Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism

In years gone by, on the Shabbos before the month of Elul was to begin,  as the chazzan (cantor) says "the month of Elul will be on such and such a day" people would faint at the mere mention of this month. There are 40 days from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur. They are days of introspection and a chance to reach out to G-d when He is so close to us.

Elul prepares us for the upcoming high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is time to take stalk of our lives, of what have done over the past year and what we need to work on. We hear the shofar every day of the month (except Shabbos and the day before Rosh Hashanah) to wake us out of our slumber from the past year. The day of judgement is coming.

The story is told of the mother of Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita who was busy during the month preparing for her court case. When a non-Jewish woman heard about his mother's plight, she asked her if there was anything she could do to help to which Rav Sternbuch's mother said, this is something only I can take care of!

If we were really going through a court case in this world, we would be working day and night to try and find ways to make sure we merit a good ruling. The same thing is true before Rosh Hashanah. We want to work especially hard to find favor in G-d's eyes during this time.

One of the ways we can do this is to try and do as many mitzvos as possible. Learning a little bit more than we would during the year, giving more to charity, acts of lovingkindness...things that will help shift the scale into a positive judgment.

We have to look at ourselves honestly and see where we have been during the past year to know where we want to be in the following year. The key is to work on things that I know I can do, no matter how small it may be.

When I do something on a regular basis even if it is something small, it helps us giving us building blocks for the future. It has to be something that we can do because if we take on too much and then can't do what we set out to accomplish, then we digress and say well it's too hard to change, I can't change...this is the best I can be.

One of things that Rav Sternbuch has told me many times is not to worry so much what one has done in the past. The reason is that if you dwell on the past and think of all of our terrible misdeeds then we have no future! This means that if we get stuck and dwell on the past, then we cannot go further.

The most important thing to keep in mind as we work on our Avodas Hashem (service to G-d) is to show G-d that we are trying to become better people. Even if we don't reach the goals we set but we are serious in our spiritual endeavors and want to improve that is good.

G-d just wants that we should try and become better. With a solid plan and taking on things to improve on, we surely will merit a positive judgement!