On the first day of Elul, 2448 — more than 3,300 years ago — Moses climbed Mount Sinai for the third and final time, to carve out a second set of tablets. That climb came at the end of a grueling stretch of tefillah and advocacy, all aimed at restoring God's closeness to the Israelites after the sin of the golden calf and the shattering of the first tablets. Because that mission succeeded, Elul was established for all generations as a season of cheshbon hanefesh — self-accounting — and teshuva.
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