Forgiveness in Elul

Hashivaynu e’lecha ve’nashuvah

Call us back to you, and we shall return.

We are two weeks from Rosh Hashanah. I hope you feel the urgency to spent quality time at the wellspring of your heart with the work of teshuvah, turning and returning.  

I want to share a few thoughts about forgiveness. I hope they inspire you to soften and release what needs releasing and forgiving.

The invitation for this week is to make amends, forgive, release, mend, turn and return to our kind and loving nature. 

Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. It is a hard ask, but giving up the hope that the past could be different removes the heavy shackles we carry. 

The past, as much as we wish for it to be different, cannot change. It is in the past. 

The invitation is to open the heart with forgiveness. To loosen the knots of shame, blame, regret, self-hatred, and hurt. To release those feelings and thought patterns about ourselves and others, that keep us separated from each other and the home of our soul; our joy, our peace, our ease and our contentment.

What do you need to forgive?

Who do you need to forgive?

How can you help yourself soften and release?

What are the words you need to write and say to encourage your heart to release?

We need to leave the past to the past in order to truly move forward. This is the season to sincerely forgive ourselves and others.

When you contemplate, I invite you to first remember what you love, what is important to you and what brings you alive. Then, only then, begin to reflect on some of the obstacles that are in your way to living your values and joys. First “count your blessings,” what you want to continue enjoying, and then review what needs changing.

Let us release the past and be open to new possibilities in the New Year.

I wish you a meaningful week of reflection.

Rabbi Sigal