The King Is in the Field

I'm very honored to be talking with you. This is such an important time — both within the year cycle and in history.

I'm sure many of you, like myself, have been watching the events in Israel even more closely since October 7. It feels like redemption is close. The world is on edge. Everyone is waiting for something to happen.

And when the world is waiting — it is time for us to be doing.

When I say "us," who do I mean?

If My people, who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray and seek My presence and repent of their evil ways, I shall hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

What an amazing promise. That word should bring joy to your heart. But it gets even better. The month of Elul.

The Most High promises to hear our prayer from heaven if we humble ourselves, seek Him with prayer and repentance. These are the focus of Elul:

We already have the right focus during this month. But the King isn't in heaven. During Elul, the King is in the field.

Why the King Comes to the Field

The Alter Rebbe — the old teacher — would teach his students that during the month of Elul, YHVH is more accessible than at any other time of the year.

The king's usual place is in the capital city, in the royal palace. Anyone wishing to approach the king must go through the appropriate channels — the bureaucracy, the ministers, the gates and corridors that lead to the throne room. His dress, speech, and manner must be proper upon entering the royal presence.

But at the beginning of Elul, the King leaves His palace and roams among the fields where His subjects labor — making Himself freely available to them. Why does He do this? Because of His love for His people. He longs for their hearts to return to Him. So He designates a time to set aside the formalities and enter the domain of the people, receiving them with open arms.

Yes, this makes it a good time for petitions, requests, and asking for forgiveness. But it is an even better time for relationship.

During the rest of the year we visit on Shabbat and briefly during our daily prayer time. During Elul, everything we do is in His presence. This causes something unique: our work is no longer mundane. We are working for His glory. Harvesting crops, building houses, laboring — and our once-mundane work becomes a holy service.

When we talk about the field, we are talking about work. To a modern mind, a field may sound peaceful and scenic. But to an Israelite, the field is where life is sustained. It is labor, service, sweat, harvest, blessing, and responsibility.

So when the King comes to the field, He is not merely visiting us in our comfort. He is coming into the place where our avodah happens. And everything we do there — in His presence — becomes an act of holy service.

Why Elul Is a Time of Mercy

After the first Shavuot, Moses spent 40 days on the mountain receiving the first set of tablets. Upon seeing the golden calf, the tablets are broken. Moses returns to G-d for another 40 days to plead for their forgiveness. He returned on the 29th of Av — and was commanded to carve a new set of tablets and climb back up the mountain on the first of Elul.

During those final 40 days, G-d teaches Moses the 13 attributes of mercy:

And Moses hastened, bowed his head to the ground and prostrated himself, and said: "If I have now found favor in Your eyes, O Adonai, let Adonai go now in our midst, and You shall forgive our iniquity and our sin and thus secure us as Your possession."

Exodus 34:8–9

Moses comes down on Yom Kippur with the second set of tablets and the 13 attributes — a sign of forgiveness, mercy, and a continued covenant. From Elul 1 to Yom Kippur: 40 days. The same 40 days Moses spent in intercession. That is why Elul is a time of mercy. The calendar itself is built from Moses' prayer.

What Shabbat is to the week, Elul and the days of awe are to the year. A foretaste of the messianic age, when all of our time is spent in His presence and all of our labor is holy service.

If the Omer is a season of planting and refinement, Elul is a season of ripening. The fruit is nearly ready. The King is walking through the field, examining what has grown. Good conditions during ripening can redeem much of a difficult growing season. But neglect during ripening can ruin fruit that was almost ready.

Elul is the final ripening before judgment.

Teshuvah — Return

Elul is an acronym: aleph, lamed, vav, lamed. We learn that the focus of Elul is teshuvah from Deuteronomy 30:6 — the verse where the acronym hides: et-levavkha ve-et levav — your heart and the heart of your children. This is not just personal. It is communal and generational.

