Over the past two weeks, a number of RSBI folks have been participating in our Elul Project — a simple weekly invitation to reflect, respond, and prepare ourselves for the new year.
I wanted to share a little bit of what we’ve been doing with everyone.
This week, our theme has been STAND UP.
We’ve been asking ourselves questions like:
- What is something you believe is worth standing up for?
- Where do you need to set a stronger boundary?
- What is something you need to say that you have been avoiding?
Not surprisingly, many of the responses have turned to what it means to be Jewish right now.
These are challenging days to be a Jew. Antisemitism feels louder. Israel can become a source of tension in places where we once felt comfortable. Sometimes it can seem easier to say less, display less, explain less — to make our Jewishness a little less visible.
And yet, many participating in our Elul Project have been reflecting on just the opposite: the importance of standing a little taller, of being proudly Jewish, and of refusing to allow fear or the discomfort of others to make us smaller.
Being proudly Jewish does not require confrontation. It means refusing to disappear. It means allowing our Judaism to be seen, spoken, celebrated, and lived — even when doing so takes a little more courage than it once did.
Each week of the Elul Project also comes with a song, and this week’s is Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
There is a reason this song has endured. It is not really about bravado. It is about resolve. It is about knowing where you stand, holding your ground when you are pushed, and refusing to let someone else decide how much space you are allowed to occupy.
That feels especially powerful to me right now.
There are moments when courage is dramatic. But more often, courage is quieter: wearing the Jewish star, speaking openly about Israel, showing up for Jewish community, correcting an antisemitic comment, or simply refusing to make yourself less Jewish in order to make someone else more comfortable.
That is the spirit I hear in Tom Petty’s song. And it is a spirit worth carrying into Elul.
These weeks before the High Holy Days are not only about looking back. They are also about asking who we want to be when the new year begins. So I’ll borrow one question from our Elul Project and offer it to all of us:
What are you willing to stand up for this year?