Rosh Hashanah, 5780: Change Is Good

September 28, 2019
Image (c) www.londongrill.com

Here we are in early fall with a big mile marker coming up for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins on Sunday evening, September 29. The 5780th loop through the Jewish calendar has been completed as Jews around the world prepare to reflect on the good and the bad from the past year.

Without trying to sound overly cynical, as I get older, it’s clear that anything that we do over and over again is bound to get stuck in what feels like an infinite and repetitive cycle, although we all know that our time on this planet definitely has an end date.

Let me clarify.

Many of you know that I run every day or almost every day; if I don’t hit 360 runs per year, I get angry with myself. (Don’t judge me). But in truth well over half of those runs, or perhaps more if I’m being honest, are purely functional, not that enjoyable, and not really productive in increasing my fitness level- I just do them to do them. There are times when I feel great and run free fast and easy, and times when I see a deer running through the woods and feel invigorated, but more often than not I just zone out with music or a podcast and check “ran today” of my mental to-do list. Run, rest, repeat the next day. Day after day, month after month, year after year, mile after mile.

Get The Bedford Citizen in your inbox!



Along the same lines, like many of you, I work five days a week, hit the weekend, and then re-enter the work week on Monday with the timer already counting down to Friday again. I pack the kids the same kind of lunch every day, my wife and I have the same dishes that we make for dinner most of the time, and I hit up Starbucks around the same time every morning, moving around town in predictable patterns.

And that’s not bad- we program ourselves to do what we need to do to get by, and I, and we, obviously take comfort in our patterns of behavior. They ground us, re-assure us, and contextualize our experiences in familiar routines and traditions. But what is also true is that doing things the same way is a recipe for never changing. And change is good.

Change is so, so good.

We are always changing. Our friends are always changing. Our relationships are always changing- sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But beyond our familiar and familial circles, the world is always changing, and very little of it is in our hands or subject to our influence. And while it’s tempting just to hit reset and repeat on Rosh Hashanah and do the whole thing all over again, in the face of so much change, the real challenge is to look within and decide to mix it up a little in the coming year and change ourselves.

Luckily, Rosh Hashanah is as good at time as ever to look back not only on what we did in the past year that we must own and atone for at Yom Kippur, but also on what we have become accustomed to doing in the past year and how we can recognize that and approach the new year with some new ideas.

For me, as I enter 5780, so much is different. I have a new job, my youngest child is now in Kindergarten, and college for my oldest is getting ever closer. In the past year, we celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of my second child, went on some memorable family trips, and had what, on its merits, would be considered a great and enjoyable year. Given the cumulative impact of all that I experienced, it would be tempting to just keep on trucking and not change a thing…but it would be borderline irresponsible to attempt to do 5780 just like I did 5779. After all, despite the list of good things that happened, if I’m being honest, I’m sure there’s an equally long list of things I didn’t do so well.

(Also feel free to, consider the case of the 2019 Red Sox, who won the World Series last year with a team for the ages, brought back basically the same roster, and then missed the playoffs this season. Maybe a little more change would have been good for them?)

So with an eye towards reminding myself that nothing is all good, all the time, and that even when we’re riding high we need to remember our failures, in the High Holiday liturgy we are told that by doing three things, we will demonstrate to God that we are worthy of being inscribed in the Book of Life and of being forgiven – teshuva (repentance), tefilah (prayer), and tzedakah (charity). By going through a process of acknowledging our sins, praying, and then taking action to improve both ourselves and the world, we can begin again, anew.

I’m all in with that process, but embedded in those words is a more fundamental lesson that I think it relevant for all of us- our lives are up to us, try to do a better job this year, but more importantly, don’t try to do it exactly the same way this time around.

After all, change is good.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Subscribe
Notify of

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

All Stories

What’s Bedford Thinking about the Red Sox?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Junior Landscaping
Go toTop