September 11 | 29 Elul Rabbi Andy and Rabbi Amy wish you a Shana Tova! View the video and its transcript below. Rabbi Amy: Shana Tova, Happy New Year. I'm Rabbi Amy Hertz here in Greensburg, North Carolina at Temple Emanuel. We are just hours away from the new year. We are so excited to see you and greet this new year together. Rabbi Andy: Rabbi Andy Koren, and in just a moment I'm going to sound the shofar. We're about to start the year 5787. And if you take a look at the He

September 10 | 28 Elul Did You Understand? Talmudic question: הבנת דבר מתוך דבר - Havanta davar mitoch davar? The final question asks whether we were able to understand one thing from another, to make connections, to derive meaning, to move beyond information toward wisdom. This may be the perfect question with which to end an Elul journey. The High Holy Days are not simply about remembering what happened during the past year. They are about making meaning from what happened.

September 9 | 27 Elul Did You Keep Asking Questions? Talmudic question: פלפלת בחכמה - Pilpalta b'chochmah? The rabbis imagine being asked whether we engaged in wisdom, whether we wrestled with Torah and ideas deeply enough to sharpen our understanding. This question fits beautifully with the High Holy Days because Judaism does not ask us simply to confess. It asks us to think. The liturgy of the Days of Awe is filled with questions: Who are we? What have we done? Who have we

September 8 | 26 Elul Did You Hope for Redemption? Talmudic question: צפית לישועה - Tzipita l'yeshuah Of all the Talmud's questions, this one may be the most surprising: Did you hope for redemption? The High Holy Days are filled with this same tension between acknowledging how broken the world can be and refusing to give up on the possibility of repair. On Rosh Hashanah we imagine a world in which all creation is gathered before God; on Yom Kippur we ask for forgiveness and t

September 7 | 25 Elul What Did You Bring to Life? Talmudic question: עסקת בפריה ורביה - Asakta b'firya u'rivya? The third question asks whether we engaged in the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. On the surface, this is a question about parenthood and procreation. But as someone who has struggled with my own fertility, I believe we can hear a broader question underneath it: What have you brought creatively into being? Rosh Hashanah is traditionally understood as the bi

September 6 | 24 Elul Did You Make Time for What Matters? Talmudic question: קבעת עתים לתורה - Kavata itim laTorah The second question asks whether we established fixed times for Torah. As we move toward the High Holy Days, this question speaks directly to the practice of making sacred time. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur interrupt our ordinary schedules and insist that there are moments when we need to stop doing and start reflecting. We don't simply stumble into the Days of A

September 5 | 23 Elul Did You Conduct Your Life with Integrity? Talmudic question: נשאת ונתת באמונה - Nasata v'natata be'emunah The first question the Talmud imagines being asked in heaven is surprisingly ordinary. Did you conduct your business dealings honestly? The rabbis don't begin with prayer or ritual. They begin with the way we behave in the everyday transactions of life. That feels particularly appropriate as we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when we recite Al

September 4 | 22 Elul The Questions We Will One Day be Asked Elul is a month of preparation. We hear the shofar, begin to turn inward, revisit relationships, consider the year that has passed, and anticipate the Days of Awe that are coming. The High Holy Days ask us to do something unusual: to step outside the momentum of our lives and take an honest look at the people we have become. The Talmud imagines that one day, when our earthly lives are over, we will stand before a he

September 3 | 21 Elul Judaism offers specific guidance on how to live our lives. As inheritors of a four-thousand-year-old tradition, we know this. We also know that Judaism never stops with the expected, the usual, or the routine. It also deeply probes the limits of words, ideas, and behaviors. The following longer-than-usual Pearl of Elul is an opinion piece written by Jeff Jacoby that appeared in the Boston Globe on September 30, 2025 not long after Charlie Kirk was mur

September 2 | 20 Elul “Like a Fading Flower, a Passing Shadow, a Fugitive Cloud and a Vanishing Dream” [In] the PBS retrospective on the life and work of Leonard Bernstein I found it fascinating, particularly when he confronts members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra as they rehearse a symphony by Gustav Mahler. Mahler had converted to Christianity so he could be appointed conductor of the Vienna Opera. But in the eyes of musical Vienna, he remained an outsider: his mus

