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ELUL: A CALL FOR AWAKENING PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 01 September 2008 08:41

One of the customs we start from the beginning of this month, Elul (Monday 1st September), is to blow the shofar after morning service on weekdays. The reason is to prepare us for the coming of Rosh Hashanah.

As we all know, the Jewish New Year is a day of judgement. It is a spiritual, individual and communal stocktaking.

In order to make us aware of the particular days, we start to hear the sounds of the shofar and, according to our sages, the shofar is telling us: ‘Wake up from your sleep. You are asleep. Get up from your slumbers and search your behaviour’.

Yes, mankind’s nature is always to continue his or her behaviour, but once a year we are called for a private AGM. In this meeting with ourselves we are not looking for excuses or blaming others for our faults. We should look very deeply inside ourselves and make the necessary change for improvement.


Dear WHC members, if you saw me last week at the Centre, don’t continue to read. This article is not for you.

If you brought your child to the Friday night Hebrew School service or Tisha B’Av Sunday activity, this article is not for you.

If you are participating in one of the two weekly shiurim or in one of the three weekly services, don’t continue to read. This is not for you.

This article is actually for those members of the community who do not have a spare hour in the whole month to participate in one of the activities of our community.

There are members of our community who will be surprised when they come on Rosh Hashanah to see new asphalt at the entrance to the shul, or who have not yet seen the new driveway to the Co-op.

There are people who maybe have read that we have a new Secretary in the office but have not had time to meet her face to face.

Remember: the Centre should be a place for prayer, kiddush, social activity, volunteers, sport and learning. Maybe this message will get through to you and you will decide that once a month you will take it upon yourself to visit the Centre for a shiur, a prayer or other activity.

I know that you will soon have the AGM and I would ask you to stop asking, ‘What does the Jewish Centre do for me?’ Start asking yourself, ‘What can I do for my community?’.

L’Shana tova tikatevu v’tichatemu,

- Rabbi Chaim Dovrat