ELUL

Though summer still lingered and the day was bright and sunny, there was a change in the air. One smelled already the Elul-scent; a teshuvah-wind was blowing. Everyone grew more serious, more thoughtful... All awaited the call of the shofar, the first blast that would announce the opening of the gates of the month of mercy

– Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, describing the Shabbat before Elul in the town of Lubavitch