Elul – The King is in the Field

sharon — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:57:52 +0000

Elul – The Month G-d Comes Close to Us

Many people associate Elul with fear, considering it a period of repentance that builds up to the High Holy Days where we are all judged by G-d. And indeed, it is a time to take stock of our behaviors and actions of the past year, and to confess what it is we need to change. This is the month where the process of repentance and coming back to our true selves. Yet, there is a deeper aspect to the month – an aspect of love. For Elul is the month where G-d himself makes a big effort to meet us where we are so the we can build a closer relationship with Him.

I am to my beloved, And My Beloved is to Me

In Hebrew, the letters of Elul (Aleph, Lamed, Vav, Lamed) symbolically stand for an important verse from the Song of Songs: “Ani Le-dodi V’dodi Li“ – “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.” The entire Song of Songs is a love song between G-d and ourselves. This verse’s association to the month of Elul represents the lovingly close relationship that we can establish with G-d during this powerful time. This is the month where the love story between us can climax, bringing us together in ways never before imagined.

The King is in the Field

The Alter Rebbe explains this concept with a beautiful metaphor. He explains that in Elul, “The King is in the Field”. During the rest of the year, G-d is in the palace, and we must make an intense effort to purify and ready ourselves to approach him in such a regal place. Yet, after a whole year of working hard and inevitably making mistakes, we are given a gift in Elul. This gift is the ability to connect to G-d without having to go to the palace. G-d leaves his palace and comes to find us where we are in the fields.

What is the Meaning of the Field?

When G-d cast us out of the Garden of Eden, he sent us to toil for our bread on Earth. The field symbolizes the places where we work and put effort towards sustaining ourselves in the material world. This includes all means of work: farming, cleaning, cooking, making internet sites, engineering, etc. During the year, we often struggle between the physical and the spiritual. The purpose of this world is to infuse spirituality into the physical. Should we do our physical labor in this world with proper intentions and with thoughts of others, we are actually doing spiritual work. Yet, the majority of the time, we get caught up with the stress and minute details of work. We get lost in the field, and no longer see the bigger spiritual dimension in which the field is an integral part.

The field also represents the outskirts of the city – the places where man can be his uninhibited self. This is often the place where low and thoughtless actions take place. Improper and sometimes lewd actions can occur in such places.

The Power of Love

In Elul, G-d meets us both in our lowest places of sin as well as the places where we labor without any spiritual intent. Therefore, G-d is easily accessible to us all throughout this month. G-d takes this huge step out of his palace because He loves us and wants us to be close. G-d wants, more than anything, for us to build a close relationship with Him.

Teshuva literally means return. When we make teshuva, we return to our true, G-dly natures. Teshuva can be made out of fear, or it can be made out of love. Teshuva made out of fear is a low form of teshuva. It is even considered to be a bribe to G-d. G-d will take the bribe if that is all we offer. But it is the deeper teshuva out of love that G-d really desires from us. By approaching us from his vast sense of love, G-d is showing us that we can uplift ourselves through love.