Elul 25/September 7

Rabbi Jeremy Schneider

One of the most powerful moments of my recent trip to Ethiopia to visit the remaining Beta Israel Jews took place during morning prayers.

As the community gathered, many held photographs. Not prayer books. Not siddurim. Photographs.

Pictures of children, parents, siblings, and grandchildren already living in Israel. Some had been separated from their loved ones for years. Others for decades. As they prayed, they held those photographs close, asking God for the chance to be reunited.

It struck me that this is what Elul feels like.

Elul is often described as the month when "the King is in the field"—a time when God draws near and we are invited to draw near in return. At its heart, Elul is about closing distances. Distances between ourselves and God. Between ourselves and those we love. Between the people we are and the people we hope to become.

Watching Ethiopian Jews pray over photographs of family members they long to embrace, I realized that all of us carry such images in our hearts. Perhaps not literal photographs, but relationships that need healing, conversations that need to happen, dreams that have been deferred, and parts of ourselves we have left behind.

Elul asks us to hold those images before us with honesty and hope.

And then, like our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, to pray, work, and walk toward reunion.

May this Elul be the month when we take one step toward the people, the purpose, and the Presence we have been missing.