COMMENTARY: A Different Kind of New Year

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Come Dec. 31, people all over the world will party hearty on New Year’s Eve, drinking, dining and dancing. Only when the party’s over do they really face the music: forcing themselves to the gym, signing on to the South Beach diet and resolving to better themselves in the […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Come Dec. 31, people all over the world will party hearty on New Year’s Eve, drinking, dining and dancing. Only when the party’s over do they really face the music: forcing themselves to the gym, signing on to the South Beach diet and resolving to better themselves in the new year.

Jews approach Rosh Hashana, our New Year, very differently. Rosh Hashana isn’t about drinking or dancing, though food plays its recurring, starring role. It’s about the central idea that God is really our father and our king. It’s about recognizing that all God’s creations (Jews and non-Jews alike) are all being judged during the 10 days of repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.


Our New Year is pretty serious stuff, which is why we hold off our celebrations until the harvest festival of Sukkot, two weeks later. Till then, we’re supposed to busy ourselves with self-reflection and sincere plans for self-improvement. We also ask God and the people in our lives to forgive us for our mistakes, missteps, and missed opportunities.

Rosh Hashana means “head of the year” so it makes sense that we use our heads to get ready for it. But we also need to use our hearts in the process.

Before Rosh Hashana, I try to stop obsessing about my career or my weight or other frustrating topics and carve out serious think time to how I can develop closer relationships with God, with my husband and children. I also choose a few small ways to become a better Jew _ adding more study time, committing myself to do more acts of kindness for the needy, or something else that will have both practical and transcendent power.

I admit that I usually feel a little sheepish asking for forgiveness and so many blessings, given my own embarrassing record of Most Blown Resolutions in a Single Year. Over the years, I’ve resolved to pray each morning; read through all the Psalms, including the commentary (a fat two-volume set); read the weekly Torah portion with commentary; and work my way through the rest of the Bible.

But like the proverbial commitment to get to the gym, I usually drop the ball somewhere along the way. I’ve gotten to Psalm 50 (out of 150); I’ve read loads of commentary on every Torah portion in Genesis, but somehow trail off during Exodus. You get the picture.

Faced with this record, I have two choices: beat myself up over my inconsistencies, or look at the glass as half-full. Berating myself for my failures is actually the easy way out _ it’s an excuse not to pick up the ball and run with it again. The Torah and other sacred writings are eternal; they are waiting for me to pick them up again. Opportunities for prayer, study, acts of kindness, and overcoming my petty instincts present themselves each day that I am blessed with life and health. It’s not too late to resume where I left off. No, I didn’t achieve the goals I had set for myself _ yet.

Many of us today are plagued with doubts about our own self-worth. We wonder if our prayers, our words and our actions really matter to God. We can feel so insignificant that we may wonder if it’s worth making even small changes in our lives. But every apple tree grows from a single seed.


We each hold within us enormous, untapped potential to become far greater than we ever imagined. Even small changes, small deeds, can tip the balance sheet in the world to the good.

Rosh Hashana is a funny kind of celebration, a fusion of happiness and awe, of inner reflection and resolve. But two weeks later our happiness will be complete as we celebrate Sukkot, known as “the time of our happiness.” Only after our intense period of reflection and heartfelt prayer can we appreciate the feeling that God has accepted our repentance and will bless us with another year of life _ with all of that untapped potential just waiting to burst forth.

(Judy Gruen writes the popular “Off My Noodle” column on http://www.judygruen.com.)

KRE/CM END GRUEN

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