There's a thread running through this week's Torah portion of Ki Teitzei: there are holy things in this world that have gone into "spiritual captivity," and the work of teshuva (sincere return) is not merely to defeat evil, but to recover that which has been captured.
In this week's edition of the Jerusalem Lights podcast, Jim Long and Rabbi Chaim Richman remind us that Elul is not about discovering what is wrong with you...that's not what repentance is all about. The goal of Elul is the reclaiming of our true selves.