Elul Journaling Club: Beginning Thursday August 13th
Elul Journaling Club: Thursdays 8/13 5-6:30pm CT AND 8/20, 8/27, 9/3 2:30-4pm CT (Adults and 13+)
Please register here: https://forms.gle/yBVUgsLu3XQqwBCVA
We have four weeks to prepare ourselves for Rosh HaShanah.
Elul is meant to be a time for introspection and reflection, challenge and comfort.
We take personal stock of the past year and we think about the year ahead.
We engage in cheshbon hanefesh, an intentional 'accounting of the soul' during which we think about what we feel good about from the past year, and what we could have done differently.
We think about the challenges we overcame, and those that got the better of us. We seek forgiveness from ourselves, explore our boundaries and the space we may have to forgive others, and reach out asking for forgiveness from those we realize we've wronged. With an eye on the year to come, we gently hold our goals and intentions.
We set the tone for our High Holidays.
This year as we approach Elul, I've been thinking about The Book of Jonah. A lot.
I've been thinking about ways I am, and we are, Jonah . . . and ways we are the men on the ship.
Sometimes we are citizens of Nineveh. Maybe now and then we are even the very big fish - a place of rest and quiet for someone with a troubled soul.
Jonah will be one of our core texts in Merchav this year during Elul Journaling and through Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
I have also created a Playlist for Elul 5786. I’d love to know what you think, and what songs you think I should add.
Right now it’s only on Apple. I’m hoping to get the list on Spotify soon. Please let me know if you know of any playlist platforms that might . . . align better with my values.
Of course I think it's best if you can join for all 4 sessions, however you are welcome to come to whichever times work for you. There is a place in the registration form https://forms.gle/yBVUgsLu3XQqwBCVA to let me know when you anticipate joining. That'll just help me plan.
If you'd like to read the Book of Jonah before we gather, you'll find it at that link.
It's just 48 verses divided into 4 chapters.
In our sessions together you will never be expected to share any of your private reflections, writings, or artistic expressions.
We will be on this journey together, and we will have opportunities to discuss concepts and ideas together.
However, your personal thoughts are just that - personal.
In four sessions we will not have the time we would need to develop the relationships within which that kind of vulnerability would be safe. Elul does ask us to be vulnerable with ourselves, though. And if God (Eternal, Divine, Universe) is a concept with which we have a relationship, with God.
I commit to you that we will end each session with a deep breath and a soft landing.
Keep reading for more specific details!
Thursday August 13th from 5-6:30pm Central we will take up the theme of Rebuke and Repair.
We also know those concepts as tochechah and teshuvah.
בְּחׇזְקָ֑ה וְיָשֻׁ֗בוּ אִ֚ישׁ מִדַּרְכּ֣וֹ הָֽרָעָ֔ה וּמִן־הֶחָמָ֖ס אֲשֶׁ֥ר בְּכַפֵּיהֶֽם
With strength, urgently, let them return, every person from the wrong (literally) evil, and from the violence/wrong/injustice which is in their guilty palms/hands.
Jonah 3:8
Our tradition teaches that we are obligated, commanded to offer a constructive rebuke when someone we believe to be able to do differently is causing harm.
It's a compliment. We believe them able to learn and grow and do otherwise. We believe if only they knew the harm they caused, they would want to repair what they could.
That means if someone offers us a constructive rebuke, a tochechah, it is also a compliment. It is an invitation to repair.
During this session, in the context of Elul and Jonah's story, we will explore and reflect on our obligation offer a tochechah, the boundaries of that obligation, and our capacity to receive one.
Thursday August 20th 2:30-4pm Central we will turn to Protest, Resistance, and Rest.
וַיַּעֲמֹ֥ד הַיָּ֖ם מִזַּעְפּֽוֹ
And it stopped the sea from its raging.
Jonah 1:15
We are living in and through a time that requires protest, resistance, and rest.
During this session, aware of the world and the moment we live in, we will engage with texts that challenge us to show up with humility - which in the understanding of Mussar means to take up our rightful space.
Fill it. If there is work that is ours to do, we must do it. That's a rather counter-majority-cultural way of thinking about humility, no? We will ask how Judaism understands ways rest is part of protest and resistance.
Thursday August 27th 2:30-4pm Central we will maybe flip the script with Love Your Neighbor, Love Yourself.
וַֽאֲנִי֙ לֹ֣א אָח֔וּס עַל־נִינְוֵ֖ה
And should I not care about Nineveh?
Jonah 4:11
We are often told that we cannot love our neighbor until or unless we love ourselves.
Is it possible that we also cannot fully love ourselves until or unless we love our neighbor?
In English, we typically rely on one word, love, to carry the weight of a multitude of relationships and feelings and actions.
During this session we will wrestle with what love is or could be in different circumstances and how it might be expressed both toward our neighbors, and toward ourselves. In particular, we will have time to wrestle with what is sometimes called "compassion fatigue" or possibly "compassion numbness" (or emotional numbness) and how we might restore our capacities for empathy, care, concern, and commitment - capacities we might also call love.
Thursday September 3rd 2:30-4pm Central we will join Jonah: In the Belly of the Fish - Commitments and Reflections
וַיִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל יוֹנָ֔ה אֶל־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו מִמְּעֵ֖י הַדָּגָֽה
Jonah prayed to the Eternal his God from the belly of the fish.
Jonah 2:2
Just one week before Rosh HaShanah, we will imagine ourselves with Jonah in the belly of that fish.
We will name for ourselves what we want to let go of, and we will record for ourselves the commitments we want to make in the coming year.
One of the commitments I am making now is to a groups of 7 Karen refugee families here in Saint Paul.
My wife Liddy and I have mentored a Karen woman since 2017. Through her we are currently connected with these families who need some food support each month and help with school supplies right now.
If you can contribute $20-$200 for these sessions, all of the money I receive for Elul Journaling will be used directly to provide that mutual aid care.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/yBVUgsLu3XQqwBCVA
If you are unable to or uninterested in joining, but would like to help provide this care for these families, thank you:
Venmo: Amy-Ariel-1
Check: Rabbi Amy Ariel 1461 Sargent Ave Saint Paul, MN 55105
Big Love, and L'Shana Tova,
Rabbi Ariel