar to the purpose
of a mindfulness bell in the Buddhist tradition
of let it reverberate within you and sort of rattle
and shake things up and over a period of a month
repeatedly hearing this each morning
as a way to start for those of us who,
the thought of intimacy may feel like, whoa,
I'm like, I'm running on a track here.
I'm driving this car, I'm juggling multiple things
or I'm tired and I'm out of it.
And I just need to, forget intimacy,
I just need isolation and restoration, right?
That there's this repeated invitation
that's going to keep showing up every,
that can show up every day this month.
- Yeah. It, for me, it really,
it is a literal wake-up call.
Maybe it's not literal,
it's a figurative wake-up call.
- Right.
- Because we're not, we theoretically,
it's not actually an alarm clock. It is, but it is.
- If you lived in a neighborhood
where there were Jews-
- Blowing shofarim. Shoforot?
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yes. But there's definitely a sense
of waking-up-ness that I see in the
blowing of the shofar on the regular,
which totally, totally aligns in my mind
with your notion of pattern interruption,
because what is waking up if not
interrupting the pattern of being asleep.
And for me, there's such resonance too,
with the way that we describe sort of
being aware of race and privilege as being woke, right?
This is there's, there's an alignment there.
- I've had fun with that
at different speeches over the years.
- I'm sure. I'm sure you have,
but I think there's something
really interesting about the fact that
this isn't a one-time alarm clock, right?
The shofar blast is daily.
- Right, right I love that.
I'm thinking about that too.
- Which still aligns in my mind because-
- You said days, I'm sorry, cause I cut you off.
You said that you said the shofar blast?
- Daily, daily, daily.
- Daily. Got it. Okay. Yes.
- Which, also does actually align
with what you and I have regularly talked about
around what is colloquially called wokeness,
which I'm not sure that
I want to stay in that too hard
because I feel like it's been,
that word has been muddied
by the way that it's been used,
but the commitment to the pattern interrupt,
the commitment to making changes in our
societal structure that is inherently inequitable
is not a thing that you like suddenly see,
and then you're done, right?
It's a process.
There's a continual process of a daily practice.
Which I don't, it's still crystallizing for me,
but I really there's something that
feels really alive in this idea of the month of Elul,
the daily shofar blasts, the attempt to really
get right with ourselves and with each other
and with God and how that kind of reflects
or is a microcosm or a mirror somehow of the work
that we all have to do in fighting oppression,
whether it's, wherever on the four Is it lands,
whether it's individual, interpersonal,
institutional, or ideological,
that daily shofar blast,
it feels like a relevant and important pattern interrupt.
Does that make sense?
I feel like I'm, maybe I'm missing-
- It makes a ton of sense.
And I just realized, I realized because
I want to be thoughtful about time
and we want to take this,
continue with this thread that you're launching.
I just want to say briefly is
that I'm realizing which I knew,
but just connecting the different dots here.
That for both my partner and me,
we are feeling like, and we'll see how it goes,
because it's an ongoing journey for us.
This isn't feeling just seasonal.
We're wanting to do a more deeper awakening
that is more lasting.
And I know in general,
just even from masters of mindfulness
and deep spiritual power that they even say,
I fall too and then I come back,
but they are more consistently than
I'm wanting to be in this state of awakeness.
And this is something that
I'm playing with and working through
and engaging with a lot in the context of
my Kohenet learning journey and emergence
that as I think, I can't remember if
I've mentioned it on this podcast or not before,
but I feel like there's two versions of me.
There's in this context of this conversation,
there's awake me.
And then there's like matrix April, you know,
we're just like going along with the flow
versus slowing down that starts to carry throughout.
And there's just a deep awareness and seeing
a slower pace and also connection to powerful insight
when I take that time.
And so I won't get into that now,
but that was interesting to notice that
and so much so that I think for the first time,
as you were talking about this, I think,
and I would invite anyone
who also wants to do this too,
to consider doing this along with me
and potentially with Tracie, if she's feeling it,
I don't know if it will officially be my alarm,
but I think I'm going to weave into my practice listening,
it won't be a live blast,
but I'll take what I can get,
of listening to a shofar blast every day during Elul.
