Pearls of Elul 5786 - Day Eleven

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 itself becomes an act of remembering and reclaiming what has been lost.

There is a powerful connection between this ancient longing and the spiritual work of Elul and the High Holy Days. We, too, may arrive at this season carrying places of brokenness, regret, grief, or distance from the person we want to be. The work of teshuvah asks us not to turn away from those places, but to sit beside them, listen to them, and begin the journey home. What do you weep for this year? What do you long for? What sadness and what burdens do you cast to the river?

By the Waters of Babylon, Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble