Before the pandemic, we were once at synagogue on Shabbat when the clergy person leading the family service reminded us that, hey, Elul was here, and we could hear the shofar blown if we came to morning minyan. The next day, Sunday, one of my kids decided we needed to go hear the shofar. It was just a normal Sunday. The minyan was small, largely comprised of senior citizens. My elementary school-aged kid rocked and wiggled in his seat. Most of the adults there smiled and gave him high fives and handshakes and made him feel welcome.<\/p>\n
When I explained our shofar mission, they nodded. They all understood why we were there. My kid was given honours and made to feel special. When it was time to hear the shofar, he sat up and listened intently. It was one of those times when I thought, \u201cOh, we should try to come to minyan to hear this every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was one of those moments when my aspirations were much higher than my capabilities. Years later, I can\u2019t pretend we\u2019ve ever made it to morning minyan regularly again, even virtually, even during Elul. Maybe, someday, I\u2019ll be one of those senior citizens in the frequent minyan attendee club. For now, I\u2019m rushing to get everyone up, fed and out the door to school and work.<\/p>\n
Still, I think that morning minyan experience may stick in a kid\u2019s mind. The Elul shofar is a quintessential wake-up sound for many Jews. It\u2019s the time to think about how the year has gone. We can focus on what\u2019s ahead on the Jewish calendar, how we can make amends and do better in the future. What will change next year? What, most likely, will stay the same?<\/p>\n
Is this wake-up ritual true of everyone? No, of course not. I recently saw a TikTok reel of a man, probably in his 20s or early 30s, with a beard. The guy was joking that he observed Jewish holidays through food, and then jokingly said, \u201cRosh Hashanah? That\u2019s the one with the matzo balls, right?\u201d Maybe I haven\u2019t remembered the skit\u2019s details quite right, but I wasn\u2019t its intended audience. I inadvertently cringed. It was grating to me, jarring, like driving the wrong way down a one-way street.<\/p>\n
Here was this guy, probably an influencer, showing everyone that he not only wasn\u2019t religiously literate, but also thought Ashkenazi food was the only essential part of the ritual or the holiday. I mean, food is part of Jewish ritual, don\u2019t get me wrong, but, it rubbed me the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Here is a full-blown Jewish adult. And yet, he doesn\u2019t think knowing anything about his ethno-religious identity or choosing to observe anything in regards to its religious context is his responsibility. As a Jewish woman who cares about this stuff, this irked me, because with his masculinity comes a lot of privilege in some parts of the Jewish world. He might be so privileged that he doesn\u2019t even have to know any of this but he still would count in an Orthodox minyan and I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Our household philosophy is that, if people may potentially harass us or kill us for our Jewish identities, we should know more about who we are and why \u2013 and try to find joy or meaning in it. Focusing on Jewish knowledge and joy is kind of a \u201cthing\u201d for us.<\/p>\n
This is when I have to remind myself, hey, it doesn\u2019t matter how knowledgeable or observant or ignorant this guy on TikTok is. He\u2019s still Jewish. I am no more or less Jewish than he is. It\u2019s not a competition.<\/p>\n
Elul is for introspection. It\u2019s also the time to admit that we are all works in progress. I sure need to keep working. As we grow, learn and age, we can recognize and understand new and different things. Hardest, of course, is to recognize what we don\u2019t know: our biases, intolerances and prejudices. We all have these blind spots. This emphasis, each year, on working on ourselves is valuable in many ways, not least of which is trying to be more inclusive and kind.<\/p>\n
Elul is also about wonder \u2013 through our senses, when we hear, see, touch, smell and, yes, taste the holiday. It\u2019s the primal feeling we get when hearing the shofar, or the release one gets after a heartfelt apology to a loved one. That wonder continues into Tishri, throwing our bread (like sins) in the water at Tashlich. The wonder is in sweet honey on apples and other holiday symbols. It\u2019s in this season, in the northern hemisphere, when the days shorten and get cooler, the trees lose their leaves and we start again.<\/p>\n
As I write this, it\u2019s still summer. I\u2019m the first to say that I\u2019m not ready to embrace Elul. It\u2019s coming though, no matter what. In preparation, we\u2019ve already been apple picking at a neighbour\u2019s tree. We got honey from a local farm. The food part is easy. It\u2019s the introspection that\u2019s the work \u2013 and I\u2019m looking forward to hearing the shofar remind me to get busy doing it.<\/p>\n
L\u2019shanah tovah<\/em> (Happy New Year) in advance. May the year ahead be sweet.<\/p>\n Joanne Seiff<\/strong> has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before the pandemic, we were once at synagogue on Shabbat when the clergy person leading the family service reminded us that, hey, Elul was here, and we could hear the shofar blown if we came to morning minyan. The next day, Sunday, one of my kids decided we needed to go hear the shofar. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1800,9454,218,8302,21737],"class_list":["post-39408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-elul","tag-jewish-calendar","tag-judaism","tag-lifestyle","tag-tiktok"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}