Elul: A Refuge in Time What Are We Doing With the Time Hashem Has Given Us?

Elul: A Refuge in Time — What Are We Doing With the TimeHashem Has Given Us?  What is one hour of our life really worth? Parashat Shoftim brings us back to the Ir Miklat,the city of refuge—a place designed not simply for exile, but for reflection,rehabilitation, and ultimately return. Rabbi Yissocher Frand points to aremarkable allusion from the Arizal: the words אִנָּה לְיָדוֹ וְשַׂמְתִּי לְךָform the initials אֱלוּל. An Ir Miklat isa refuge in space; Elul is a refuge in time.It is Hashem’s gift of a place in the calendar to stop and ask ourselves whatwe are doing with the precious life He has given us.  This week we enter Rosh Hodesh Elul, and next Sunday we Sepharadim beginSelihot—giving up an extra hour of sleep each morning to wake up in more waysthan one. Through the unforgettable story of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon, MosheRabbeinu’s forty days, and the Rambam’s call of עוּרוּ יְשֵׁנִים מִשְּׁנַתְכֶם — “Wakeup, sleepers, from your sleep,” we explore the extraordinary value of a single hour. Perhaps the challenge of Selihot is not merely to give Hashem that extra hour, but to allow that hour to change the other twenty-three.