While the secular New Year falls in the middle of winter (well, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), when the earth resets itself, the Jewish New Year comes in the fall, just before the traditional harvest time. People come home from summer vacations, school starts up again, and wham! We're hit with the Ten Days of Repentance. Perfect timing, I think.
Now is the time, as we are preparing for what most of us think of as "the year," that we need introspective moments. Vacation is over, and it's back to the grindstone; what better time to take stock, to engage in heshbon ha-nefesh (accounting of the soul), to examine our relationships. The next big vacation is ten months from now, and from this point to that will be a blur of activity. Better to enter it with some deep, probing consideration.
January 1 may be a new year of the Earth, but Rosh Hashanah is more a New Year of the soul.
Showing posts with label January 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January 1. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday Morning Kavvanah, 12/31/2010 - Teshuvah in January?
This being New Year's Eve (which, ironically enough, is called "Silvester" in Israel, named for Pope Silvester, who died on Dec. 31, 335 CE), I will surely be wished a "happy new year" several times today. I don't mind the good wishes, but I often have to stop myself from reminding my co-religionists that 5771 began nearly four months ago, and all of the cleansing and repenting that comes with the passing of the Jewish year has long since faded from my short-term memory.
On the other hand, Judaism has four new years, so defined in the opening Mishnah of tractate Rosh Hashanah: the first of Nisan (the beginning of the cycle of months), the first of Elul (the date upon which the annual cycle of tithing animals begins), the first of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah), and the fifteenth of Shevat (Tu Bishvat, the official birthday of the trees). What would be so bad about reconsidering the teshuvah (repentance) that we performed in Tishri on January 1 as well?
The problem is, of course, that the wider society does not celebrate the new secular year in a way that encourages teshuvah - quite the contrary.
In any case, as Dec. 31 is a Friday, I'll be in synagogue for Shabbat, and schluffing (sleeping) up a storm by the time midnight rolls around.
On the other hand, Judaism has four new years, so defined in the opening Mishnah of tractate Rosh Hashanah: the first of Nisan (the beginning of the cycle of months), the first of Elul (the date upon which the annual cycle of tithing animals begins), the first of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah), and the fifteenth of Shevat (Tu Bishvat, the official birthday of the trees). What would be so bad about reconsidering the teshuvah (repentance) that we performed in Tishri on January 1 as well?
The problem is, of course, that the wider society does not celebrate the new secular year in a way that encourages teshuvah - quite the contrary.
In any case, as Dec. 31 is a Friday, I'll be in synagogue for Shabbat, and schluffing (sleeping) up a storm by the time midnight rolls around.
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