Don't adjust your calendars...it's not January yet. Thank Gd. But it is the beginning of the Jewish year, 5766. Wow. Think about that. It's 2005 by the more common calendar,or the Christian calendar as some would say, but the Jewish calendar has been around more than 3000 years longer. That's a long time. Just thinking about the difference in the numbers sort of puts things into perspective.
But what the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, puts in perspective more so than New's Year's does is that it is a new beginning. New Year's is about drinking, and eating and cheering as the ball in Time's Square comes down and it becomes January 1st again. Rosh Hashanah offers something different: time to sit and reflct on the things you've done in the past year and what you hope to do differently in the coming year. New Years' resolutions always seem a bit empty, or at least they do from my point of view, because it seems then, that the world becomes even more obsessed with weight loss and exercise instead of focusing on what will make them a fundamentally better person.
Rosh Hashanah begins the year and the Days of Awe which culminate in the ultimate out-pouring of repentance and redemption, Yom Kippur. Through these days, we make amends with people with whom we may have quarrelled or examine oursleves to figure out how to become better Jews and better people. On Yom Kippur, our fates for the coming year are sealed and they play out over the year. Through this time, we repent for things like ambition and rudeness and materialism, things that we wouldn't think twice about if it wasn't spelled out in front of us. We empty our pockets of bread, symbolically throwing our sins away and discuss the goat of Azazel that was set free in the wilderness bearing everyone's sins.
Jews have no ritual of "confession" as the Catholics do, but we carry sins with us until we can identify them and set them free and begin the new year with a clean slate. May all of you who are celebrating this week and next have a happy and healthy new year.
L'Shana Tova
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