My colleague, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, created #blogElul. Every day she offers a prompt and encourages others to offer something as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the first of Tishrei. This year I’ve decided to try to follow along. Check back here every day (I will post after Shabbat ends on Saturday night or Sunday I will post twice). Let me know if you’re going to do the same. I hope this will be a new way to prepare for the coming New Year!

Rabbi Sommer describes this project as follows:

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I’ll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation… I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others’ as well! This year, I’m not doing a linky or anything like that — I’m conserving energy! So be sure to tag your posts on Twitter and Facebook so I can catch them with my alerts….