To A Good, Sweet New Year

L'shanah tovah u'metucha

To a good, sweet new year

Today marks the end of the month of Elul and the transition to the Jewish High Holy Days which begin tonight with Rosh HaShanah and apples and honey and ends with Yom Kippur and fasting. In between these two days is a time of reflection. A time to take stock of what we have done during the past year and what we failed to do over that time. 

The below quote from a Piloting Faith email I received today, speaks to how a call for such reflection, in this moment of time, can be found in other faith traditions too:

It's as if this global disruption is saying to us, "It's time for your old life to die and a new life to be born. Take a moment and look around. Take with you only what you really want and think you will need. Leave everything else. From dust, to dust. All will be cared for. 

Reflection can be challenging, it can be hard, it can feel like poking an open wound but this reflection is needed to have a meaningful/valuable life. 

So tonight have some apples and some honey and enjoy the sweetness that can always be found no matter how much bitter herb (Ok, the wrong holiday, bitter herbs are Passover, but run with the idea since it fits) life seems to throw your way.

Of course, this year will be different from other years and because of that some of the traditional prayers, etc could be triggering for some. Below is a great alternative version of one such prayer that feels more attuned to the trauma that so many of us have found in 2020.

An Alternate Unetaneh Tokef

by Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler

On Rosh HaShanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed:

That this year people will live and die,

some more gently than others

and nothing lives forever.

But amidst overwhelming forces

of nature and humankind,

we still write our own Book of Life,

and our actions are the words in it,

and the stages of our lives are the chapters,

and nothing goes unrecorded, ever.

Every deed counts.

Everything you do matters.

And we never know what act or word

will leave an impression or tip the scale.

So if not now, then when?

For the things we can change, there is t’shuvah, realignment,

For the things we cannot change, there is t’filah, prayer,

For the help we can give, there is tzedakah, justice.

Together, let us write a beautiful Book of Life

for the Holy One to read.