To put Elul into historical perspective, recall the story of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. They had blundered badly with the Golden Calf, and things were not looking good concerning their relationship with God.

It was on the first day of Elul that the reconciliation process began. On that day, Moses ascended Mount Sinai (for a third time), where he spent 40 days in prayer on behalf of the nation. At the same time, the Jews themselves plumbed the depths of their hearts and renewed their conviction to accept the challenge they'd received at Sinai.

Forty days later, the Jews had raised themselves up to a spiritual position where they were once again fitting for a relationship with the Divine. On that day Moses descended the mountain with a second set of the Ten Commandments, symbolizing God's forgiveness and the reinstatement of the Jews as the people who would bear God's message. That day of reunification was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Pattern Of The Forties

Why did the process take specifically 40 days? What's more, the theme of 40 seems to show up in dozens of places in the God's Word. The first time Moses ascended the mountain, he was also there for 40 days. Also, in the story of Noah and the flood, the rain fell for 40 days. The Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years. And the list of "forties" goes longer still.

Forty represents the concept of renewal -- a new beginning. Forty means that something might look like the same old thing on the surface, but its essence is totally new. Consider:

The first time Moses ascended Mount Sinai for 40 days to receive the Torah, the Jews were transformed from a collection of individuals into a nation. Noah's 40 days of rain symbolized the judgment of the world which would have to start again from scratch. The 40 years of wandering was the transformation of a Jewish people entrenched in Egyptian slave mentality, to one that understood true freedom.  

The 40 days from Elul until Yom Kippur was crucial to renewing the relationship between God and the Jewish people. Whenever we perceive God as being distant, we can be certain that God wasn't the one who moved away. The people had become unworthy of such an intimate relationship. They spent those 40 days changing their inner selves, and ever since then, Elul has been the ideal time for personal and spiritual renewal in Judaism.

Day Of Judgment

The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: `On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire," Leviticus 23:23.

Surely we mortals comprehend fully the concept of being summoned to judgment. We are all familiar with courts and judgments and obeying the law. We all comprehend that the commandments of the Bible are the commandments of God, laws that must be obeyed. Obedience to them must be rewarded, disobedience must be deterred and punished; and, to do both properly and efficiently, periodic evaluations of performance are required. 

The thirty days of month of Elul that lead up to Rosh Ha-Shanah and particularly the ten Days of Awe that take us to Yom Kippur have something to do with the judgment of souls. Jews know from their prayers that the judgment of Rosh Ha-Shanah concerns the events of this world as Jewish prayers of the day imply:

Regarding countries, it is said on this day which is destined for the sword and which for peace, which for hunger and which for abundance; and creatures are recalled on it to remember them for life and death. (Musaf prayer)

On Rosh Ha-Shanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time ... (Nesane Tokef prayer)

What does all this have to do with the judgment of the whole world and the opening of books in Heaven?  According to Judaism . . . 

Three books are opened on Rosh Ha-Shanah, one is the book of the totally wicked, one is the book of the totally righteous, and the third is the book of the intermediate. The totally righteous are written and sealed immediately for life into their book, the totally wicked are written and sealed immediately for death into their book, whereas the intermediate are held suspended from Rosh Ha-Shanah till Yom Kippur. If they merit it they are then written up for life, if not, they are written up for death.