So many of us have caught the election bug, following whichever convention appeals most to our political views, reading blogs, watching the news for speeches and comments from our favorite (or least favorite) candidate. Both candidates want to seem likeable, approachable, like regular guys (in Jewish speak, “Heimishe”). They shake hands, kiss babies, meet with people who, if they had their choice, they wouldn’t even want to talk to, all to send the message “I am the kind of person you can talk to and get along with.”
While the month of Elul, the month leading up to the Jewish New Year, the holiday of Rosh Hashana, is not quite an election (we already have a king, Hashem), there are some simliarities between what is going on in the news and what is happening on a cosmic level. According to Chassidic philosophy, during the month of Elul, the “King is in the field.” While during the rest of the year, the King sits in his palace and administrates, Elul is the month the king goes out to the field and speaks to the simple working people about their concerns. This analogy deals with the relationship between G-d and his people.
The month of Elul is the perfect time to take account of our lives and to fix what needs mending. This is not an easy task, and is one that requires help from Above. During Elul ,the king, Hashem is not merely above us, but comes down to our level to hear our pleas and listen even more clearly to our prayers and petitions. This is why Elul is “prime time” to pray more and work on ourselves, and most importantly, to pray for strength to make these changes.
My five-year-old son asked a very good question on the first day of Elul; “If Hashem is everywhere, why do we say he is ‘in the field’ in Elul?’ One of the first things our children learned was a song about Hashem being everywhere at once. So how can we say he is ‘in the field’ as opposed to other places? I think the answer to this is that G-d has many aspects and traits, and during Elul, the trait that most characterizes Him is His closeness to us and not his distance.