Happy New Year! In September!
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. What a fantastic holiday! It’s so simple and yet so satisfying. First off, there’s the food: apples and honey for a sweet year, round challah bread for a whole year. My mom used to make matzoh ball soup, too, but I’m usually too disorganized for that. Besides, once you’ve eaten two apples and half a loaf of bread all smothered in honey, it’s kind of overkill. (I’m adding bananas and Nutella this year, too. Mmm, sweet.)
Then there’s the time of year. I love that the Jewish new year is right at the end of summer and beginning of fall, when the seasons are changing and the air is crisp. Everything really does feel new and full of possibilities.
Then, there’s the self-evaluation. The tradition is that on Rosh Hashanah, you throw pieces of bread into running water to symbolize letting go of the sins you’ve committed that year. Then, in the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, you think about the things you’ve done wrong over the past year and try to make up for them, apologizing to people you’ve treated badly and trying to make up for it. And after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, you start your year over with a clean slate.
I have to admit I am not the most self-reflective person in the world. Revelations about my own emotional life usually come to me through my writing. (You have no idea how many times I’ve suddenly realized, I seem to be telling variations of this story over and over…huh. I wonder what that means).
It’s not so much that I’m unself-aware as that I just don’t focus much on the big picture. Left to myself, I mostly think about the story I’m writing, the book I’m reading, the TV show I’m watching, the blog post I’m drafting, or my plans for the afternoon.
So I love having a time set aside specifically for giving serious consideration to whether I’m happy with myself and my life, and what I need to do to be happier about where and who I am. And I love that feeling that Everything Could Change, Starting Now.
Rosh Hashanah feels like opening a brand new notebook with all the pages shiny and blank. Sure, I have dozens of messy filled ones in the bottom of my closet and this one will probably end up looking about the same. But deep down, I know anything could happen.
Happy new year, everyone! Enjoy your apples and honey
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Wonderful article, thank you! I’m not Jewish, but I’m not going to let that stop me from celebrating with some apples, honey, and self-evaluation. Thank you again for this awesome article. You’ve made my morning happy.
I have had apples, and I have had bread and honey, and I have had self-reflection, but I think having them all at the same time is a brilliant tradition. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Whee!