The Jewish New Year is here. The calendar page turns and the Jewish New Year 5770, begins. I anticipate seeing you in the sanctuary this Rosh Hashanah, but I don’t take for granted that you’ll be there. I assume that you might be out of town with your family or you might not be able to travel comfortably away from home. So, this email is especially for you.

            Each New Year, we say, “L’Shanah Tovah,” may it be a sweet and good New Year. It’s a reasonable hope that the New Year will be filled with new joy and new strength. Some renewable energy is found within you. New joys will surely be found in opportunities you discover. Perhaps this year you’ll accept invitations from friends who encourage you to come out for lunch or dinner. Or, maybe this year you’ll welcome them to your home more often. A New Year marks time that closes one book and opens another. You pray that your name will be inscribed in the Book of Life for a new beginning. What will you enjoy anew this year?

            You pray from new strength, too. If you’re home more because you get out less, then strength means everything to you. I know some of you live with pain, and some of you depend on others more than you like. This year, muster your strength where you can and take good care of yourself. And, where you can’t do more for yourself, invite someone to be your helper or advocate. They can make life more pleasant for you so you can enjoy the things you like most. If you want to spend time with your family, let a driver bring you there safely. If you want to be with others a few times a week, let a caregiver support you in your effort. I can’t tell you how many times I hear about a stubborn individual whose independence means more to them than their safety and well-being. One day, I might be stubborn, too, but I hope it won’t be at the expense of the time I want to be with friends or outside on a pleasant day.

            Joy and strength are two qualities you have learned a lot about over the years. Remember the old line that it’s going to be a good day if you get up in the morning and your name isn’t in the obituaries. Indeed, that would be a good day. It’s one way of saying that you’re grateful for each day as it comes. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Mark Twain used to say, “Youth is wasted on the young.” He’s absolutely right. They don’t know what they have when they have it, and when they do, it’s already gone. Nevertheless, Judaism never failed to teach that we should value each day as if it’s our last. So, better late than never, you and I come to see each day as an opportunity for new joy and strength. On Rosh Hashanah, we mark time. We see life as days gone by and as days yet to come.

            As the congregation takes its seats in the sanctuary, I urge you to take hold of your prayer book at home (“Gates of Repentance” or a mahzor) and read the prayers for Rosh Hashanah. If you don’t have a prayer book at home, read Psalms, the Book of Genesis, chapter 22 (The Binding of Isaac), or favorite readings in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish world enters the Ten Days of Repentance on Friday night. It’s Shabbat. May you enter it with us and know that you are always part of our congregational family at Beth Israel.

            From my family to yours, Shabbat Shalom and L’Shanah Tovah.

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