Repentance and remembrance

It is customary on the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, to blow the shofar after Shacharit (excluding Shabbat) until, but not including, the day preceding Rosh Hashanah, as well as to recite Chapter 27 of Tehilim until and including Hoshannah Rabbah.

When Moshe went up the Second Time to receive the "Aseret HaDibrot," the "Ten Commandments," the Jewish People blew the Shofar in the Camp. They did this to impress upon themselves that Moshe had once again gone up the mountain of Sinai, so that they would not again make the tragic mistake in judging the time of Moshe's return, and fall again into Idol Worship.
Therefore, the Jewish People in later generations accepted upon themselves the custom of blowing the Shofar, beginning with Rosh Chodesh Elul to remind themselves that the people of Israel in the desert had sinned with the Egel, had repented, had been forgiven by G-d and restored to their former level of holiness. This would arouse in their hearts and minds the importance and the effectiveness of doing "Teshuvah."
http://www.ou.org/chagim/elul/rchelul.htm

Last night I posted a link to a song by Gad Elbaz. In a JPost article titled A Mission from Gad, the singer discusses his mission in life.
"There's so many communities that won't accept another, instead of realizing they're all just one piece of the big puzzle. Instead of preparing for the time of the messiah, they go ahead and fight and argue and refuse to live next to each other. I just don't get it," says Elbaz.
"My greatest fear, when I finally embraced religion, was that I was going to end up like that, that I wouldn't treat people, both religious and non-religious the way they should be treated - with love and respect. My ambition is to bring a non-religious audience closer to spirituality."
http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=114021

In the video below, Benny Elbaz, Gad's father, recalls how the family became observant when Gad was seven. He describes how Gad had fallen one day and how he had tried to revive him for a number of agonizing minutes. As Gad remained unresponsive, Mr. Elbaz cried to G-d that he would return to Hashem and become observant. He then asked G-d to return his son to him.
The video ends with a song in which Benny Elbaz thanks Hashem for giving him such a son.