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What is a Year?
By Rachel Dohme
Is a year measured in hours, days and months or in events? Is a year noted in newspaper reports or in our hearts? Is the passage of time active or passive? Is it a cosmic eyelash flutter in the universe as the Curiosity rover lands on Mars, a testimony of mankind’s desire to know?
Is it a shiver for our planet as the North Pole ice cap pulls its icy skirt back just a little more, quietly reminding us Nature never forgets?
Perhaps it is found a nation away as the poorest of the poor once again pay the price for political tug of war power games in tents and makeshift housing, being blown away like dandelion seedlings from bombs or hurricanes and torrential rains washing their streets away faster than our careless sudsy morning shower water can swirl down the drain around our toes. A year can see a family member struck down with a catastrophic illness and make everything seem meaningless; make time itself seem to stand still. A year can also mean seeing that person restored to life, each day painstakingly reconstituting movement and cognition, which we take for granted. Such personal tragedy can remind us of life’s brevity and preciousness.
A year is a year.
For Jews, each year, beginning in September is sprinkled with holidays and history. After the reflective High Holy Days of the New Year, Rosh Hashana, and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, comes Sukkoth, the Festival of Booths, reminding us of our wanderings. We thank God for all the earth’s bounty as we build and decorate our temporary huts, followed by the singing and dancing with the Torah as we observe the holiday of Simchat Torah. Hanukka brings bright and warm lights in December’s cold and blustery dark days, retelling the story of the victory of a few over many, powered by the desire for religious freedom. We celebrate spring with Tu B’Shvat, honoring the trees; celebrate Purim with happy costumes and merrymaking, remembering the biblical Esther and her bravery, and we join family and friends in our homes and synagogues at Passover to celebrate our historical freedom and deliverance from slavery. Shavuoth, the festival of the giving and receiving of the Law on Mt. Sinai brings our year to a joyful end, as we recognize that freedom without laws and responsibilities is not freedom at all.
And so we take the time to once again reflect and examine our past year. What had we hoped to achieve? Have we succeeded or have we fallen short? What have we done to help solve problems and what have we done to create them? Have we chosen well this past year? Have we hurt or healed? Have we built or destroyed? Have we worked for peace and understanding, hindered it or even worse, ignored it? Have we dared to have hope or have we given in to fear?
This year on September 16th, as your Jewish friends and neighbors celebrate the new year, Rosh Hashanah in synagogues across the country, we invite you to join with us in your homes or houses of worship or in ours to take inventory of our hearts and souls and make a conscious effort, be it great or small, loud or soft-spoken, global or personal, but whose goal it is to repair the world, Tikkun Olam, just a little bit.
L’Shana Tovah Tiketevu!