Why do we spend the whole month of Elul preparing for Rosh Hashanah?

Rabbi Landau teaches that “we are not waiting until Rosh Hashanah just to show up and vote.” We spend Elul “working for the campaign. And when the king wins, we won.” The reason: “what you give yourself to eventually becomes part of you.”

He draws this from the same principle that holds a marriage together. “Ownership doesn’t mean your name is on it. Ownership means your years are inside it.” King Solomon’s words “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li” set the order: “I go first, I invest, sacrifice, I show up, and then v’dodi li. Now it becomes mine.”

That, he insists, is not only a marriage principle, “that’s the only principle.” In other words, we don’t wait for Rosh Hashanah to crown Hashem; we spend Elul building the relationship first.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Elul is not a waiting period before Rosh Hashanah; it is the time to work for the campaign.

Underlying need or longing

Rabbi Landau teaches that what you give yourself to becomes part of you, so the investment of Elul is what makes the King’s victory our own.

Deepest human truth

Ani l’dodi v’dodi li: first I give myself, and then it becomes mine. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that there is no finding without hard work.

More questions from this teaching

• Is love something you find or something you build?