The Tides of Teshuvah

Earth Etude for Elul 3

by Rabbi Janet Madden

Midrash Tehilim 65:4: “Teshuvah is like the sea which is never barred, so that whoever desires to bathe in it can do so whenever they desire.”

As the moon draws the tides,
so this month pulls our souls
to the way of our ancestors,
to teshuvah.

Return is always possible.

But in Elul, resistance dissolves,
Desire engulfs us like a swelling wave,
and we, made mostly of water,
carried on currents of time and memory,
sea-change, returning to ourselves.


Rabbi Janet Madden, PhD, is a ritualist, poet, herbalist, grief specialist, ordained animal chaplain and lover of texts.

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