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The month before
The King is in the field. For one month of the year, the Chassidic image goes, the King leaves the palace and walks in the fields, and anybody at all may come out and speak to him — no appointment, no protocol, no permission. That month is Elul, and it is now.
This year
Elul begins — Friday, August 14, 2026
Chai Elul — Monday, August 31
Selichot begin — late on Saturday, September 5 night, going into Sunday, September 6
Erev Rosh Hashanah — Friday, September 11, 2026
From the second day of Elul the shofar is sounded at the end of the morning service, every weekday, right through the month. It is a short thing — thirty seconds — and it is the oldest alarm clock in the world. Maimonides writes that its message is: sleepers, wake up; look at what you are doing with your life.
On the last day of the month, erev Rosh Hashanah, it is deliberately not blown. A month of daily shofar is broken off for one day so that the shofar of Rosh Hashanah arrives as itself and not as more of the same.
Selichot are the prayers of forgiveness said in the last days of the year. The first night is the one people remember: a shul at one in the morning, most of the lights off, the chazan taking the Rosh Hashanah tunes for the first time that year. If you come to one Jewish thing in Elul, this is a good candidate.
You do not need Hebrew. You do not need to stay to the end. You do not need to have been the year before.
Selichot, the daily shofar, and everything else on the calendar between now and Rosh Hashanah.
| Shabbat morning services (PLACEHOLDER TIME)Chabad of Silicon Valley | 10:00 AM |
Friday, September 11
| Friday night services (PLACEHOLDER TIME)Chabad of Silicon Valley | 6:30 PM |
Saturday, September 12
| Shabbat morning services (PLACEHOLDER TIME)Chabad of Silicon Valley | 10:00 AM |
The last month of the Jewish year, and the month of preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The shofar is blown every weekday morning, an extra psalm is added to the prayers, and people take stock of the year before it is judged. It is not a sad month — it is the month in which, as the Alter Rebbe put it, the King is in the field.
Prayers asking for forgiveness, said in the small hours before Rosh Hashanah and again on the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The first night is the striking one: a shul full of people at one in the morning, the lights low, and the year not yet begun.
No. There are books with English on the facing page, the chazan leads out loud, and nobody is watching what page you are on. Coming for twenty minutes of it is a normal thing to do.
To wake us up — the phrase in Maimonides is that the shofar says "sleepers, awake". It is blown after the morning service on every weekday of the month, and then deliberately not blown on the last day, erev Rosh Hashanah, to make a break between the shofar of custom and the shofar of the festival itself.
The custom of visiting the graves of parents and grandparents during Elul, and asking that their merit stand for the family in the coming year. If you would like to go and would rather not go alone, say so and somebody will come with you.
It is the single most normal month of the year to start. That is what the month is for. Nobody here keeps count of how long it has been.