Listening in Ellul
These last weeks of summer, as the days shorten and the winter chill looms, are designated in the traditional Jewish calendar as the month of Ellul. It is the last month before the New Year, set aside as a time for reflecting and for taking stock. In a few weeks we will be called on to stand together with our neighbors and seek atonement for our sins, both individual and communal. Rams’ horns will be sounded, confessions chanted, prayers offered, breasts beaten. Ellul is the quiet before that great outpouring. It is the time to sort out the things we do — and do not — regret.
The approaching Days of Awe — the New Year and the Day of Atonement — will be marked by public declarations of failing and vows of repentance. Ellul is a time to listen, to learn how one’s actions in the past year have resonated in the world, in the shaping of events, in the eyes of our neighbors and loved ones. If we listen carefully enough, there is hope that our atonement will be true.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
