Elul: Picking apples in the field
Elul: Picking apples in the field

Rabbi Shneor Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe of Chabad, said that in the month of Elul, the King is in the field, every person can approach Him and He receives them all with a kind and smiling countenance.

The King is the King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed Be He. But what is the field?

When Jacob donned his brother Esav’s garments and came to his father, Isaac to receive his blessings, Isaac said, “See the scent of my son is like the scent of the field with which God has blessed him.” The sages say that "the field with which God has blessed him" is the “chakal tapuchin kadishin”, the field of holy apples, which exude the scent of the Garden of Eden.

In the month of Elul, the soul of each person is especially revealed and illuminating. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for ‘soul,’ neshamah, equals ריח גן עדן / the fragrance of the Garden of Eden.

The field in which the King is found in the month of Elul is the field of the soul roots of Israel. In this field, every soul is a holy apple that exudes the fragrance of the Garden of Eden.

In the month of Elul every person identifies with and unites with his soul root. In this manner, we go out to the field in order to receive the King, Who comes to the field to rejoice with us.

Let us go out to the field in the month of Elul. May each of us pick our own apple, the apple that we will eat on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, dipped in honey. May this coming year be a good and sweet year for all!