Ep 49: Elul, the Shofar, and Awakeness

In this week’s episode, we reflect on the meaning of Elul, the 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.” 

Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode: 

www.joyousjustice.com/blog/jews-talk-racial-justice-episode-49

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/

Transcript

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- [Tracie] The start of the month of Elul, the month prior to the High Holy Days, has us thinking and talking 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. Our show's theme music was composed by Elliot Hammer. You can find this track and other beats on Instagram at Elliot Hammer. If this episode resonated with you, please share it and subscribe. To join the conversation, visit jewstalkracialjustice.com, where you can send us a question or suggestion, access our show notes and learn more about our team. Take care until next time and stay humble and keep going.