Thoughts on Rosh Hashanah

This past weekend was the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.  This holiday is unique in Judaism for quite a few different reasons.  The first of these is that this is a predominantly known holiday even outside of the Jewish Community by the rest of the world.  A second thing to note that this is one of the two holidays that Jewish people in general tend to go to synagogue for (the other happens to be Yom Kippur which is ten days later) The third thing to note is that this holiday is a symbolic as well as physical new year to the Jewish people.  This tends to grant us funny looks from other passerbys as the new year for a majority of the human race is on January 1st.

Being a new year for the Jewish people however, entails all of the feelings invoked from any other new year festivity: A sense of a new start, reflections on the year that has ended, and thoughts on where to improve.  Being also ten days from the earlier mentioned Yom Kippur which is the Day of Atonement, it is the start of our final chance to right wrongs committed the year before.

Of course, Rosh Hashanah is much more than that.  It is a couple of days of prayer and lots of food which is a custom of Judaism in general.  In addition, observant Jews also apply the same rules of Shabbat to this festive day.  As I outlined in another post, this entails no usage of electronic devices as well as not doing any work or creating new objects.  Instead of doing the things we would associate with an ordinary day, Rosh Hashanah like Shabbat, is a day of reflection and a chance to relax and enjoy the world we live in.

This new year of course is very significant to me.  I have a new book on the way, this blog is still relatively new in fact.  With a renewed stride, I am moving into this new year with sweetness, and not just with honey which is a customary food consumed for the new year.  Indeed, this New Year, I hope to take what I have experienced the last two years and apply myself to reach new heights.

In the words of Steve Jobs "Figure out where you want to be and figure out how you can get there today.  Every day you wait is another day you are not where you want to be."

L'Shana Tovah!  May your new year be sweet and help you reach new heights, and if you do not observe Rosh Hashanah for whatever reason, use this time as a chance to reflect upon your goals in an aspiration.