Amram and Jocheved had separated because of Pharaoh's decree that all male Jewish babies be killed. Prompted by their six-year-old daughter Miriam's rebuke ("Pharaoh decreed against the males; you decreed against the males and the females") they remarried on the 7th of Elul of the year 2367 from creation (1394 BCE). Moses was born six months and one day later on Adar 7, 2368 (Talmud, Sotah 12b).
The Spies who slandered the Land of Israel died in the desert (Talmud, Sotah 35a; see Numbers 13-14 and text and links for Av 9 and Av 15).
As the last month of the Jewish year, Elul is traditionally a time of introspection and stocktaking -- a time to review one's deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming "Days of Awe" of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
As the month of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 1) it is a most opportune time for teshuvah ("return" to G-d), prayer, charity, and increased Ahavat Yisrael (love for a fellow Jew) in the quest for self-improvement and coming closer to G-d. Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi likens the month of Elul to a time when "the king is in the field" and, in contrast to when he is in the royal palace, "everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all."
Specific Elul customs include the daily sounding of the shofar (ram's horn) as a call to repentance. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below to view today's Psalms.
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Elul is also the time to have one's tefillin and mezuzot checked by an accredited scribe to ensure that they are in good condition and fit for use.
Links: More on Elul
Once a month, as the moon waxes in the sky, we recite a special blessing called Kiddush Levanah, "the sanctification of the moon," praising the Creator for His wondrous work we call astronomy.
Kiddush Levanah is recited after nightfall, usually on Saturday night. The blessing is concluded with songs and dancing, because our nation is likened to the moon—as it waxes and wanes, so have we throughout history. When we say this blessing, we renew our trust that very soon, the light of G‑d's presence will fill all the earth and our people will be redeemed from exile.
Though Kiddush Levanah can be recited as early as three days after the moon's rebirth, the kabbalah tells us it is best to wait a full week, till the seventh of the month. Once 15 days have passed, the moon begins to wane once more and the season for saying the blessing has passed.
Links:
Kiddush Levana: Sanctification of the Moon
Brief Guide to Kiddush Levanah: Thank G‑d for the Moon!
There are forty-nine gates of human understanding. The fiftieth gate is entirely beyond any living being.
It is so high that, looking down from there, all things are equally nothing. There is no good, no evil, nothing can be added or taken away, the righteous are dust, the wicked are dust, nothing is of consequence, all is but dust.
That is why Haman erected a gallows fifty cubits high upon which to hang Mordechai. To say: G-d does not care. He is beyond all these things. There is no good or evil, it is all a fiction of the petty human mind.
Drunk with the joy of Purim, a Jew soars higher and yet higher until he reaches that gate. Upon entering, the Jew defiantly proclaims that the oppressed must be saved, the wicked overthrown, and light, joy, happiness, and peace must rule throughout the universe.
“As for this high place,” the Jew declares, “I am not impressed. It too was created for the purpose of our joy below!”
Yes, it is true that the higher you go, the less things matter. So why does anything at all exist?
Because an infinite, can-do-anything God chose that it should exist with joy, with love, and with goodness. He chose light over darkness, good over evil, liberty over oppression, the joy of Purim over the evil machinations of a powerful megalomaniac.
He chose, and that choice became the very fabric out of which this universe was formed, the theme of every story it tells, the meaning of every life, the message of every mitzvah we do.
Its secret exposed, the fiftieth gate itself is redeemed. It, too, has served its purpose.
So that, in the end, Haman was hanged on his own gallows, fifty cubits high.