ELUL

ELUL
ELUL, the post-Exilic name of the sixth month in the Jewish year. The name is Babylonian and was subsequently adopted in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Its first occurrence in a Hebrew text is in Nehemiah 6:15. The zodiacal sign of this month is Virgo. In the present fixed calendar, it invariably consists of 29 days, and the first of Elul never falls on a Tuesday, a Thursday, or a Sabbath. In the 20th century, Elul in its earliest occurrence extended from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5 and in its latest from Sept. 6 to Oct. 4. The talmudic rule that Elul invariably consists of 29 days reflects the early endeavor to facilitate the prior calculation of the date of Rosh Ha-Shanah, i.e., the new moon of Tishri (the seventh month, which followed Elul, and was therefore directly determined by the length of Elul), and consequently also the dates of the other festivals occurring in that month. For the same reason, the New Moon of Elul was announced to Jewish communities by the messengers of the Sanhedrin (RH 1:3). Witnesses to the sighting of the New Moon of Elul were not permitted to travel on the Sabbath to report their sighting to the court in Jerusalem; the witnesses to the new crescent of Nisan and Tishri were so permitted (RH 1:4; cf. EJ). In Temple times traveling on Sabbath was permitted to report the new crescent of all the months because of the Temple sacrifices (ibid.). According to some tannaim the first of Elul was to be considered a Rosh Ha-Shanah (beginning of a new year) in respect of the tithing of animals (RH 1:1; Bek. 9:5–6). There is a tradition that the seventh or 17th of Elul had once been observed as a fast, commemorating the death of those spies whom Moses had sent to Canaan and who brought back an evil report of the land (Num. 14:37; Tar. Jon., ibid.; Meg. Ta'an. 13, ed. Neubauer; Sh. Ar., OḤ 580:2, et al.). As it precedes the ten days of penitence , Elul became a month of repentance and of special ascetic and devotional practices. A rabbinic homily derives an allusion to the name of the month from the initial letters of Ani le-Dodi ve-Dodi Li (Heb. אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי; "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine," Song 6:3), as describing the relationship between God and His people. The shofar is sounded daily at the morning service (except on the Sabbath), and Psalm 27 is recited. In the Sephardi rituals selihot are also recited daily throughout Elul, whereas in the Ashkenazi ritual, they are recited only during the last four to nine days of Elul (Sh. Ar., OḤ 581). A similar liturgical divergence existed already in the geonic age (Tur., ibid., citing R. Hai Gaon). Rabbinic aggadah connects the special significance of Elul with the 40 days of Moses' stay on Mount Sinai (Ex. 34:28) which was calculated to have commenced on the first of Elul and ended on the tenth of Tishri (the Day of atonement , PdRE 46). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Dominitz, Sefer Ramzei Elul…, 1 (1928). (Ephraim Jehudah Wiesenberg)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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  • Elul — [e lo͞ol′, el′ool΄] n. [Heb elul, akin to Akkadian elul, elūlu, month name and festival of that month; ? also akin to Aram ʼ alal, he brought in] the twelfth month of the Jewish year: see the Jewish calendar in the Reference Supplement …   English World dictionary

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  • Elul — Elul,   Name des 12. und letzten Monats im jüdischen Jahr (etwa Mitte August bis Mitte September). Der Elul hat 29 Tage.   …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Elul — der; <aus gleichbed. hebr. ĕlûl, eigtl. »Ernte«> zwölfter Monat im jüd. Kalender (August/September) …   Das große Fremdwörterbuch

  • elul — èlūl m <G elúla> DEFINICIJA 1. jud. a. dvanaesti mjesec prema aktualnom židovskom kalendaru b. dvanaesti mjesec židovske godine prema računanju od postanka svijeta c. rel. zast. šesti mjesec prema računanju od izlaska židovskoga naroda iz… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • Elul — E lul, n. [Heb.] The sixth month of the Jewish year, by the sacred reckoning, or the twelfth, by the civil reckoning, corresponding nearly to the month of September. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Elul — Elul, der 6. Monat des jüdischen Jahres, unserm September entsprechend …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Elul — Elul, der zwölfte Monat der Juden im bürgerlichen Jahr, entspricht unserm August und September. Die letzten Tage des E. sind für die Juden für das Neujahrs und Versöhnungsfest Vorbereitungstage, an denen beim Frühgottesdienst Selichot (Bußgebete) …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Elul — Elul, der 12. Monat im bürgerlichen, der 6. Monat im Festjahr der Juden (August bis September), hat 29 Tage …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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