Elul Day 115 - קטו באלול
Dear Elul Writers,
I hope that 5782 has been treating you well and that the start of your Chanukah has been both full of light and full of latkes.
Writing Elul prompts has become one of my favorite ways to prepare for the arrival of the new year. In the lead up to Elul, I search sources and seek out poetry and mine my own life for anything that could be prompt-worthy. I offer these little nuggets (a 29-piece spiritual McNugget) as a gift to the students, teachers, family, friends and friends-of-friends who have inspired me and continue to inspire me. By the end of the month we feel like a community who have been on a journey together.
I am able to take on this project, in part, because I work for an organization that encourages me to reach people and to teach Torah in new and different ways. If receiving these daily missives during Elul has been a meaningful practice, I ask you to consider giving a small gift to the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life at Emory. Whether you give $5, $18 or $29, every little bit will go to building meaningful, creative, inclusive Jewish experiences on campus.
http://www.religiouslife.emory.edu/donate/index.html
Thanks in advance. Sending you all so much love and light this Chanukah.
Take care,
Jordan
Prompt
Frying latkes is an exercise in patience and in faith. Too often when we are cooking we feel the need to use the spatula, to stir things around, to perform ‘cooking.’ But, we are making crispy, golden, potato-pancakes here, not playing charades. It is okay to place the latke in the cast iron and to just let it be. You have permission to see the edges starting to brown and, still, to wait. It isn’t easy, but you can do it.
So too, when it comes to personal change and growth, it is possible that we will grow impatient with our selves. We expect that we should be perfect and crisp already, but peeking underneath we find that we are not even close to done.
Is there a place where you can put down the spatula and be more patient with yourself? How might you cultivate faith that with time (and with the right amount of heat) change is possible?
Happy Chanukah!