I just completed learning Gemara Eruvin with the Yeshiva Ner Boruch-PTI’s Kollel and morning-seder Chabura. One of the major concepts of Eruvin is the effect of Tzuras HaPesach, two vertical poles and a horizontal pole or string placed on top of them. Although there’s no physical fence, a Tzuras HaPesach helps enclose an eligible area, as it is in the shape of a door frame, so the opening is viewed as a gate or door. Such an enclosed area is considered a “private domain,” as if it were enclosed by a fence. A typical city eruv is built using the concept of Tzuras HaPesach.

Parshas Shoftim opens, “You shall place judges and guards by all your gates.” The Shelah says that this directive also requires each individual to place “judges and guards” at the entrances of his mouth, eyes, and ears to help prevent personal corruption.

Besides guarding these physical entrances, there’s a requirement to guard moments of time, such as the beginning of the New Year, and even the beginning of the preceding month of Elul.

Last month, I presented a concept from the Bnei Yissaschar which ends up describing the month of Elul as the gate to heaven, as follows. The Tur quoted his brother, Reb Yehuda, who says that each of the Hebrew months corresponds to a different shevet (tribe). In the desert, Bnei Yisrael’s encampment had four quadrants, each one holding three shevatim. The sefer Sha’arei Orah aligns each quadrant with a different quarter of the year. The second quadrant consisted of Reuven, Shimon and Gad. Therefore, Reuven aligns with the month of Tammuz, Shimon with Av and Gad with Elul.

The first letters of the names Reuven and Shimon spell the Hebrew word rash, which means poor. The corresponding months of Tammuz and Av are thus “poor” months, as they are months in which the Jewish nation suffered destruction and defeat.

In Selichos (prayers for forgiveness preceding the Yomim Noraim), we say, “k’dalim uch’rashim dafaknu delasecha—like dalim and rashim (poor people) we knock at Your door.” This refers to the months of Tammuz and Av, which are the lowly, poor months. By adding one letter to the word dal, it becomes deles, a door. We thus implore Hashem to help us transform these two poor months from being dal to becoming a deles, a gateway to connect to Hashem. Elul is the month in which we knock on Hashem’s door.

The Arizal asserts that Sichon and Og attacked the Jewish Nation in the month of Elul. The tribes of Reuven and Gad were allotted this land outside Eretz Yisrael in place of the inheritance they were going to receive within Eretz Yisrael. They became the gatekeepers to the entrance of Eretz Yisrael, but also in terms of the dimension of time. Thus Gad, the tribe which corresponds to Elul, is the gatekeeper to connect to Hashem.

The month of Elul is a special time for tefillah. Parshas Va’eschanan follows the war against Sichon and Og. Moshe says, “I davened to Hashem at that time.” That time…was Elul.

Elul had a previous connection to prayer. Beginning when he first went up to receive the Torah, Moshe spent three sets of forty days in heaven. The third set began on Rosh Chodesh Elul and concluded on Yom Kippur. Moshe spent those forty days imploring Hashem to forgive the Jewish nation regarding the sin of the golden calf. On Yom Kippur, Hashem told Moshe that He accepted his prayer and forgave the Jewish nation.

The Sephardi custom is to start reciting Selichos from the beginning of the month of Elul. My good friend Rabbi Dave Sorani told me that he plans his entire travel schedule around Selichos. When necessary, he even makes a stopover in a different city than his appointment, just so that he won’t miss Selichos.

Our prayers this month are very powerful. Ashkenazim only start saying Selichos the week before Rosh Hashanah; however, they do begin on Rosh Chodesh Elul to add “L’Dovid, Hashem Ori” at the end of davening. Although it can take less than a minute to recite this chapter of Tehillim, a little extra prayer, especially in Elul, yields incredible results.

Even if we have had difficult times in the past months, we should utilize this month of Elul to pour out our hearts to Hashem. We can transform the past few months of difficulty into a gateway to Hashem. All we need to do…is open our siddur and daven to Hashem.

May Hashem accept our sincere tefillos and grant us forgiveness, as He did to Klal Yisrael upon Moshe’s appeal.

Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the associate rosh yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com