Tonight will be Rosh Chodesh Ellul!
I took a moment to read what Rabbi S. Wolbe (1914-2005) wrote about it.
Rabbi Wolbe was a student of the great Rav Yerucham Levovits and transmitted the ideals of the prewar Mussar movement to the Mir Yeshiva where I studied in 2000.
In his remarks about Elul, he conveys a parable describing what the purpose of the soul’s journey is in this physical world.
There was once a man who was shipwrecked on an island. As soon as he woke up on the beach, he was greeted by the locals. They carried him on their shoulders and pampered him in every manner of comfort and luxury available to them.
After a few days, they brought him to a ceremony where he was crowned as king of the island. Now he was feeling really great. He had servants catering to his every whim.
After about 13 weeks, he began to wonder why he was so chosen. He called over one of his advisors and asked him, “Why am I being given the royal treatment?”
His advisor took him aside and confided to him the truth about this island. The island had a custom to switch its leader every year. They create an honorary position whenever a new person comes ashore. After a year, he is stripped of his honor and sent back to where he came from.
The “King” realized that his time there was short-lived so he began focusing on saving for his future life off the island. Instead of spending time on pomp and ceremony, he began looking for valuable items and shipping them off the island to his permanent home.
Due to his wisdom, he was able to amass a small fortune so that when he was stripped of his title and sent home, he came there as a truely rich man.
This, says Rav Wolbe, is what is going on in our world. We can get the illusion that this life of beauty and pleasure will last forever and is the goal of our existence. We must be wise and spend our time saving for our eternal home. We have to make sure we are amassing fortunes of good deeds and Torah so that when we arrive back to our eternal home, we will have a fortune that is ours to keep.
The days of Elul are days to take stock of our activities, ventures, and adventures. Are we using our time wisely, or have we been deluded into a dream world of temporal pleasure that will vanish sooner or later?
My grandmother Dinah Bas Yaakov Kopel returned her soul to her final resting place on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, 1998. She grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Married my grandfather, Shraga F. M. Kravetsky, and lived for many years in Winnipeg, Canada. Wherever she lived she stayed true to her Jewish heritage. She was a person who spent her days and nights investing in her children, community, and her soul. May her neshama have an aliyah and may we learn from her ways to spend our days in meaningful eternal pursuits.
