Another New Year.

I've meant to post this, but had a busy week and didn't quite finish.  It's the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashonnah, and now almost Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  For those who cannot go a full calendar year, it can be a chance to have another beginning, to restart, to make new resolutions.

For some, the new year can be scary and challenging.  A friend send an article that tries to explain why.  Basically, all change is a challenge.  You can embrace the challenge, be overwhelmed by it, or something that is a combination.  I have had many challenges in the last year, as I changed jobs in April, and I have been wrestling with my uncle's death and the obligations it gave me, and more changes to come.  Others I know have faced greater challenges.  My rabbi emeritus is the rabbi of Bat Yam Temple of the Islands in Sanibel, Florida, which was all but wiped out by Hurricane Ian on Rosh Hashonnah and faces an unknown future of rebuilding.

The Torahs were rescued.

The Jewish New Year is not really a time for resolutions as January 1st is.  It's a time of reflection.  The Days of Awe that follow are a time to regroup, assess, and in many ways to look back instead of forward.  Jews are supposed to evaluate their lives of the past year, and whether they have anything for which to make amends.  These days you often see people post things like this on social media:

That was posted by a non-Jewish friend of mine.  I asked her why, and well-meaning people in her feed chose to answer: one gave a very simple explanation of Yom Kippur as learned from some of his Jewish friends.  Another cheerfully opined that "This sentiment, applies to All....No one religion, corners the market on Well-Wishing, or Forgiveness."  I thanked them both, but explained that I wondered why a non-Jew was posting this - it could be seen as cultural appropriation, or it could be a lack of knowledge of its significance and its place as part of ritual actions of this time in the Jewish calendar.  And I know my friend is thoughtful and not given to casual appropriation of sentiments, so I wondered.

My friend explained that she is aware of its meaning, even though she doesn't follow the practices that surround it.  She also told me that

it is also very similar to what is said during ho'oponopono ceremonies here in Hawai'i:

Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice that combines love, forgiveness, repentance, and gratitude in four powerful phrases when said reflecting to yourself. Yep, that’s it. Four simple phrases that heal the soul. They are:

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I Thank you.

I love you

So I learned something, and I think others did as well.

We are now in year 5783 of the Hebrew calendar.  It's another new beginning for some of us.  Another turn of the wheel; another trip around the sun.  A chance for something new, a chance to embrace change, a chance to look back and assess, evaluate, adjust our sails.

Let us treasure the time we have, and resolve to use it well, counting each moment precious – a chance to apprehend some truth, to experience some beauty, to conquer some evil, to relieve some suffering, to love and be loved, to achieve something of lasting worth. Help us, God, to fulfill the promise that is in each of us, and so to conduct ourselves that generations hence it will be true to say of us: The world is better, because for a brief space, they lived in it.

                                                   ---<  Rabbi John Rayner  

For those who observe, may you have an easy fast.  For those who do not, may you have the opportunities the Days of Awe and Day of Atonement bring, to reflect and restart.

May you be written in the Book of Life for a good year ahead.