By Sarah Friedman-
Shanah Tova! The holidays are approaching with Rosh Hashanah to initiate the new year. It is a holiday of many names from the “Holiday of Remembering” to the “Holiday of Judgement,” the “Birthday of Creation,” and the “Sound of a Shofar.” From all of these names and our understanding of Jewish knowledge, what does the holiday of Rosh Hashanah mean to us? First, the birthday of the world teaches us that life is short and precious. As we learn in the powerful poem of Unitaneh Tokef, we will not achieve everything in the world during our lifetime. This poem should not make us depressed nor unmotivated, but rather excited to keep growing and working on what we can accomplish.
In addition to Unitaneh Tokef, we also learn in Zikhronot that life is valuable: “Remember us for life. . . And write us in the book of life.” Furthermore, we learn from the name of “Yom Hadin”— the “Day of Judgement”— that we are truly free. We, the Jewish people have the opportunity to act differently than we did the day prior. We must not take life for granted and use our freedom to make our lives better.
Additionally, we take the lesson of an artist into our new year. Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik describes that man must create himself through teshuvah and various forms of repentance. One can expand the idea of artistry by looking at our life as a painted canvas. We must step back and examine the art that we worked hard on throughout time, and see the changes and mistakes that we need to correct. Sometimes, we may realize that true beauty is created in what we thought were mistakes.
This year I hope that we can take some of these lessons into our lives and create a beautiful canvas next year.
Paraphrased from Rabbi Lord Jonathon Sacks, Professor, Rabbi, Writer, Philosopher, and Public Speaker.
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