Putting
the New Into the New Year
Rosh Hashanah, First Night
September 26, 2003
For all of the young people here who were on the Bimah
for the Ma Tovu, 5764 will be a momentous year. You will
remember 2003 or 2004 as the year of becoming a Bar/ Bat
Mitzvah. It is a major milestone and rite of passage in your
life. We adults might be envious of you. Not because we want
to be thirteen again. I don't. No offense to those who are
thirteen but I been there, done that. Once was enough. What we
might be envious about is that something great will happen
this year by which you will always remember this year.
Most years, I can't point to any particular event that
made that year special so one year blends into another. What
was different about 1978 than 1979 for me. Nothing that I
remember. 1986 different from 1985, nothing that
spectacular.
Then there are the years I remember as well as my
birthday. 1966 was the year of, my Bar Mitzvah. In 1971 I
graduated from Northeast High School, June 1982, I graduated
rabbinical school. It poured all day. In 1995, I received my
Doctor of Ministry from Hebrew Union College. Being in school
again provides you those milestones. On May 24 1998 Janie
and I stood under the Huppah together. Kids not only remember
their Bar Mitzvah year, they remember what year they went into
10th grade, were a sophomore in college and the year they
graduated. Its not the same with us. What do we have to
remember a given year?
This past Sunday, my birthday September 21, I turned
50. 1953 was an important year for me even though I have no
memory of it. How many people, who have already passed this
mark, offered me the words of comfort, "Don't worry, it
doesn't feel any different from before." I appreciate these
kind and comforting words and I know what they mean. I don't
want to physically feel or mentally think any older but I do
want this year to be different from past years just because
its new. I don't want it to not be any different. Saying that,
I know what makes a year stand out most often for us as
adults. It's not our Bar Mitzvah or graduation, it's losing a
loved one. This year will be 10 years since my mother past
away, 1993. No, we have to create something new, by which to
remember this coming year.
We hear others say and we say it too, the year just
flew by. The summers always zip by, the winters feel
interminable and yet the year flies by. About 10 years ago,
Mark Goldberg, a blessed memory, explained to me that the
older we get, each year is a smaller fraction of our total
life and so time feels like it is flying more and more. The
older we get, the faster time moves. That is one of the
reasons why vacations are so important, it slows time down.
Each day becomes precious filled with memories. If you asked
me what I did the first week of December this past year, I
have no clue unless I check my calendar. The last week of
December, I can tell you, we took a family vacation to a very
Jewish place, St. Marten and I can easily recall individual
events on individual days. Plan vacations this year. Slow
time down.
I am going to do something new this year and I intend
it to be one of the things by which I remember this new year.
Can you say that? Try it! O.K. what are you going to do?
Don't let it be something that is going to happen to you so
you'll remember this year. What are you going to actively do
by which you'll remember this year?
For a number of years, I said that that year I was
going to go skiing for the first time. I went ice-skating as a
kid but never skiing. I have given up on skiing. I know I'm
not going skiing. I'm not even going to say it any more. For
the same number of years, I have been saying I'm going to
learn to play the guitar. I played different instruments from
elementary through high school but for the past number of
years, I've wanted to learn to play the guitar. Do you know
how many times I have passed the music store near the Post
Office
in Richboro and meant to stop in. I never have and the years
go by. This year, I'm going to begin to learn how to play the
guitar. I know it because Janie got me a guitar for my
birthday. First she gave me a little Tiffany box. I thought
cufflinks. I opened it up and there were four pics. Then came
the guitar, a great gift but I don't know how to use it. Then
came a gift certificate for three months of guitar lessons. It
sounds like I'm going to learn to play the guitar. My goals
are modest. My goals are to play well enough to go into a
preschool
class and play for them. Four year olds are not very harsh
critics and are pretty accepting.
Last Shabbat, I spoke about renewing ourselves this
year. I quoted the verse, Help us to return to You O G-d
and we shall return, renew our days as previously. In trying
to understand the term, renew our days, I asked the
congregation Shabbat morning what the opposite of renewing our
days was. A few people called out depression. I wasn't
thinking that severely. I was thinking burnout but maybe
burnout is on the road that leads to depression
though there are many other causes of depression as well. We
would do well to do something new by which we can feel
renewed.
It does feel a bit odd, at the age of 50 to begin to
learn to play the guitar. It must feel odd at 40 or 60 to join
an Adult B'nai Mitzvah Class or learn to read Hebrew though I
respect people who do that. What have you wanted to do new
that you've put off year after year? What happens if I take
these lessons for three months and I never become good enough
to play for 4 year olds? In a great birthday card from Jordana,
she listed 25 wishes for me for this year of my life. Number
19 was take more risks and don't be afraid to fail. Taking
guitar lessons isn't bungy jumping, not really such a great
risk, I shouldn't break something like I could at skiing but
many of us lose the talent to take any kind of risks and so
we give up on trying something new.
This is one of those rare times where there is
something in the English greeting that is missing in the
Hebrew. In English we say Happy New Year. In Hebrew we say Shanah Tovah a Good Year. I like the word New. Let there be
something new this coming year by which we renew ourselves and
prevent general life burnout. The word is missing from the
greeting but is central in our prayer when we dip the apple or
challah into the honey to symbolize a sweet life. Yihee Ratzon
Milfanecha Adoshem Eloheynu V'elohey avoteynu shetichadesh
Aleynu Shanah Tovah U'metukah.
May it be your will O G-d and G-d of our ancestors to
make new for us and renew us for good and sweet year. Amen.
From Janie and myself, our best to you and your family
for a Shanah Tova U'metukah ~ A Good and sweet New
Year! And Shabbat Shalom.
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