The month of Elul carries us inextricably toward the three days of the year when we will spend quite a few hours in the synagogue. What will we make of that time?
Our high holiday prayer book, the machzor, is a hefty volume full of so many words – confessions, supplications, hopes expressed and failings acknowledged, old wisdom revisited and new teachings discovered. Not a single musical note graces its many pages, yet our tradition is firm – every prayer we utter must be sung, every word of the Torah chanted. We can’t imagine our services without the music, even if there is no evidence of it on the written page. So I invite you to open your heart to all the other things, small or large, that make your prayer meaningful and powerful, even if they are not obvious at the first glance. Perhaps you’ll sit in a seat where you’ve sat for years, or find a new spot that brings you comfort. Maybe you’ll smile at a beloved friend across the aisle, or find your heart aching for a dear soul who is no longer in the room. Will you discover an unexpected joy in the slanted ray of the afternoon sun filtering through the stained glass windows? Or put the book aside and reach out to God through a wordless niggun? As the chasidic melody for a lesser known line of Avinu Malkeinu reminds us gently, we don’t need too many words to acknowledge – “Avinu Malkeinu, we have no King, but You – ein lanu Melech ela Atah.”
