Rant #2,455: New Year's Day

This coming Sunday, at sundown, begins the holiest period on the Jewish calendar, and the New Year begins with Rosh Hashanah.

It is the holiest time, time for reflection, time for looking back and pretty much rating how you did during the past year and then allowing God to really look at your year's work, and decide whether you can. or even should, carry on for another year.

Rosh Hashanah leads into Yom Kippur, a little more than a week away, which is absolutely the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, where one fasts to show God that he or she is worthy and up to the challenge that He puts before him or her.

That is pretty much simplifying everything, but it is a roughly 10-day period of solemnity, of getting in touch with your soul, and really looking into yourself and trying to make yourself better for the coming year.

Here is what I wrote about Rosh Hashanah in Rant #1,035 (September 4, 2013), in edited form:

"Sunday night, at sundown, begins the holiest period for Jews around the world.

It is the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and unlike other New Year celebrations, this is a very solemn one.

Jews take basically about a week and a half, bookended by two major holidays, to review themselves and where they are, and atone for any sins they may have committed during the year.

This holy period also includes Yom Kippur.

As I reflect on the past year, I have not been perfect.

There are many things I would like to change, and now is my time to reflect on them, and do something about them so they do not happen again.

Most Jews go to synagogue to pray during this holy period, but others do it away from a house of worship, which is all fine and good.

I remember going with my father to our temple, and spending long and hard days there praying for forgiveness.

I do not go anymore--since my son was bar mitzvahed, we do not belong to a temple anymore, and that is a story in itself which I am not going to go into here--but it is still a day of reflection.

On Sunday, we will have the traditional meal, and most of my immediate family will be there, including my sister and her boys and my parents.

Then we go right into it on Monday.

Rosh Hashanah is actually two days, but I will take off from work on Monday and go back on Tuesday.

This all leads up to the most holy day on the calendar, Yom Kippur, where you demonstrate your belief in God by fasting and praying for forgiveness.

To my Jewish friends, I hope you have a nice New Year and that the holiday goes well.

L'Shanah Tovah!"

This pretty much still holds true today.

Nobody is perfect, and I certainly wasn't during the year, and I am already trying to improve myself, a few weeks into my self-imposed diet.

There are other things I hope to do to make my life a better one, and that of my family, and we will see if things do get better in the coming months.

We, as a family, have a lot to be thankful for during the past year, and we hope that God sees just how thankful we really are. 

So there you have it. 

I wish L'Shanah Tovah to all my Jewish friends, and to those who aren't Jewish, I wish good health and a lot of happiness over the next year.

I will next be back at the helm of the Blog on Tuesday. Have a great weekend and I will speak to you again then.