This Shabbos ushers in the month of Elul, which itself serves as a preparation and entrance into Rosh Hashanah and the new year.

Elul is graced with many roshei teivos (acronyms), the best-known among them being "אני לדודי ודודי לי – I am to my Beloved and my Beloved is to me," expressing the affirmation of our connection with Hashem.

A lesser-known acronym is found in the writings of the Shelah Hakadosh. The verse in Mishpatim introduces the idea of an Ir Miklat – city of refuge for an accidental killer. The words of the verse are "והאלוקים אינה לידו ושמתי לך מקום – and God has made a place available [to seek refuge]." The roshei teivos of the words "אינה לידו ושמתי לך" spell the word "אלול".

On a surface level, we are being informed that Elul is a kind of sanctuary in time, for those who somehow got lost over the course of the year. Upon further inspection, however, the analogy does not seem be relevant. As we mentioned, an Ir Miklat is a place of refuge for someone who accidentally killed someone else. Among the numerous areas in which we might be found wanting around this time of year, presumably accidental manslaughter is not on the list!

Except, on deeper reflection, maybe it is…

The concept of life itself has many levels. The fuller and more meaningful one's existence is, the more he or she is alive. As such, to the extent that we may have drifted over the course of the year, thereby depriving ourselves or higher levels of life, we are indeed guilty of taking life – that of our own selves. We are both the perpetrator and the victim at the same time!Perhaps then, by the time Elul comes, we really do need a city of refuge after all.

The month of Elul thus emerges as a very atypical kind of Ir Miklat, not only because it is a month and not a city, but in ways beyond that as well:

1. In a normal Ir Miklat, the killer does not expect to meet his victim when he arrives there. Indeed, if his victim is there, the killer doesn’t need to be. In the Miklat of Elul, however, the victim arrives there at the same time the killer does, for they are one and the same person.
2. The bigger chiddush, though, is that not only do we enter the Miklat of Elul with the expectation of meeting our victim, i.e. ourselves, we do so with the hope of bringing him back to life! This can occur through contemplation of certain habits and practices we may have picked up over the course of the year that are preventing from being alive in the full sense of the word, and looking toward jettisoning them and leaving them behind us as we embrace our lives fully.

May we all merit to take full advantage of the life-giving refuge afforded to us by the "Sanctuary in Time" of Elul, and may we, together with the entire House of Israel, be inscribed in the Book of Life, Peace, Prosperity and Redemption in the year ahead.