Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first day of the month of Elul, the month that leads up to Rosh Hashanah, when we mentally and spiritually prepare for the Days of Awe. I wanted to share with you a thought from Rabbi David Wolpe, whose writings I have shared before in my Shofar messages. He is the Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Los Angeles.
Our sages tell us that the first time Adam saw the sun go down, he was terrified. He had seen day, but had never experienced the night.
God took pity on him and gave him two stones to rub together in order to create fire. The name of one stone was afelah, darkness, and the other maveth, death. As the spark emerged, Adam said, "Blessed be the Creator of light." Out of darkness and death, the first human being realized that we can create light.
On the High Holidays we think back over the difficulties and even the tragedies that have befallen us in the past year. We have lost people we love, done things we regret, been hurt and saddened by life. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur arrive to remind us that our task in this world is to strike a spark, to carry light in the shadows.
“We work in the dark—do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task,” wrote the great novelist Henry James. We all work in darkness, unknowing, uncertain; but if we do what we can, our passion can ignite each other’s souls. Light does not erase difficulty or doubt or even death. But it allows us to seek blessing: Blessed be God, who grants us memory, and gives us light.
God took pity on him and gave him two stones to rub together in order to create fire. The name of one stone was afelah, darkness, and the other maveth, death. As the spark emerged, Adam said, "Blessed be the Creator of light." Out of darkness and death, the first human being realized that we can create light.
On the High Holidays we think back over the difficulties and even the tragedies that have befallen us in the past year. We have lost people we love, done things we regret, been hurt and saddened by life. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur arrive to remind us that our task in this world is to strike a spark, to carry light in the shadows.
“We work in the dark—do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task,” wrote the great novelist Henry James. We all work in darkness, unknowing, uncertain; but if we do what we can, our passion can ignite each other’s souls. Light does not erase difficulty or doubt or even death. But it allows us to seek blessing: Blessed be God, who grants us memory, and gives us light.
