Ellul Shmellul II

Ellul in the Torah

אני לדודי ודודי לי (Song of Songs 6:3)

איש לרעהו ומתנות לאבונים (Book of Esther 9:22)

Whenever we find a group of words in the Torah that spell out an acronym, warning lights should pop up and we should analyse how the passage relates to the acronym, the present one being Ellul.

Today I learned that the two verses above speak about two equally important aspects of Ellul:

The verse in Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim), I am to my Beloved and my Beloved is to me refers to our relationship with Hashem (see here) and how we should work on spiritual development and our personal connection to our Creator during Ellul.

The second verse, which is much less cited in articles and books discussing the High Holy Days, comes straight out of Megillat Esther, read on Purim. We are commanded to make ourselves days of feasting and joy, and of sending choice food portions to one another, and monetary gifts to the poor.

How is this related to Ellul, apart from spelling out the letters of the month in a further verse in a holy script?

The idea is that whilst building a relationship with Hashem is all very fine, we are equally commanded to build and support the people around us. Respecting other people, working on our personal relationships, supporting the needy, being helpful, compassionate, friendly, kind - this is also the essence of Ellul and is made clear in the verse in the Book of Esther.