ELUL – MAXIMIZING UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

 

I recently heard the following insightful thought.

Let us begin by asking the following question. Did you ever ask yourselves why the ten days of (teshuvah) repentance, culminating with Yom Kippur, are not placed before Rosh Hashanah which is the coronation of our Creator? In other words wouldn’t it be better to first complete our repentance before the inauguration of our King of kings?

One possible explanation for this (seeming conundrum) is that in order to best be able to arouse a sincere teshuvah it behooves us to first realize how much potential we have for doing good. This therefore is the inner theme of Codesh Elul. How so? Since these days are the days we are preparing ourselves to inaugurate the King of kings on Rosh Hashanah our main focus is becoming the most positive (spiritually, mentally and physically) productive people we can be. This then by recognizing just how much untapped potential for doing good we have missed out on throughout the year, we can with a renewed positive attitude enter into the awesome ten days of teshuvah filled with a determination to repair any breaches of the past.

May this year we all merit to attain this lofty goal, thereby bringing closer the final geula soon in our days