Shanah Tovah
Sep. 26th, 2003 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteAt sundown today, the Jewish year 5763 will end, and the new year of 5764 will commence. Jews the wolrd over will go to synagogues of all stripes and use the prayers of the various liturgies to turn inward, to think about all that they have done in the past year, to ponder what should change and how change should be brought about. In Heaven, I and many others believe, God sits in judgment of all mankind on this day, and determines the fate of all.
It can be a difficult and heart-wrenching day, as we take stock of a world we sometimes cannot understand, and try to make sense of our role in that world and our future. And yet, it is a holiday, celebrated with joyous meals and a certain small optimism that God will accpet our prayers, that He will forgive our sins, and that we mortals can find the way to improve ourselves and the world.
And we greet each other with best wishes for the new year, with a wish specifcally that God inscribe and seal our names in the Book of Life.
That is my wish for all of you out there. I also ask, as is the custom, forgiveness from any of you that I may have inadvertantly angered, offended or caused harm in the past year. There is an axiom that God can only sins committed against Him, but not against our fellow humans. This reminds us that we can eat kosher and go to shul and pray all we want, but if we do not treat our brothers and sisters with the same respect we demand for ourselves, we are only fooling ourselves into thinking we are "religious."
May the new year bring peace and safety and joy and love and chocolate and song and hobbits and lots of memes and quizzes to everyone.
It can be a difficult and heart-wrenching day, as we take stock of a world we sometimes cannot understand, and try to make sense of our role in that world and our future. And yet, it is a holiday, celebrated with joyous meals and a certain small optimism that God will accpet our prayers, that He will forgive our sins, and that we mortals can find the way to improve ourselves and the world.
And we greet each other with best wishes for the new year, with a wish specifcally that God inscribe and seal our names in the Book of Life.
That is my wish for all of you out there. I also ask, as is the custom, forgiveness from any of you that I may have inadvertantly angered, offended or caused harm in the past year. There is an axiom that God can only sins committed against Him, but not against our fellow humans. This reminds us that we can eat kosher and go to shul and pray all we want, but if we do not treat our brothers and sisters with the same respect we demand for ourselves, we are only fooling ourselves into thinking we are "religious."
May the new year bring peace and safety and joy and love and chocolate and song and hobbits and lots of memes and quizzes to everyone.