September 1 | 19 Elul The Baal Shem Tov taught that in the heavenly court there is no one who can judge you for what you have done in your life on earth. So this is what they do: They show you someone's life-all the achievements and all the failures, all the right decisions and all the wrongdoings- and then they ask you, "So what should we do with this somebody?" And you give your verdict. Which they accept. And then they tell you that this somebody was you. Of course, those

August 31 | 18 Elul The Best Way to Change: A Psychologist's Suggestions Americans often make New Year's resolutions that are too vague or too ambi tious and are quickly forgotten, says a psychologist who offers a few tips on setting more realistic goals for [the new year]. "I think people don't understand how difficult it is to change behavior,"' said Steven Danish, a Pennsylvania State University psychologist. "You need to be setting a goal that you can think about and

August 30 | 17 Elul The following article is much longer than what we include in our daily Pearls of Elul. And yet, it is a worthwhile read at this time of the year. It appeared in The Free Press in late September of 2025 and was part of their “Ancient Wisdom” series. The article was written by long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and, as the title suggests, is about learning to forgive ourselves. Please note that this article does make references to sexual abuse. While we could

August 29 | 16 Elul A prayer, translated in to English, from Reb Nachman of Bratslav: May it be Your wish, Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors, to do away all around the world with war and bloodshed, so that a great and wondrous peace will last in the world. So that one nation will not take up sword against another nation. And so that they learn war, no more. Instead, may all the inhabitants of the earth just recognize and truly know the truth that we did not come into

August 28 | 15 Elul Rabbi Andy discusses the "ins" and "outs" of reflections. View the video and its transcript below. Transcript: We live in a world where "out" matters so much, and as we enter the third week of Elul this year, I want to talk about the "in." That's what we focus on this time of year, is the "in," who we are and what we're becoming. Over the course of the past months, I've had an incredible teacher at our gym. She does a breathing and balance class and brings

August 27 | 14 Elul As we come to the end of this week’s journey through these songs, we arrive at Hayom T’am’tzeinu by Noah Aronson. This is a prayer for strength, blessing, and the courage to move forward. The words, drawn from the High Holy Day liturgy, begin with a simple plea, “Strengthen us today.” And perhaps that is the heart of what this season asks of us. Elul has invited us to listen, remember, grieve, give thanks, seek forgiveness, and return. Now, as we stand on

August 26 | 13 Elul This song, written by Susan Werner and performed in this video by Jewish musician Dan Nichols, has become an important part of our evening ritual when Beth and I put our daughter, Marin, to sleep. This song touches my heart and reminds me that this moment, no matter how imperfect, is precious. It reminds me, too, that there is so much to be grateful for right now, even as I know there is so much left to do in the future. The song grounds me deeply in the m

August 25 | 12 Elul When I was a teenager, I would often attend an alternative Yom Kippur service that was called A Confession for Our Time at a local Reform temple where I grew up. The service was filled with music that stirred something deep within me. Rather than using our Jewish High Holy Day liturgy, the service utilized modern songs that get to the heart of the themes of the Days of Awe. One of the songs included in this service was The Living Years by Mike + The Mechan

August 24 | 11 Elul I have loved this version of V’al Kulam by Craig Taubman since hearing it over a decade ago. It gives musical expression to one of the most vulnerable prayers of the High Holy Day liturgy, “For all of these, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.” Rather than allowing the words of confession to become overwhelming, I feel that Craig Taubman’s melody creates space to sit with and acknowledge our mistakes, ask for forgiveness, and imagine the possibilit

August 23 | 10 Elul Elul is a season of listening to the quiet places within us, to the memories we carry, and to the longings we may have been too busy to hear throughout the past yeat. Joey Weisenberg’s By the Waters of Babylon, performed with the Hadar Ensemble, draws on Psalm 137, the haunting words of a people in exile who have lost their home, their songs, and a sense of wholeness. In the song, the lyres are laid down and the people weep beside the river, yet the music