This week is Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. Really the first day of the month of Tishrei, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah celebrates neither the first day of creation nor the last. The midrash says that Rosh Hashanah actually was the day that Adam and Chava were created. Though we say in the davening, “hayom harat olam,” today is the conception (or birthday) of the world, it really is our birthday. Thus it is a day which is ripe for reflection. Just as our personal birthdays, if we are thoughtful, make us prone to reflection, regret, future plans, and reckoning with ourselves, so too should Rosh Hashanah do this for us as a species.   

The Torah writes that when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers they were shocked and ashamed. The great mussar master, Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, asks why this was so—after all, Joseph immediately tells the brothers that it was the hand of God and it was good that he came to Egypt, for he was able to help feed the world during the famine. He does not at all wish to punish them, nor does he take them to task. So why are the brothers so alarmed, so confused, so guilty? Rabbi Finkel answers that it is not the judgment or punishment which makes us tremble on the day of judgment, but the encounter with ourselves; with the truth of who we are and what we have done. This ultimately moves us to teshuvah, to return—a return to who we are and who we can be.   

Rosh Hashanah must be not only a day of prayer or feasting, but of reflection.  As we stare into the mirror of the new year, there may be moments we are confused and aghast as Joseph’s brothers were, moments we are hopeless for our world, moments we are overjoyed that we have been given the opportunity to live in this place at this time and to breath at all.   

Here are some questions (Courtesy of Ayeka) to help facilitate our reflection on this holy and joyous New Year. Shanah Tovah!

The Talmud says that the books of life are opened on Rosh Hashanah. 

Question: If someone were to write a book about you this year – what do you think would be its message? 

Maimonides writes that the voice of the shofar is intended to wake us up.  

Questions: In what part of your life did you wake up this year? In what part of your life would you like to be woken up for next year? What are you excited about for the upcoming year? What are you looking forward to? 

The Mishna (in tractate Rosh Hashana) writes that Moses raised his hands and everyone looked up toward the heavens and was inspired. 

Question: Who do you look up to? Who inspired you this year? 

During this time of year we ask God to move from the chair of strict justice to the chair of mercy. R’ Nachman of Bratslav says that to authentically ask God to do this, we also have to do it ourselves. Question: For whom are you willing to move from judgment to mercy?