Rant #2,981: New Year's Day

This has been a crazy week, what with the Aaron Judge home run watch and all, but this weekend, at least for me, it will be time to get my head on straight and get back to basics.
 
For myself and for Jews around the world, the beginning of the holiest period of the year begins on Sunday at sundown with Rosh Hashanah, a holiday which signifies not just strength, but also reflection.
 
This holiest period of the Jewish year culminates with Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown on Tuesday, October 4, when Jews around the world will forsake the good things we have in life for 24 hours to show God that we are worthy of another year of life.
 
This used to be a time that my family and I would go to synagogue and pray for forgiveness for our sins of the year, but honestly, we no longer are members of a temple, and we go through this period at home.
 
I have found that you can reflect at home—and later fast—just as well at home as you can at shul.
 
No, it is absolutely and positively not the same experience, but it is still a worthy one, and I must say that after fasting for Yom Kippur, I do feel better in mind and in spirit in doing so, but no, I admit that I don’t get the same “oomph” that I used to get from going to pray at the synagogue and waiting for the shofar to sound to end this holy period.
 
It is a conundrum that I have had to work through my head for the past more than a dozen years or so, but celebrating the High Holy Days with my family has made it a bit easier to get through for me.
 
But it can never be the same for me, as my father is gone, but I do what I have to do to get through it all … and feel better when I break the fast with my family in my presence.
 
Let's look back at the holiday by going back to Rant #91, dated September 18, 2009. Here it is in edited form:
 
"Rosh Hashanah is the start of the holiest period during the year for Jews around the world. Although I am not a religious Jew by any stretch of the imagination, I do participate in the High Holy Days, which includes both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They are holidays that ask Jews to examine their strengths, and weaknesses, during the past year and to reflect on how they can improve themselves during the upcoming year.
 
They are holidays of both introspection and group prayer. During Yom Kippur, observant Jews fast, to show their forgiveness to God, and also to show their strength.
 
It is with this understanding of what the holiday means that I have always had this conundrum with how the rest of the world should look at these holidays. Should the “outside” world recognize this holy time of year or simply ignore it?
 
Living in New York, where there are a large amount of Jews, has made these holidays pretty well known by the non-Jewish population. In fact, schools are generally closed during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
 
I once found out years ago that the reason New York City schools close on these holidays is that since such a large portion of their teachers are Jewish, it was not prudent to open when three-quarters of the teachers would be out.
 
This year, there are the usual myriad controversies revolving around whether certain events should be held on these holidays or not.
 
Professional sports leagues will go about their business during these holidays. When my son was in Little League, the league would, every year, schedule games on the first two nights of Passover. Although Passover is not one of the holiest occasions on the Jewish calendar, it is a holiday which revolves around the family, and the traditional seder, and garners wide participation even among non-observant Jews.
 
The league, of course, never had a game on Easter Sunday.
 
Should things just stop because a major religious holiday is being celebrated?
 
I don’t have an answer, and it is something that has puzzled me for years. These are religious holidays, and thus, they are more personal than say July 4 or Labor Day are.
 
The bottom line is this: do we suspend our usual day's activities because a major religion has one of its holiest days to celebrate?
 
Years after I wrote this, I still have that question. We have been all inclusive now as a society, recognizing holidays that we didn't even know existed just a few years ago.
 
I think with the Jewish holidays, one must truly decided for himself how he will celebrate and honor these holidays, and to what extent.”
 
Those last two paragraphs are actually from a subsequent Rant, #2,220 from September 19, 2018.
 
I tacked these two paragraphs on to the original excerpt because I do think that they kind of blend into each other.
 
These are questions that I continue to have and to reflect on during this period, and I will probably always have these questions in mind when the High Holy Days come about each year.
 
To my fellow Jews, have a wonderful new year.
 
And I also wish a wonderful new year to my non-Jewish friends, because it is a nice thing to do, and more importantly, it is something that I want to do.
 
We can all follow whatever path we want to follow, but we are all members of the human race, and understanding and acceptance during the Jewish New Year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur, is paramount.
 
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.