A Few Thoughts About the Rosh Hashanah Holiday
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, emphasizes the chance to make fresh starts and turn our behavior in better directions. Among other things, the holiday (celebrated this year beginning on the evening of October 2nd) commemorates the creation of the world, and we’re urged to see that world with fresh eyes and enhanced gratitude.
The most common food associated with the festival is apple slices, dipped in honey, to go along with hopes and prayers for a sweet year ahead. There’s a blessing pronounced on each new experience (like the foods we eat and the wine we drink) for the first time in the new year, thanking God who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this joyous season. We mean to echo the Almighty, who, in the Biblical account of Genesis, reviewed his own handiwork on each day of creation and “saw that it was good.”
In this sense, we see our world as refreshed and reborn: not just a new year but a renewed year. The repeated blast of the ram’s horn (shofar) represents the central feature of the synagogue service, waking us from slumber or exhaustion to embrace both our opportunities and obligations. May we all enjoy this fresh chance for appreciation of the blessings that surround us in such prodigious plentitude.
In Hebrew, the traditional greeting is “L’shana Tovah” – a good year!