The Hebrew month of Elul preceeds the High Holidays. This month, which begins on Sunday August 19 this year, is a time for reflection and personal preparation for the Days of Awe.

Last year, we shared with readers the “Jewels of Elul” series. This series will be back this year, and the button (one-click access to the site) is back on the right side of Boulder Jewish News. You can also subscribe on the Jewels of Elul site to receive a daily email. 

This year, Rabbi Phyllis A. Sommer has started a blogging project for Elul. 

I have made a list of Elul-related topics, and I’m inviting you (yes, you! reader, colleague, friend…anyone with a desire to share ideas about the holidays) to join me.

But I’m not stopping only with blogging. Sure, it’s called BlogElul but you can “blog” in any way you like. Maybe it’s your daily Facebook update or tweet. Maybe it’s your Instagram photos or your FourSquare checkins (can’t wait to see how that would work out). Maybe you don’t want to do it daily. Maybe you just want to dip your toe into the experience, or just read (and share?) what others write. It’s totally up to you.”

We think this sounds like a great project for Boulder Jewish News and our community, so we’re extending an open invitation to you to participate as well. Rabbi Sommer’s badge of topics is now on the sidebar (–> look right!). Here’s how to get involved:

• If you are already a contributor/author here, just use your regular account and put the day # and topic in your title (you can have more in your title, but this will help us organize the posts).
• If you haven’t posted on Boulder Jewish News yet and you want to share a reflection or commentary on one of the topics, click here to set up an account and we’ll get you started. You can post at any time of the month, we’ll try our best to publish them in accordance with the list and we’ll add things like hashtags.
• Like Rabbi Sommer, BJN doesn’t publish on Shabbat. We’ll publish Friday topics on Thursday nights (cut off for submission is Thursday at 5 pm), then pick up again on Sunday. If you want to submit for what would be a Shabbat post, let us know if you want it to run before Shabbat or after Shabbat.
• Whether you want to share once or more often is up to you.

Rabbi Sommer is also launching #Elulgram, which is a play on “Instagram” the super-popular photo-sharing application, “inviting you to post photos related to the same themes as the blogging project.” We’re continuing to investigate the best way to share that with you but if you are an Instagram user, search #elulgram to see photos.

We hope you’ll engage with us during this month of reflection and look forward to sharing your input. And a big thank you to Rabbi Sommer for her inspiration and creativity in launching this effort!