Tonight is the first night of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. 
Friends often ask, “is that one of the happy ones or not?” and it is! Themes of spiritual rebirth, seasons, and newness abound. Rosh Hashanah also begins the 10 days of repentance, which lead up to Yom Kippur. In that way, there are other themes of confession and forgiveness that begin to build on this holiday. It’s traditional to eat sweet foods and dip challah and apples in honey. As a child, my parents often bought me new clothing. Who’s going to argue with that?
I’ve always liked that Rosh Hashanah falls in September; while missing early days of classes with a new teacher was always tough, there was a nice alignment with starting a new school year and the end of the summer with starting a new Jewish year. The weather is usually still nice during Rosh Hashanah (although it can occur as late as October), and I have childhood memories of going out to the car during the day-long services for a granola bar my parents left for me, and seeing leaves in brilliant reds and oranges, while not yet needing a jacket.
While it isn’t traditional to make resolutions a la the secular new year, I usually do. It’s great to make resolutions in September, because you can revisit them just a few months later in December. If you didn’t start on the right foot, or you didn’t pick the right resolutions, you get a do-over in December.
Last year my main resolution was to straighten out my situation at work. Check!
This year, the biggest thing I want to pay attention to is exercise. There are a few things I can shift around to make it viable to get to the gym 2x/week. I need to start actually doing them.
The other “resolutions” are to continue doing some things that are working great in my life – quality time with babyDiva and mrDiva, reading a lot of books, dedication to my job, cooking dinner as much as possible, eating fruits and vegetables often.
Finally, we are attending a new synagogue for this holiday – they have a nice family-oriented service that looks like babyDiva will like, and lots of family-friendly programming. I am hopeful that we may find a new home at this synagogue and I’d like to go back to participating more in a Jewish community.
נה טובה ומתוקהש
May you have a good and sweet year.