Elul Thoughts

Throughout my life I have heard people say “but it's a machloket b'shem shamayim!” The mixture of English and Hebrew has spoken to me since I was small - the insider language of it all brings a comfort that the full translation, “but it’s an argument for the sake of heaven!” does not. I believe the power of these words arises from their history as much as the meaning of the words themselves. We bring along the baggage, the comfort, the joy, and the struggle of over two thousand years of history when we share these words. We acknowledge that we are not the first, nor the last, who will argue in this way. We hold up our best selves when we stand for what we believe in, and when we acknowledge there may be more than one way to understand our tradition, our laws, our customs. We hold up our best selves when we remember that we are a people with a history of making noise, of not taking the first answer as the only truth, of fighting for what we believe is right. We hold up our best selves when we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.
This day, and every day, as we walk through the month of Elul, may we find ourselves arguing machloket b'shem shamayim.