Elul is the sixth month of the Hebrew year, falling in late summer, roughly August to September, and aligned in tradition with the sign of Virgo. It counts twenty-nine days. Elul is the month of spiritual preparation before the High Holy Days, a time of repentance, self-examination, and return; the shofar is sounded each morning, and penitential prayers, selichot, are recited toward its close. Its name is traditionally read as an acronym for a phrase from the Song of Songs expressing the mutual love of God and Israel, and it is glossed with the sense of searching. The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, kept in step with the solar year by an added leap month. These are the observances of the Jewish calendar tradition, in which Elul leads directly into the new year and the days of awe.
Elul is traditionally treated as a month of penitential preparation leading into the High Holy Days of the following month, Tishrei; a widely cited homiletic tradition reads the Hebrew letters of Elul's name as an acronym for a phrase from the Song of Songs, "Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li," I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine, understood as an image of the intimate divine relationship the month's introspective work is meant to restore. Sephardic communities traditionally recite Selichot, penitential prayers, throughout Elul, while Ashkenazi custom begins them closer to Rosh Hashanah itself; the shofar is also traditionally sounded daily throughout Elul, except on the final day before Rosh Hashanah, as a call to repentance ahead of the new year.