The month of Elul
The month of Elul is spelled אֱלוּל is said to be an acronym of אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li,"
"I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine," a quote from Song of Songs 6:3, where the Beloved is Yahweh and the "I" is Israel.
Elul is the sixth of the twelve months of the Scriptural calendar.
In Aramaic Hebrew the word "Elul" means "search," which is appropriate, because of needing to prepare for the upcoming "Days of Awe" in Ethanim/ Tishrei.
The constellation for this month is הלותב Beth·ü·lä' (Virgo--virgin) which symbolizes Yahweh's beloved bride, Israel.
The word Beth·ü·lä' appears for the first time in the Torah (and the only time in description of a specific women) in praise of our matriarch Rebekah, before her marriage to Isaac.
What Happened in Elul?
And according to the Scriptural narrative in the beginning Genesis 1:1-31, Original Man and Original Woman were created six Days after the Creation of the Universe.
The month of Elul is the time that Moses spent on Mount Sinai preparing the second set of tablets after the incident of the golden calf (Exodus 32; 34:27-28). He ascended on Rosh Chodesh Elul and descended on the 10th of Tishri, at the end of Yom Kippur, when repentance was complete.
On the 17th of Elul, the spies who gave the tragic and catastrophic report about Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), died, as the Scripture says in Deuteronomy 14:37, "The Men who gave a bad report concerning "The Land" died in a plague before Elohim."
In Nechemiah 6:15, we find, "And the wall was finished on the 25th of Elul, after fifty two days."
When Nechemiah came up from the Diaspora of Babylon to Jerusalem, and saw the city in its ruined state, its walls filled with gaps and its gates burnt with fire, he urged the Jewish People to rebuild the walls, in order that they no longer be a shame among the nations.
The enemies of the Jewish People, Sanbalat the Choronite, Toviah the Amonite and Geshem the Arab attempted to forge a conspiracy to prevent the rebuilding of the walls. When they tried to disrupt the work by physical force, they were repelled by the workers who worked with their tools in one hand and their weapons in the other as the verses there attest,
"Those who built the walls and those who lifted and carried the burdens would do their work with one hand, while one hand held a weapon." (Nechemiah 4:11)
And the following additional dramatic descriptions of the situation, which bring to mind the battles of the early Jews against the Arabs at the birth of the modern State of Israel, when tremendous levels of bravery and self-sacrifice were exhibited by the Israeli worker-fighters.
"So we did the work, with half of them grasping the spears, from the rising of the dawn until the emergence of the stars. Also, at that time I said to the People, 'Let each man and his attendant spend the night in Jerusalem. Thus, the night was a watch for us and the day was for work. Thus neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the watch who were under me, none of us removed our garments; no one disrobed even to wash their clothes." (Nechemiah 4:15-17)
When the enemies realized that their military attacks were to no avail, they attempted to trap Nechemiah by encouraging him to meet with them, where they would do away with him, he saw through their attempts, as it says,
"Then Sanballat sent me the same message with his servant, with an open letter in his hand. In it were written these words: 'It has been heard among the nations, and Geshem confirms it, that you and the Jews plan to rebel, and that is why you are building the wall; and that you are becoming their king, and similar things; and that you have also set up prophets to proclaim about you in Jerusalem, 'There is a king in Judah!' Now these things will be heard by the king! So now, let us come and take counsel together!" (Nechemiah 6:5-7)
But Nechemiah responded, "I sent word to him, saying,
"These things that you say have never happened; you have fabricated them from your heart! For you all try to frighten us, saying, 'Let the resolve of their hands for doing the work be weakened, so that it will not be done.' But now you strengthen my hand!" (Nechemiah 6:8-9)
When the wall was successfully rebuilt, a great "Kiddush Hashem" "Sanctification of Yahweh's Name" occurred. As we read,
"The wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, after fifty-two days. It happened that when all our enemies heard this, and all the nations around us saw, they fell greatly in their own eyes, for they realized that this work was accomplished by our Elohim." (Nechemiah 6:15-16)
Used with Kind permission from Rabbi Rob Miller
