Bringing in Elul with a Bang
What do a Sting concert and a Women’s Hallel have in common?
Over the past 24 hours, I have experienced two performances. Both took place on Rosh Chodesh Elul. One was a city concert titled The Sting Experience. A tribute band played the most popular songs by the rock group The Police. This show took place outside, after Shabbat ended. There were speakers, guitars, fog-making machines, long hair, dramatic leaps and female backup vocals. The crowd was moving and grooving, singing along.
The other performance was a women’s Hallel gathering taking place in a large synagogue. A singer named Ricka Razel was accompanied by her daughters. This performance took place during the day. There were speakers and guitars, towering mitpachat constructions, emotional cliff-hangers and female backup vocals. The crowd was swaying, moving and grooving, singing along.
For me, still having the fresh diaspora eyes, what unified both performances, one ostensibly secular and one religious, was the heartfelt prayer for the hostages and the IDF.
Other than that, I fretted about what state of mind would one enter Elul in, if one attends such a gathering as a Sting tribute concert. But I worried for naught: when If I Ever Lose My Faith in You was sung, the dancing bodies instinctively reached up and pointed to the Heavens, similar to Abaye of the Gemara, indicating the presence of the One above. In a Rav Kookian/Levi Itzhak of Berdichev voice, I wanted to call out: see, G-d, your children are always thinking of you, even if they seem to be engaged in frivolous activity. This, too, is a path of meaning.
In the similar vein, during women’s Hallel, while the themes of Elul were invoked, the mood was of an outrageous party, not of the solemn assembly. There were beats, clapping, swaying, tambourines, and dance moves. The atmosphere for the new month of Elul was of overwhelming joy and explosive happiness. There was no space for reflection, introspection, concern about one’s questionable deeds. While it is a sephardic custom to start reciting selichot (penitentiary prayers) from the beginning of the month, I did not experience even a hint of contrition in the face of unbridled positivity.
I came to both experiences because I was curious. To an olah chadasha, Israel feels like a puzzle that beckons to be solved. I did not know what a tribute concert on Rosh Chodesh would feel like, or a large women’s Hallel.
However, at some point, I realized what unified both experiences. The other participants, the Jews who have lived in Israel longer than me, treated Hashem in a manner similar to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. The gemara in Brachot records that R. Chanina ben Dosa’s stance before Hashem was of such a level of closeness, that any request that he put in would be fulfilled. Happy are the modern people of Israel, who trust in Hashem both to attend an outdoor concert on the night following a rocket from Yemen, and to dance from joy on Rosh Chodesh Elul, knowing that Hashem will grant them forgiveness and their hearts’ desires.
