Elul is considered a month of preparation for the new year and is traditionally a time of soul-searching and personal accounting.
Between the first day of Elul until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a period of 40 days. These are the 40 days which Moses spent on Mount Sinai before he descended with the second set of Ten Commandments.
It was on the 17th of Elul that the spies - sent by Moses to scout out the Land of Israel and delivered the negative report about the land - died (Numbers 14:37). According to Jewish tradition, G-d created the world on the 25th day of Elul. Today (Sunday), the 3rd of Elul, is the 71st anniversary of the death of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land in modern times and the spiritual father of the religious-Zionist public.
Jews from North African countries began reciting selichot, special prayers of repentance, Saturday night. Ashkenazi Jews will begin reciting them the Saturday night before Rosh HaShana. The fundamental part of the selichot service is the repeated recitation of the "Thirteen Attributes," a list of G-d's attributes of mercy that were revealed to Moses after the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 34:6-7).
It is customary to blow the shofar, ram’s horn, every morning (except on the Sabbath) of the month of Elul, with the intent of awakening the Jewish people to repentance and action. Psalm 27 is also added to the daily prayers each day until the end of the Festival of Sukkot.
More than 2,500 Jews took part in the monthly encirclement of the Temple Mount Wednesday night in honor of the month of Elul.
(Photos: Dan Paley)
Between the first day of Elul until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a period of 40 days. These are the 40 days which Moses spent on Mount Sinai before he descended with the second set of Ten Commandments.
It was on the 17th of Elul that the spies - sent by Moses to scout out the Land of Israel and delivered the negative report about the land - died (Numbers 14:37). According to Jewish tradition, G-d created the world on the 25th day of Elul. Today (Sunday), the 3rd of Elul, is the 71st anniversary of the death of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land in modern times and the spiritual father of the religious-Zionist public.
Jews from North African countries began reciting selichot, special prayers of repentance, Saturday night. Ashkenazi Jews will begin reciting them the Saturday night before Rosh HaShana. The fundamental part of the selichot service is the repeated recitation of the "Thirteen Attributes," a list of G-d's attributes of mercy that were revealed to Moses after the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 34:6-7).
It is customary to blow the shofar, ram’s horn, every morning (except on the Sabbath) of the month of Elul, with the intent of awakening the Jewish people to repentance and action. Psalm 27 is also added to the daily prayers each day until the end of the Festival of Sukkot.
More than 2,500 Jews took part in the monthly encirclement of the Temple Mount Wednesday night in honor of the month of Elul.
Jews pray at the Western Wall on the eve of the month of Elul.
Participants stop to pray and dance at each of the Temple Mount's gates.
The dancing and singing continues during the march from one gate to the next.
At each gate, prayers are recited.
A three-year-old child has his traditional first haircut during the encirclement.
(Photos: Dan Paley)