A reflection on Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year. Though I have celebrated this holiday for most of my life, this felt like the first year that I stopped to take a deeper look into what this holy-day might mean for me. Here are the words that I read at my family’s dinner table:

Rosh Hashana invites us into a time of inner and communal reflection and purification. As the earth begins to shed her excess layers, we too begin to shed the gunk we’ve layered on as protection. 

We’ve built masks around us as protection, but they also keep us separate from the world around us. From the human beings, the animal beings, the plant beings, the earth being. Is holding onto these masks worth the price of separation? Or might we be willing to loosen our grip on appearing to have it all together?

As we introspect, let us reflect on the harm we may have unintentionally caused and apply a soothing balm of forgiveness to ourselves and the hurt others have caused to us. 

For our renewal to take place we must be willing to let go of ourselves, to let go of the gunk we are holding onto. May we fall apart into the arms of god, trusting that something bigger than us is holding us. 

Let us reflect now on if there’s something that we are willing to let go of to move into this new cycle with greater levity and ease.