The Story of Elul, by Todd Greenberg

Contributor(s):

Todd Greenberg

Shared on:

17 August 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Rosh Ḥodesh Elul (אֶלוּל)

Tags:

אלול elul, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, במדבר Bamidbar

I tried to look at different aspects of what we as Jews contemplate and think about as we move towards the High Holy Days. God’s view of what we did out of fear and loneliness and perhaps why we can never see God’s face and for us to reflect on how we act in the world and what God has asked us of in this lifetime. This poem/prayer is perhaps a little rough, that was intentional. Rather than being a true historical commentary on Elul, I tried to tell a little story about it.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	The Story of Elul
	In our vulnerability we travel the wilderness, looking for the fields to sow, to cultivate, afraid to be afraid, together we missed the call our loneliness seeming to engage us to bring something, anything to worship, the hunger for something greater than ourselves we look to what we knew we took our fine goods with us lets build on that we said
	Moses was pissed Don’t forget, God too!
	This time I will lead, maybe they will listen, said God you can’t see me Moses, if you do all will be ruined, the seeking then would continue towards the golden calf
	Let the bush burn, turn away Moses so you can hear me, that’s your focus, lets hope it’s the Israeli’s too the call of the Shema^[1] Find Todd Greenberg’s prayer-poem, “Call of the Shema“
	Hear, Here, Pay Attention
	God forgave us going into this journey of the wild knowing full well that Grace, Kindness, Truth and Compassion are not innate, our missteps there to enlighten us to show us a way
	Reflect, Forgive, make amends, Follow the Truth, Love, Bring Joy and vulnerability as you sow and cultivate your fields
	Not to worry, it will take a lifetime Amen!

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Find Todd Greenberg’s prayer-poem, “Call of the Shema“

“The Story of Elul, by Todd Greenberg” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Todd Greenberg

Todd Greenberg is co-President/owner of a Flooring Company here in Boulder County Colorado. He is a member of Congregation Har Hashem in Boulder, Colorado.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17