And for those of who you are hearing this
on Thursday or Saturday, or whenever you hear it,
that every, every day of the remaining days of Elul.
- Yeah, that's really nice.
- Yeah. Because I love what we're talking about here,
and I want to stay with this around
both that we've spoken about spiritually,
which I'm really focusing on as well as for me
as someone who's been a deep practitioner
around liberation work,
and with Freedom Summer happening last year,
our team has been doing a lot of work
to support the advancement of
racial justice and black liberation.
And so also considering that
as I hear each shofar blast around,
and normally anytime I hear that
another black person has been killed
by law enforcement or the like,
that essentially serves as a similar shofar blast for me.
And that's partially how I've learned,
how to deal with my trauma is,
to not go into the trauma,
but use that to clarify and look over
everything that I'm doing and seeing
is there some place where I'm not being brave?
Is there somewhere I could be more brave
or I'm not being brave enough?
Is there someplace where I can push the envelope more?
Is there another person who I could reach out to
and support in this work?
And so I'd like to,
it's such a more pleasant and empowering
and peaceful idea to have
a reason to do that that isn't another-
- Another death.
- Tragic injustice.
- I got goosebumps a little bit,
when you started saying that,
I had been thinking a lot about the bracha
around Mechayeh HaMetim, who enlivens the dead
or who resurrects the dead,
which the reform movement a long time ago,
many generations ago, like excised-
- Let me say something quickly.
And once I- right, and I was raised with that,
I was raised in a Reform context and I spent some time in,
within orthodoxy in my college years,
I became very observant.
And I learned about that phrase
and I actually really liked it as someone
who has an awareness of spirit.
So in my mind, quietly,
or at times I like quietly say it
when I'm davening in any space.
I often say the traditional liturgy,
because it just resonates with me.
- Even the movement is bringing it back.
It's now in parentheses in Mishkan Tefillah,
which is the Reform Siddur.
So it says Mechayeh haKol,
but then in parentheses it says Mechayeh Metim,
so haKol is everything
- Which means the world?
- It means, no everything, reviving everything,
gives life to everything,
HaKol is everything.
And then metim is the dead.
And so even the movement is starting to bring it back in,
but I, this is a little bit flip
and I don't mean it that way
because it actually, I feel really,
so I, several years ago,
I started to take on to take on the obligation
of saying brachot when I eat,
which I didn't do growing up at all.
And I still don't always remember,
but I wanted to find the right bracha for coffee.
I love coffee so much.
It felt like it deserved like a special bracha,
not just like, you know, who gives everything.
And I did some research and I couldn't find anything
that was like, especially for coffee.
And so I say, Mechayeh HaMetim
before I drank my first sip of coffee.
So I say, bless it is God who revives the dead
before I drink my first sip of coffee, which listeners,
I know that's a little bit flip, but I don't mean it flip.
I like, I really, I really mean it.
And one of the things that,
as you said, that, like, I've been thinking a lot
about Mechayeh HaMetim, who enlivens the dead,
which traditional Jews say several times a day,
but the Reform movement doesn't say at all.
And when you, when I was thinking about
sort of the awakeness that the shofar blast invites,
and then you said what you said about
sort of the death, the unjust death kind of,
and the shofar blast having sort of
an equivalency or relationship,
an echo of one another or resonance.
And then I was thinking about
Mechayeh haMetim, who enlivens the dead
and sort of thinking about the way in which
those deaths, though, we pray there will be a time
where there are no more, they propel us.
- Oh, Tracie.
- And in a sense, Mechayeh, they give life to,
and I just got, gave me goosebumps.
- Now you really touched me because
I don't know if this is quite what you meant too,
but then I also thought of this idea
of not simply being in perpetual mourning,
but what does it mean over Elul
actually from a place not of pensive thought,
but to say that we are still alive
and that shofar blast is reminding me
that so many of us have survived
and we are advancing this work,
not from a place of sorrow,
but from a place of vitality and power
and connection to that divine endless flow
of love and energy of sort of like hypothetically
having gone through Sheloshim
an entire year of mourning and,
or at some point where the process of mourning
at times continues perpetually,
but also where it's run its course.
And now there's an opportunity for this moment
of this burst of possibility and a call to be aware,
and to come back to life.
