Elul

Elul (Hebrew: אֱלוּל, from Akkadian Elulu ) is the twelfth and last month of the bourgeois Jewish calendar and the sixth of the Jewish religious calendar after counting in the Jewish calendar. He has 29 days and falls in the Gregorian calendar in the period of August and September.

In the Tanakh this month bears simply the name of " the sixth month ", the numbering of the other months the following: " The sixth, for the sixth month was Ira the son of Ikkesh from Tekoa. " ( 1 Chr 27,9 EU)

The current name of the month " Elul " has its origin in the Akkadian month names of ancient Babylonia that were taken over by the Jews during the Babylonian exile, 586-536 BC. In the Bible this month name occurs only once in the book of Nehemiah (Neh. 6.15 EU) " After fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul, the wall was completed. "

However, the Jewish month of Elul name is not the only one who is attributed to the Babylonian month: In Turkish the September " Eylül " is called.

Elul, also called the " month of mercy and forgiveness ", is a time of repentance in preparation for the Yamim Nora'im, the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur on the first and tenth day of the month of Tishri. Elul is translated as search, the man should be set at this time for the upcoming day of judgment and reconciliation. The prophet Jeremiah said, " Turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back back to these your cities " ( Jer 31.21 EU), which should be a call to repentance and forgiveness to the Jewish people.

Apart from the Shabbat day is the morning blown the shofar on Rosh Chodesh Elul all days between the first day of the month, and the day before Rosh Hashanah, which is to wake people out of their unthinking lifestyle (Am 3.6 EU). Furthermore, it is common to read the psalm between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Hoshana Rabba, on Tishri 27 daily. In addition to the shofar is reciting the Selichot, special prayers of repentance, everyday before sunrise an important ritual. The Ashkenazim end this ritual on Wednesday before Rosh Hashanah, the Sephardim only at the end of the month.

Many Jews also visit the graves of friends and relatives to remember them and to honor them.

Another custom is to terminate all written in letters of Elul with wishes for a good year - the tradition teaches that on Rosh Hashanah the deeds of every human being, he has committed during the past year, assessed and in the book of life are written.

The total of forty days between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Yom Kippur are to those Forty Days of the year 2448 of the Hebrew calendar (equivalent to 1313 BC) remember where Moses ascended Mount Sinai, the second time around the tablets with the Ten Commandments to receive, after the first broken out of anger, while the people worshiping the golden calf in his absence. From time immemorial, was the day on which YHWH made ​​it known through Moses, the forgiveness of all sins, the Day of Atonement in Judaism.