Each year in Elul, I return to the teachings of Yemima Avital (1929-1999), a Moroccan-Israeli scholar and mystic with deep Torah knowledge and training as a Jungian psychoanalyst. She delivered her teachings orally, primarily to groups of women, always writing in the Hebrew feminine. When I first learned Yemima in 2020, they landed so deeply and were a welcome change to exclusively male-authored texts I devoted myself to learning in rabbinical school. Instead of focusing on external actions, Yemima’s teachings blend the psychological and spiritual, guiding us towards inner observation and self-understanding. On Elul, she taught:  

 .בְּמִסְגֶּרֶת אֱלוּל יֵשׁ לָנוּ אֶת הַזְּכוּת הַגְּדוֹלָה לְכַסּוֹת מָה שֶׁהָיָה, זֹאת אוֹמֶרֶת, זֶה לֹא קַיָּם כְּבָר 

 .לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת הַתִּקּוּן כְּשֶׁאֵין הַמַּחְשָׁבָה עֲסוּקָה בֶּעָבָר.לְמַעֲשֶׂה זוֹ הִתְעוֹרְרוּת לַהֲבָנָה לְהִתְחַדְּשׁוּת 

.תַּעֲשִׂי לְפִי יְכָלְתְּךָ וְתַרְבִּי לִשְׁגּוֹת. מֻתָּר לְךָ לִשְׁגּוֹת כַּמָּה שֶׁאַתְּ רוֹצָה. הִנֵּה שׁוֹגָה וְהִנֵּה מְתַקֶּנֶת

 .כֹּחַ הַתִּקּוּן גָּדוֹל מִכּוֹחַ הַמִּשְׁגֶּה 

As part of Elul, we have the great merit to cover what existed prior, that is to say, it no longer exists. 

To heal and repair while our thoughts are not busy with the past. This act is an awakening to an understanding of renewal. 

Act to your ability, and make many errors. You are allowed to make mistakes–as many as you want. Here, she makes a mistake, here she repairs.

The power of the repair is greater than the power of the error.  

Yemima here challenges my orientation toward Elul: of taking stock of the year that has passed as if it still exists, adjudicating my behaviors, seeing where I’ve fallen short. She also invites playfulness and acceptance around mistakes, inviting us to see repair as already in our reach and capacity, something we are doing all the time. What if we saw mistakes as something we are allowed to do, and repaired something we have the power to transform? 

Elul, in Yemima’s framework, becomes not merely a month for ritualistic preparation or an accounting of the past, but an invitation to embark on an internal journey toward renewal, to discern where we stand in relation to our deepest values and aspirations. To what extent can we let go of the past as we reach this new year, and be in the renewing potential of repair in the present? What mistakes, patterns, or values are we ready to leave behind as we move closer to Rosh haShanah 5786? What could be the power of our repair?