The short form might be: reflection, repentance, renewal. Starting in the month before Rosh Hashanah (Elul) we are meant to be doing some serious soul-searching, taking stock, honestly, of the past year — where we stood tall, and where we fell short. The Hebrew word that encompasses “sin” is more akin to “missing the mark”. Being human, we are sure to make mistakes, mess up, do wrong things. Our task is to acknowledge them, be accountable — and make things right.

The process of making things right is teshuvah — to turn/return, more commonly translated as “repentance”. Teshuvah goes in two directions —yes, between human beings and God, but also between human beings. “For transgressions between human beings and God, the Day of Atonement atones. For transgressions between one human being and another, the Day of Atonement does not atone until they have made peace with each other.” You can’t “wipe the slate clean” via God. It’s not “what’s in your heart” or “good intentions”. You, personally, have to go to others to seek — and offer — forgiveness.

So along with deep and solemn repentance between a person and God, there also must be personal, face to face, sincere repair of relationships. There are criteria for teshuvah, which can perhaps be summed up thus:

Acknowledge what you did. Accept responsibility. “I did it”
Apologize to the person you wronged. “I’m sorry”
Make sincere concerted efforts to make amends. “How do I make this right?”
Learn and change; don’t do it again.

We are human. We make mistakes. We are accountable. We must make things right.

Others noted the concept of the Book of Life, and how each person’s fate is determined for the coming year between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I don’t take this literally, but if I act as if my very life hangs in the balance, it takes on an intensity and urgency.

The shofar has been said to be like a spiritual alarm clock, waking sleepers from their slumber, compelling action. The sounds of the shofar include one long note, three short notes, and 9 very short staccato notes. It’s been noted that “each series of shofar blasts begins and ends with a tekiah (whole note) surrounding a shevarim or teru’ah (broken note). This is the theme of Rosh Hashanah. We were whole, became broken, shall be whole again. We were whole, broken, even shattered into fragments, but we shall yet be whole again” (Arthur Green).

It can be an intense but ultimately profoundly spiritually cleansing experience.