ogether we celebrated Rosh Hashana and the start of a new year three months ago, but the Mishnah actually specifies four different Jewish new year celebrations: the first of Tishrei, Rosh Hashana – literally the head of the year, a time for tithing and acknowledging the creation of the world; the 15th of Shvat, or the new year for trees, after most of the winter rains are done; the first of Nisan, corresponding with Passover, which celebrates the beginning of the Israelite nation; and the first of Elul, a time traditionally set aside for tithing cattle, which we now use as a time to begin to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year.

 

And of course, as Americans, we also mark the beginning of a new calendar year on January first, which can be a welcome opportunity for us to check in on the personal and spiritual goals we set during the High Holy Day season just a few months before. How far have we come and how far still do we have to go before the next first of Tishrei arrives?

I love this poem by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie about endings and beginnings. Cheers to a wonderful 2024 and a great rest of 5784…

– Cantor Emma Lutz

 

“For Beginnings and Endings” (Bowler and Richie, 2023)

This life is made up of so many beginnings and so many endings.
We start new jobs and leave old ones.
We move to new cities and leave our childhood hobbies in our parents’ basement (Sorry, Mom). 
We become new people slowly (hopefully kinder and funnier?).
Friends and relationships come and go.
Dreams blossom and then they wither.

And we find ourselves here once again at the precipice of change.
Afraid to let go, and afraid of what will happen if we don’t.
Might this be a place of blessing too?

Blessed are we standing in the hallway
Between closed doors
And ones still to come,
Between the old and the new,
Between the worn-in and the doesn’t-quite-fit-yet
Between who we were and who we might become.

God, make it remotely possible to grow and change, 
Become open to new adventures, and untethered to routine or to the same-old.
Because the anxiety rising in my shoulders and filling my throat tells me I am 
Unlikely, unwilling to step forward…

Blessed are we who take a minute to look over our shoulder
At all we learned from what was, the people we became, 
The people who loved us into becoming…
Blessed are we, turning our eyes ahead toward a new path not yet mapped.