The last piece I'll say is that
I also simultaneously thought about
ancestor connection and engagement.
And also even that the engagement of the souls
of those who have passed of which
both connects to both
ancestor worship and engagement.
And also just even specifically
for some of the souls, right?
Of like just the multilayers of this, of that,
the shofar blasts could also be this
blast of life, of possibility.
Also be about the legacy of those who have gone before us,
either who died a natural death,
or who died, or who were killed, died,
or were murdered or killed prematurely,
of the blast also, meaning again, hypothetically,
like once more substantial body of work has been done
that their legacy also gets to continue
and is still with us.
- It gives us a new layer to the idea
of may their memory be for blessing.
- Yes.
- Zichronah L'Vracha yeah.
It just, it adds a new layer to what that means to say
that a person's memory is for a blessing.
- And that also just very, just to be transparent
and it might be too much for someone
others might find a lot of life in it,
sort of a ritual is starting to form
for me for this month of Elul,
where I want to listen to the shofar blasts
and almost envision it.
I'm just speaking off the cuff now,
of like blowing through me.
And also use that as an invitation
to go to my divine feminine altar
that I have close to my bed
and for the month of Elul,
engage with it, to light incense,
and to begin to have a more relational
and joyful relationship which in some ways I have
with my ancestors and elements of spirit work.
But also I think there's a seriousness
and also a lot of sorrow and mourning
around things that have happened to,
especially my native and black family members.
And I just love this possibility
of it like cracking something open for newness,
that for some folks that might actually
be choosing to mourn for them. Right.
But as someone who has often been walking that path
by choice and by necessity.
Oh, ou, wow.
Thank you, Tracie,
for talking about this with me, I'm buzzing.
- Yeah. This one was really resonant.
- Yeah. So for you, my friend,
who is joining our conversation silently
yet still very much here with us as we talk,
I invite you to consider,
have you already thought about Elul
and did our conversation more deeply inform,
or have helped you appreciate
what you've already planned
or inspired you to consider new options
that we may have touched upon,
or that just sparked something new and fresh for you?
If you are somewhere in between
or on the total end of the spectrum,
that whether you are not Jewish
and maybe not even Jewish adjacent,
if you're Jewish adjacent or if you are Jewish
and like this really hasn't,
this type of thing hasn't been on your radar is,
are there any key takeaways that you are considering here
spiritually or pragmatically about this
last-ish month of summer-summer, summer-summer,
before the fall activity start to kick back in
prematurely before summer is officially over in September,
but before Labor Day,
the American non-official fall Equinox is, right,
so how can you play with these ideas
of spirituality, of pattern interruption,
of intimacy with yourself and with the divine,
whether that means for you
Shekhinah or God or your higher self or your ancestors,
or simply an awareness of the vastness
that is beyond your finite specific self and manifestation.
- I would love to hear.
- You can use hello@joyousjustice.com
or there's a form on the website.
- Yeah. So you can use the form on our podcast website
or on the joyousjustice.com website,
or if it's easier for you to just shoot an email.
We would love to hear if anything
we said resonated for you
and what you're thinking about this Elul.
What I love about Elul,
if I'm remembering correctly,
from what I learned from Rabbi Ari Israel
in Maryland at the University of Maryland,
when I was working there on staff at Hillel,
is that often people think of Rosh Hashanah
as being about individual liberation and expansion,
but officially in the liturgy it's,
Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world.
And so we've spent mostly time focusing on
how we can be more mindful
as we head into the fall,
as we head into the Jewish High Holidays.
And also we invite you to reach out
if you want to, and or share this with someone in your life,
because the holiday is actually
about the birthday of the world.
And so the last piece that I'll conclude with
is it just goes back to a point
that I think aligns with
a lot of our work at Joyous Justice,
of this powerful potent,
both and of it is the birthday of the world
and how better to engage in that
then also to take time
to reflect on an individual level
of where can purification and more mindfulness
and returning to our inherent holiness and goodness,
how can we really take ownership of that
which we have the most power over in order
to enhance the collective in order to be more accountable
and in deeper relationship with the collective
by first rooting and being connected to
our source of spirituality and our own divinity.
- [April] Thanks for tuning in.
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Take care until next time and stay humble and keep going.