So what's new?

So What's New?

Another new year. An opportunity to begin to write a fresh chapter in our lives. Even if the old chapter is a bit of a mess - and we’re not sure how to end it. The new year says: Enough already! Recognise your mistakes. Resolve to make amends where you can - and to do better next time. Let go - and move on. Of course. that doesn~t mean we begin again - from the beginning. The past is not erased. The Hebrew word kippur - as in Yoin Kippur - means to ‘cover’: Yom Kippur completes the Ten Days of Repentance (Asseret Yeniet Teshuvah) which begin on Rosh Hashanah. At the end of Yorn Kippur - after ~ve have confessed and repented and sought forgiveness - the mistakes and misdeeds of the old year are covered over. Only then do we embark on the new year.

Interestingly. the Hebrew words. Rosh Hashanah, do not mean ‘new year’, but rather ‘the head of the year’. The Jewish new year begins at the beginning of the seventh month, Tishri - that is. at the ‘head’ of the year; as the cycle of the year turns following the sixth month of Elul. And so, we also turn away from the past towards the future. But before we act, we think, we use our heads. Before a new year can begin, before we can begin to do things in new ways, we must first reflect on our deeds of the past year, consider where we went wrong, examine our errors. The Hebrew expression for this process is Cheshhon Hanefesh literally, ‘an accounting of the soul’, It’s only when we have conducted a full personal audit - honestly and completely - that we can hope to be in a position to act differently in the future.

And that’s the challenge of each new year: To act differently in the future. Significantly, the Hebrew word shana, ‘year', also implies 'change': the new year is a time of change. Our talk about ‘the cycle of the year’ can be misleading: Time is inexorable: the past may be remembered hut it cannot be re-lived; each day we move nearer to the day of our death. And so a new year is, like every new day, utterly new - a chance to change our lives, even in small ways.

So what’s new about the new year? Everything and nothing. It’s up to each one of us. A new Jewish year will begin on the 1st of Tishri which commences this year at sunset on September 17th. Like all the new years of yesteryear, this new \ear is an opportunity for each one of us to renew our lives. A daunting task? But we are not alone. We confront this challenge in the company of one another. And we take our first steps with the help of the Eternal One who is near to all those in need. May each one of us find the courage to face ourselves, acknowledge our mistakes - and change. Shanah Tovah.