On Fridays, we email two Elul Thoughts, out of respect for those of us who choose not to look at email on Shabbat. We wish you a blessed and restful Shabbat and hope you continue finding inspiration in our Elul Thoughts.
Rabbi Eric Linder
There is a Greek concept called arete. Loosely translated, it means virtue or excellence, but really it’s about the constant pursuit of excellence. And that excellence is judged not by looking at others, but only at yourself.
I think Elul is our version of arete.
This month of Elul is the month before the High Holy Days. Tradition tells us to spend it doing cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul. Each morning, the shofar sounds, not yet in celebration, but rather as a wake-up call. Elul asks us to look at the gap between who we are and who we could be.
It’s important to note that Elul does not ask whether you were kinder than your neighbor, more generous than your friend, more patient than the person beside you in traffic. It asks only whether you have moved closer to your own best self than you were a year ago. That is the arete of Elul.
Elul invites us, gently and seriously, to return, to become a little more fully who we already have it in us to be.
So as Elul unfolds, let the shofar reach you. Take your own honest accounting. And begin the slow, worthy work of teshuvah, the return toward your own arete- your own excellence, one day at a time.