Lead Tidbit
The Elul Preparation Plan
Leading up to Elul, we had the sedras of D’varim, Va’etchanan, and Eikev, which remind us - as they did, so to speak, the new generation poised on the threshold of Eretz Yisrael - of the 40 year history of the young nation. So too, we find in those sedras a review of the basics of Judaism - the Aseret HaDibrot, the first two passages of the Sh’ma, the commands of Brachot and T’fila, blessings and prayer. And a fair amount of warnings - warnings not to repeat the “bad stuff” of the previous generation and warnings about how to behave in Eretz Yisrael when the People will encounter close-up cultures of paganism and perversion.

That was the bulk of the Torah reading of the month of AV, spelled ALEF-BET, the initials of the statement ELUL BA, Elul is coming.

Parshat R’ei is either the Shabbat we bench Rosh Chodesh Elul or Rosh Chodesh Elul itself. So it is fair to say that with R’ei we embark on the journey through the month of Elul bringing us to the Yamim Nora’im. How does Parshat R’ei launch the countdown to Rosh HaShana? With mitzvot! 55 of them. Third largest number of mitzvot for a sedra. The “mitzva theme” so to speak, continues through Shoftim (41) and Ki Teizei (74), making mitzvot the Torah’s answer to the question, how best to prepare for Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.

R’ei’s mitzvot touch many areas of Jewish life. There are mitzvot between the Jew and G-d. There are inter- personal mitzvot. There are mitzvot that depend on the Land of Israel and there are mitzvot that apply in all places. There are mitzvot that apply in the time of the Beit HaMikdash, and mitzvot that apply in all times.

Of course, the order of the day - or month - is introspection and T’shuva. But R’ei and the other sedras of Elul give us a focus. Jewish Life and the quest for holiness are made up of mitzvot and our commitment to them.