Elul Newsletter 5783

In the month of Elul, the twelfth month of the Hebrew calendar, a significant process of awakening and preparation for the upcoming holidays, especially when Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur take place. This month is an opportunity to understand that the construction of the Temple is an inseparable part of the process of repentance towards the Almighty. 

In this book of Haggai, it is written that in the year 3338 from the world's creation alongside the destruction of the First Temple, a small portion of the people of Israel returned from exile to the land of Israel. The prophecy, however, did not return. The economic situation was poor, and the attempt to rebuild the Temple ultimately failed. Nonetheless, on the first day of Elul in the year 3408 from the creation of the world, the prophecy returned to the people of Israel! 

Finally the Lord spoke to the prophet Haggai (Haggai 1:14), commanding Israel to disregard the decree of the kingdom and to begin rebuilding the Temple: "In the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came via Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying: 'Thus speaks the LORD, saying: This people say, "The time has not come for the LORD's house to be built."" The Lord emphasizes the gap between the intentions and thoughts of the people of Israel, who concluded from the royal decree that the time of redemption had not yet come, and the commandments of the Lord, which informed and instructed: The time has come!

The people are afraid to violate the royal decree. Therefore, the Lord speaks again to Haggai on the twenty-fourth of Elul: "I am with you, says the LORD" (Haggai 1:13). Four words that reveal the special closeness of the Lord and the people of Israel in the month of Elul. The people listened and began the construction of the Temple. Success and blessing in individual endeavors will not be possible as long as the house of the Lord is not standing in its rightful place. 

We are all hoping that the closeness to the Lord, the return of the prophecy, and the rebuilding of the Temple will happen again during our lives."