A Field Day
Shabbat Parashat Shof’tim
September 10, 2016 – 7 Elul 5776
Dear Friends,
I remember how much I loved field days when I was a kid…. Why did I love field days so much? It was fun to be getting out of the structured buildings that contain and constrain us. It was fun seeing more of nature. It was fun being refreshed both physically and spiritually!
Our Sages thought of the month of Elul as a season in which the King (a metaphor for God) is in the field. They told the story of a King who schedules an official visit to a city. In joyous anticipation, all the city folk come out of the city limits and into to the surrounding field to greet the King. And that meeting in the field is more natural, more relaxed and more intimate than the officially scheduled meetings within the city.
The Jewish month of Elul is likened to that meeting with the King – accessible to all, in the field – prior to the High Holy Days. It is like a month-long field day. Enjoy it! Then, when Elul is over, may we come back in and enter the High Holy Days refreshed in every way.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Gilah Dror
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