A month of refuge – Shof’tim
Fleeing to a city of refuge
There is a Chassidic idea found in the writings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that – over and above the cities of refuge for an inadvertent lawbreaker – the month of Ellul is a month of refuge.
People are never perfect and they commit transgressions without intending to. They need somewhere for spiritual refuge. Just as an inadvertent manslayer needed somewhere to escape to, an accidental sinner needed somewhere to sit and rediscover himself and rededicate himself to a life of honesty and goodness.
This is a wonderful way of preparing for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
