The first of september, only a few days away, will also mark the beginning of the month of elul in the jewish calendar. It’s the month that leads up to the High Holidays (the autumn maneuvers, we used to say) and as such it is a time of introspection and preparation. Getting ready to “do the work of the Creator”. Penitentiary prayers are said, the shofar is blown, and we start to get “into the mood” for the great work that awaits us in the next month, the month of tishri. Formerly, elul also used to be the month in which I prepared the layning for the High Holidays, reading mostly on the first day of Rosh haShanah and on Yom Kipur. That’s a thing of the past, because, although I know the Torah portions by heart, they must be read by sight and not from memory, so as not to make mistakes in the reading. These are after all words of kedusha, the blueprint of creation. I do love the autumnal quality of all this, and the connection it brings with the seasons. Because we look beyond Yom Kipur, towards Sukkot and Simchat Torah, which end the series of holy days: these are perhaps the closest judaism comes to shamanic practice. I now have no access to the text of the slichot, well, no access I can use, but I can blow the shofar. In our family it used to be the custom to rise especially early on the first day of elul, in order to be able to say the slichot before the light of dawn. I usually say a kernel of the morning prayer during my sadhana, so it is a practice I will probably be able to keep up for the entire month. I don’t know yet whether I will have the stomach for attendance in shul, though: there isn’t much to choose from over here, however I may go to Antwerp, where I know some people. My davening has become different, without sidur or machzor, so we’ll see what develops. Nevertheless, elul is here and it’s important to not hide my face.