Bettering Ourselves
In The New Year
A
t the end of each secular year, we are
bombarded by articles offering recaps
of the past year, predications for the
new year and suggestions for what resolutions we
might make in the coming year.
On Rosh Hashanah, our Jewish new year, we
focus less on resolutions and instead
reflect on how we might improve
ourselves personally and as a com-
munity; we ask for forgiveness from
those whom we may have hurt in
the past year and strive to do better
in the future, and we appeal to God,
asking to be written in the Book of
Life as we strengthen our relationship
with the Divine.
There are resolutions that we can
find within our Tanach, our Bible,
that will help us and others this year.
We are taught that our Torah is filled
with 613 commandments, but here
are just six suggestions for resolutions based in
our ancient text.
In Leviticus, we are reminded to "love your
neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). In an
"I" world that is more and more self-focused,
how can we reach out to those around us? Can
we learn to treat one another more carefully,
more compassionately, starting with those
closest to us?
Perhaps once we have reached out to our
neighbors, we can look at the broader communi-
ty and seek justice as we are taught in the Torah,
"Justice, justice shall you pursue" (Deuteronomy
18:20). The value of justice is a central teaching
of our Torah. We are commanded to not just
speak about fairness but to live it, to search for it,
to fight for it.
We are also taught that we must give tzedakah.
Over and over in the Torah, we are directed to
help those in need by giving shekels or leaving
the corners of our fields. We are told "you shall
not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from
your needy brother" (Deuteronomy 15:7). We
each have a responsibility to open our hearts and
to give what we can to those in need.
Within the 10 most well-known command-
ments, we are instructed to "honor your father
and mother" (Exodus 20:12). This year let us
expand that directive to include all members of
our family. How will we show them respect this
year? Can we do more to offer love and support
to our parents, or to our children? Can we speak
to them more often or more kindly?
This year, let us each strive to be better
children, parents, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins and siblings.
Each day we are reminded that we
not only must learn but we must also
pass that education down to the next
generation. We Jews are learners. The
words of Torah should be taught "dili-
gently to our children" (Deuteronomy
6:7). And though it is critical that we
share our Judaism with our children,
it also is important that we keep learn-
ing; that we continue to engage in
Jewish education at any and every age.
Finally, we recite each day "you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy
6:5). How will we show our love for God this
year?
We show our love for God when we engage
with words of Torah, when we care about others,
when we reach out to our family, when we strive
to make the world a better place. When we rec-
ognize that we were each created in God's image,
and that we are all deserving of love and compas-
sion, then we will truly show our love for God.
In just a few weeks, we will celebrate Simchat
Torah and begin anew the cycle of reading Torah.
Within the Torah we find hundreds of pages
of inspirational ideas for living our lives more
fully. This year on Rosh Hashanah, as we eat
our apples and honey and wish one another a
"Shanah Tovah, a happy new year," may we also
turn to our Torah, finding within these ancient
and holy words guidelines and resolutions for
improving our relationships and the world. ❑
In this way, we will be stirred to be more
thoughtful and kind. We will be inspired to
be the best friend, family member and fellow
human being we can be. We will be empowered
to live a life that expresses our most cherished
values.
Perhaps the most amazing part of Sidney
Friedman's performance was the musical mind
reading. Many audience members discretely
wrote down the name of a song they chose and,
after folding the pieces of paper, put them into
a box. Additional volunteers from the audience
were then called on stage to select one of those
pieces of paper and read it to themselves. Then
they were asked to focus on the song that they
had just read. In a breathtaking act of mentalism,
Sidney sat down at a piano and played those very
songs,
Our unique sets of values and aspirations are
our souls' inner songs. The pure and natural
sounds of the shofar are meant to strike an inner
chord and call us to do our own mind reading.
This Rosh Hashanah when the shofar blows,
let us be our own mentalists. Just as Sidney's
audience was blown away when he read other
people's minds, let us be blown away by reading
our own minds and discovering that which is
most precious to us. ❑
Rabbi Arianna Gordon is the director of education and
lifelong learning at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Rabbi Tzvi Muller is the rabbi of the Birmingham
Bloomfield Chai Center and directs the Jewish Values
Institute.
Tishrei Or Nisan
Which month
marks the
Jewish new
year?
Maayan Jaffe
JNS.org
T
ishrei is among the most
well-known months on the
Hebrew calendar because
it contains the High Holidays and
marks the beginning of the year. Or
so it seems.
Indeed, to modern-day Jews,
Rosh Hashanah is considered the
Jewish New Year. But traditionally,
the Hebrew calendar actually has
four "New Year" days: the first of
Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah); the first
of Nisan; the 15th of Shevat (Tu
b'Shevat, or the new year of trees);
and the first of Elul, the new year of
animal tithes (taxation).
The Torah specifically names
Nisan as the first month of the
Jewish calendar. So where did
Tishrei come from, and how did it
gain new year status?
Rabbi Donny Schwartz, Midwest
regional director for the Orthodox
youth organization NCSY (National
Conference of Synagogue Youth),
explains that Tishrei relates to the
sun, which is connected to the solar
year. In Hebrew, the word year
is translated as "shana," which is
related to the Hebrew words "sheni"
(second/repeatable) and "yashan"
(old).
"Tishrei represents a system that
never changes," Schwartz says. "You
wake up in the morning, and it is
just another day. You know you
drive on the right side of the street,
put clothes on your body. You know
who you are. It's a 'blab' feeling
sometimes, but there is a benefit to
that:'
On the other hand, Nisan relates
to the moon, which is changing
daily if not more frequently. Nisan
is, therefore, the "head of the
months," and is "all about renewal"
and change, Schwartz says.
Tishrei and Nisan also are tied
to the seasons in which they fall.
Schwartz believes that at different
times of year, there are different
energies in the world. Tishrei falls
in the autumn, a time of great mate-
rial beauty, namely the changing of
the colors of the leaves. Nisan, on
the other hand, falls in the spring, a
time when beauty is only budding
— renewing or resurfacing fresh off
the winter.
Rabbi Jessica Minnen, resident
rabbi of New York's OneTable initia-
tive, which brings together Jews in
their 20s and 30s for Shabbat din-
ners, takes this idea a step further.
She says Nisan is the planting season
and Tishrei the harvesting season.
Minnen tells JNS.org that a recent
course she was teaching examined
the differences between the two
creation narratives in Genesis 1 and
2, which many modern scholars
believe are competing stories.
"In Genesis 1, God is breath-
ing into Adam, into the Earth, the
ground, the shape that is formed
into a human being. In Genesis 2,
God physically shapes Adam out of
the ground," Minnen says. "This is
the planting and the harvesting, this
is Nisan and Tishrei. We need both
creation narratives, and we need
Nisan and Tishrei to form a com-
plete sense of who we are and who
we can be:'
Rabbi Mendy Wineberg, program
director of the Chabad House Center
of Kansas City, says, "God created
the world in Tishrei. But when did
God start thinking about creating
the world? That was Nisan."
Wineberg says that while the
first man was fashioned by God in
Tishrei; the Jewish people became
a nation in Nisan, when God took
them out of Egypt and ultimately
gave them the Torah and its mitz-
voth.
"God became king of the people
on Rosh Hashanah. God became
our personal king in Nisan," says
Wineberg.
Minnen says the main message of
all the Jewish New Years — Tishrei,
Nisan, Shevat, Elul — is one of con-
tinuity.
"You have these four opportuni-
ties to start over, to redefine who
you are now and where you want to
go," she says. "Every day can be your
new year:' ❑
JN
September 10 • 2015
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