the happiest of new

If it is new we are told it has a chance to begin again, but differently. If it is new we are told that something good should come our way, something much better. If it is new we figure that the old stuff had its day in the sun and now we need to see the sparkle of the universe. If it is new we are told that whatever was before is over and as sweet as it was something tastier, tantalizing, and truer will replace it.

We wish health, hope and happiness when something new comes our way. We look to horizons once in the distance to meander to our doorsteps when something new comes our way. We seek compassion, care and concern for those we love when something new comes our way. We want the end of pain, prejudice, punishment, sadness, sorrow and shallow, insincerity, insecurity and injustice when something new comes our way. We forge ahead as if the future will remedy the past when something new comes our way.

For the Jews across the globe it is a new year, Rosh Ha Shana, the beginning, the blossoming, the burgeoning of prayers for deeds to come to fruition, for desires to reach maturity, for delusions to be destroyed and replaced with dreams delightful and delicious. It is a time to look at God and wonder aloud, to look at family and amaze at the love, to turn to friends and consider how difficult life would be without them. It is a time to shout out loud thank you, I will try harder, I am grateful, and I am blessed. And it is time to wish away the worry but work on the gratitude, find the simple and lose the complicated, be inclusive and exit from anything exclusive or evil.

In many Jewish households the dinner table will include apples and honey, the fruit of the Earth the sweetness of life, the deliciousness of something seemingly sincere and secure. We will drink from the vines, we will share our stories, we will smile knowing how valuable love, like and life can really be. It will be a new year and as best we can we will attempt the changes from old to new, we will try our best.

If it is new we are told it is time for something else. And maybe this new year we can redefine ourselves our actions our intentions and our love.

Happy New Year, Ketiva ve-chatima tovah "May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year." Tizku leshanim rabbot "may you merit many years" Leshana Tova Tikoseiv Vesichoseim (Le'Alter LeChaim Tovim U'Leshalom) "May you (immediately) be inscribed and sealed for a Good Year (and for a Good and Peaceful Life)"

The happiest of new!