Rosh Hashanah. A new year. 5777. That's a long time, over 5,000 years since what we call was the beginning. "In the beginning" as The Torah starts, we start off our Torah at the time of the year 1.
This new year on the lunar calendar, what makes it different than the new year on the solar calendar? We do not wear party hats or blow tootsy party horns, we do not overeat or overindulge, we do not excessively drink alcohol, we instead follow some somberness on this first day of the first month of the year 5777.
Don't get me wrong, it is not a time to cry. At this time we honor the Prophetess Sarah who was the Mother of Isaac and wife to Abraham. We honor at this time, that The Torah tells us "Sarah laughed," when she was told she was pregnant at the age of 99. So, it is indeed a joyous Holiday, it is a time to laugh like Sarah laughed. For both men and women to laugh out loud, to enjoy oneself and feel happiness.
It too is a time to get closer to our G-D. We also honor the Prophetess Hannah. another Jewish female, and we honor her for living her whole life being in constant prayer to G-D. She was praying all the time, whispering her prayers to herself constantly, she was even thought to be drunk because she was so meditative and constantly whispering. We honor Hannah for her extreme closeness to G-D.
We hear the sound of the Shofar at this time of the year. No, it is not a party horn, it is a holy ritual item that is the horn of a ram. We do not use it to dance to its music, it instead symbolizes a call for help. A call for us to ask G-D for help. When we hear this sound, we know we must use the High Holidays to repent for our transgressions. It is the time to be inscribed into The Book of Life, which is the Book G-D is writing each year. In this Book He is judging the good from the wicked and deciding if we will live another year, or if we will die. G-d is deciding how we will die. If by fire or water, poverty or richness.
No, The Hebrew G-D is not Santa Claus, He is not deciding whose good and whose bad and coming down your chimney with a satchel of gifts.
And this is not a New Year to make resolutions as is on the solar calendar.
It is a day to honor G-D The Almighty, to praise G-D, to thank G-D. It is a time to feel the holiness of the Jewish People as a collective, being one of many. A time to follow the Torah Commandments and be in Oath, to renew your Covenant with G-D in your promise to again follow Torah for another year.
To be inscribed in this Book of Life, and for G-D to again turn its pages as He forgives our transgressions, as we throw our wrong-doings into the blue oceans and start a new year with a new clean slate, forgiven by G-D and by those who you hurt. And for you to also forgive those who hurt you.
A new year, a commitment to change your yourself to be better, to get closer to G-D and to the Jewish People, to your family and friends, and therefore become the leader, the catalyst, for the improvement and betterment of the entire world.
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