And it will be, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, that you will consider in your heart, among all the nations where the L-rd your G-d has banished you, and you will return to the L-rd your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul… then the L-rd your G-d will bring back your exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations where the L-rd your G-d has dispersed you… And the L-rd your G-d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you may love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.

Deuteronomy 30:1–6

This, my friends, is the second exodus.

Now a word about what teshuvah actually means. I'm going to work backwards from English.

Repent — from Latin paeniteo: to regret, to be sorry. The idea is feeling bad and saying sorry. In Greek, metanoia means to change your mind — slightly closer to the Hebrew because it involves actual change. But it's still only a mental change, with the idea of evolving into a new person.

Teshuvah is the opposite of becoming a new person. Teshuvah is returning to our original state of being.

Rav Kook teaches: "When we forget the essence of our own soul, everything becomes confused and in doubt. The primary teshuva, that which immediately lights the darkness, is when a person returns to himself, to the root of his soul — then he will immediately return to G-d, to the soul of all souls."

When we forget we are made in the image of G-d, we are lost and confused. But when we return to our true nature — that we are a child of the Most High — we immediately run back to Him. That is teshuvah.

Teshuvah also requires vidui — confession. Not vague regret, but honest naming. "We have sinned." "We have turned away." "We have gained nothing from it." Judah has preserved this language of confession for generations. During Elul, we do not hide behind generalities. We name what is broken so we can return fully.

Rabbi Nachman teaches that the psalms are a great help to teshuvah — that even a person who feels no enthusiasm for return at all can experience an awakening through the psalms. No matter who you are, you can always find yourself in them. This is why during Elul and the ten days of repentance the psalms are recited — and why this should be a practice throughout the year.

Tefillah — Prayer

The acronym for tefillah in Elul comes from Song of Songs 6:3: Ani ledodi vedodi li — I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. This is romance. This is relationship. This is connection. This is what tefillah is supposed to be.

In English, "prayer" comes through French from Latin precarius — obtained by request. The Greek pros euche meant a vow to give something of value to a god in exchange for a favorable answer. A transaction.

Tefillah comes from the root paw-lal — thinking, judging, intervening. There is a connotation of self-assessment. A related root means attaching, binding, or joining together. Another aspect relates to struggling.

Tefillah is not about asking for what we want. We are assessing ourselves and bringing that assessment to the Most High for His opinion. We are struggling when His will differs from ours, and we must struggle with ourselves to come in line with His purpose. We are binding ourselves to Him.

Every relationship is built on communication. If you don't communicate, you don't have a relationship. Prayer is how we communicate with Him. His psalms and Torah are how He communicates with us.

I want to challenge you. We just learned that self-accounting is a form of prayer. So take an accounting of your prayer life right now.

Do you pray weekly? Do you set an hour a week aside for the purpose of prayer, to be in relationship with the Creator of the universe? Do you pray daily? Do you have a place to be alone with Him? And when you begin — is your prayer more than "thanks for the grub, give me what I want"?

If you took an honest accounting, the Father likely showed you places where you lack. And He showed you how you can improve.

Seek YHVH when He is found, call Him when He is near. The wicked shall give up his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and he shall return to YHVH, Who will have mercy upon him, and to our G-d, for He will forgive.

Isaiah 55:6–7

You don't get a better guarantee than that.

For those of Judah that are observant, the entire day is filled with prayer. The first words spoken upon awakening are thanks for another day of life. Time is set aside before breakfast. At least three times a day, Judah is praying for Ephraim's return. The last words spoken before sleep: "Into His hands I entrust my life, and I will awaken; YHVH with me, I shall not fear."

For Judah, prayer isn't just relationship and connection. Prayer is avodah — service. It is time for Ephraim to return to a life of service of the Most High.

Tzedakah — Righteousness

Tzedakah comes from tzedek — righteousness. In English we say "charity," but that translation loses almost everything. Righteousness is not optional generosity. It is the natural outflow of a life ordered toward G-d.

There are eight levels of tzedakah — a ladder from lowest to highest:

Increasing the Work During Elul

During Elul we increase our daily service. Three practices are added: