THE ZODIAC OF ELUL
Dear Family,
I hope everyone is well.
Mazal Tov to Shmuly and Devorah Leah on their upcoming Anniversary on Shabbos. Wishing you continued growth and achievement together with much happiness.
Elul arrives this Shabbos BEH, and this brings in quite a change to the atmosphere of the year.
To get a sense of this, I would like to share a talk I heard from Rabbi Aaron Raskin on the Zodiac of Elul, and I have also attached a nice song from Daniel Zamir called Yaala, which I think is also related. The lyrics of the song was written by a great Jewish poet in the 16th Century, Rabbi Israel Nejara, describing the love between Dod (probably referring to the love of G-d) to his raayah (‘wife’) – Yaala.
The source of information on the Zodiac is derived mainly from Sefer Yetzirah
The name
The first letters of the word Elul spell out ‘Ani Ledodi, Vedodi Li’ – I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is to me.
Elul is our preparation for the next month of Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and the first part of the posuk (ani ledodi) refers to our stock-taking and INTROSPECTION of the past year to see how we can improve. And ‘vedodi li’ is Hashem’s reciprocation to us in Tishrei with blessings for the New Year, according to our preparation.
The Mazal ie Zodiac
This is Virgo the Virgin – Betulah
Before coming down to the world we are in a state of purity, which tends to get tarnished in our journey through the world.
But through introspection and true TESHUVAH, we can regain this purity.
Tribe
The tribe linked to the month of Elul is Gad.
The men of Gad were extremely powerful. With their swords they would remove head and arm of enemy in one stroke.
Sefer Yetzira links this to tefillin (head and arm) but also through the letters of their name – the gimmel stands for 3, and the dalet stands for 4 ie the shin on the head tefillin has 3 arms, and the shin on the arm tefillin has 4 arms.
Also the Hebrew word gimmel means GIVING CHARITY, and dalet means (to) the poor.
Together with their charitable nature, they also exhibited self-sacrifice in going at the head of the army into Eretz Yisrael, when really their allocated land was East of the Jordan. And this was causative to the DRAWING DOWN FROM HASHEM OF THE 13 TRAITS OF MERCY .
The letter
Sefer Yetzira proscribes a letter to each month, and for Elul this is the yud.
Yud is the smallest of the letters, but it also is linked to action.
It reflects our HUMILITY in Elul whereby we regret our past behaviour, and resolve to try and return to Hashem in an active way.
Attribute
For Elul it is ACTION.
We put tefillin on arm first, and then the head, ie we do first, and later try and understand what Hashem wants of us.
Predominant limb
This is represented by the left arm.
The left side usually represents impurity, but we place the tefillin on the left arm, because tefillin has the power to overcome this impurity.
THERE IS A CUSTOM TO CHECK OUR TEFILLIN AND MEZUZOT IN ELUL.
Tetragrammaton Ie the 4 letters of Hashems Name
For Elul the order is heh,heh, vav, yud.
This connects to the last letters of each of the 4 words in the posuk ‘utzedakah tihiyeh lanu ki…. ‘ – Charity will be to us because…
In relation to the bringing down in Elul of Hashem’s 13 Mercies, Rabbi Ginsberg explains this from the numerical value of Elul
Aleph – 1
Lamed – 30 (remove the tens) = 3
Vov – 6
Lamed – 3 (as above)
Total = 13
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcDTBRGwerw>; דניאל זמיר עם ברי סחרוף ומתיסיהו - יעלה
Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos, and a Gut Chodesh with much preparation and success for a kesivah vechasimah tovah! – that we should all be ‘written and signed for a Good Year’