Jews around the world gathered
with families and friends at sundown last night to welcome in the year 5777.
Rosh Hashanah begins with the call of the shofar at a synagogue service, and continues with a meal that
traditionally includes a round challah (symbolizing the circle of life) and
apples dipped in honey (for a sweet year).
(I love the way food is fully integrated into religious observation.)
(I love the way food is fully integrated into religious observation.)
It also marks the ten Days of
Awe, when Jews reflect upon the past year and consider what they might have
done better. The Days end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews acknowledge
the wrongs of the previous year and ask forgiveness—from both the person(s)
they’ve wronged and from God.
As I’ve
written before, I think it’s a custom that pretty much everyone could
benefit from. Most Christians pay lip service (literally) to the notion of atonement
when they recite that passage of the Lord’s Prayer that goes, “forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But there are a
shedload of Christians who run through that whole prayer without giving it much
thought.
That may be true of Jews at
the High Holy Days, too. But I think that taking entire days out of your life
and devoting them to the notion of enumerating your transgressions and asking
forgiveness (as well as accepting others’ apologies) tends to focus the mind.
At any rate, I’m grateful for
all my Jewish friends and their families, and I wish them all (whether in
Herndon, Chicago or on a cruise around Iberia) L'Shanah Tovah.
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