Rosh Hashana - jewish new year
Shana Tova U'Metuka
Festival greetings to Jewish friends for Rosh Hashanah,
and a wish for all the goodness and sweetness of the new year.
With the commencement of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) on the eve of 12 September 2026, we are led to marvel at the deeply human and spiritual instinct for RENEWAL.
With Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish liturgical calendar sets aside special days as a time to ‘start life afresh’. The festival ushers in the High Holy Days, a ten-day holy period of introspection and repentance; a time to acknowledge one’s shortcomings, to forgive and be forgiven, to make amends and to renew one’s life. It is a 'return' (shuva) to one's deepest, most authentic self before G-d.
The audacious message of Rosh Hashanah is: Not only can human beings know of their need to repent, not only can they desire to be better people, but they can actually set about to make it happen. Far from being ‘wishful thinking’, Rosh Hashanah, along with the Days of Awe that unfold in its wake, is a call to take responsibility for one’s life. It is undertaken in the larger context of community life, and with full acknowledgement that the Creator G-d, Sovereign of the world, continues to renew creation and calls human beings to account for their decisions and actions. Despite the fragility and difficulties of our lives, we are expected to live the gift of each day as fully and as authentically as we possibly can.
It is a bold calling! For there is no shortage of excuses by which human beings can ‘give in’ to the sufferings and injustices of life. How easy it is to blame others for the troubled state of the world around us.
To enter into Rosh Hashanah is to resist that path and pursue another way. It is to respond to that inner voice that says: not only should things be different, but they can be so… starting with me. It is possible to start afresh and make this coming year truly good and filled with the sweetness of G-d's justice and mercy.
Other religious traditions have their particular and beautiful ways of expressing repentance and renewal. In the wake of Rosh Hashanah, we can be grateful for the Jewish tradition and its unique way of embodying the divine invitation to 'walk with' G-d and one another.
Light of Torah is a Sydney-based initiative encouraging Christians to reflect on the Hebrew Scriptures with the help of insights from Jewish tradition. More...
© Teresa Pirola, Light of Torah, 2023, 2026. This article can be reproduced for non-commercial use, with acknowledgment of website.
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