R. Meir Simchah Hakohen served as rabbi of Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), Latvia, for nearly forty years. He authored Or Same’ach, on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, and Meshech Chachmah, on the Pentateuch.
As the last month of the Jewish year, Elul is traditionally a time of introspection and stocktaking -- a time to review one's deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming "Days of Awe" of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
As the month of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 1) it is a most opportune time for teshuvah ("return" to G-d), prayer, charity, and increased Ahavat Yisrael (love for a fellow Jew) in the quest for self-improvement and coming closer to G-d. Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi likens the month of Elul to a time when "the king is in the field" and, in contrast to when he is in the royal palace, "everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all."
Specific Elul customs include the daily sounding of the shofar (ram's horn) as a call to repentance. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below to view today's Psalms.
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Elul is also the time to have one's tefillin and mezuzot checked by an accredited scribe to ensure that they are in good condition and fit for use.
Links: More on Elul
There’s nothing that matches the joy when a lost child returns home. And you are that child.
Because your soul began within G‑d.
And she descended into this world to inhabit a body and live as though a stranger to the heavens, captive of a futile dream, journeying upon many winding and perilous roads…
Until waking up one day and realizing that none of these lead back home.
And now, every day, with every prayer of your heart, with every word of Torah upon your lips, with every mitzvah and good deed you fulfill,
You are coming home.
There can be no greater joy—above and below.