Apple and honey popsicles. The honey symbolizes the excitement for a sweet New Year ahead. It’s believed that centuries ago, the apple was chosen as the fruit that was to be dipped into the honey on Rosh Hashanah due to the symbolic nature of the fruit. Photo by Sheri Silver
Apple and honey popsicles. The honey symbolizes the excitement for a sweet New Year ahead. It’s believed that centuries ago, the apple was chosen as the fruit that was to be dipped into the honey on Rosh Hashanah due to the symbolic nature of the fruit. Photo by Sheri Silver
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For those of you not familiar with the Jewish New Year, it is just what it is. Jews have been around for five thousand seven hundred eighty-four years and we ain’t going anywhere.
It is the year 5784 and humanity is still alive despite our best efforts to destroy ourselves and our lovely planet. I keep telling myself that things will get better, and they will (somehow). I am a believer of positive decisions provide positive outcomes and know all too well that the opposite still carries a lot of water. However, I utterly refuse to be subjugated by my own decisions let alone anyone else’s. If I am preaching to the choir, so be it. But I will tell you one thing, I am all out for 5784.
It is the year that the good guys start to win because they are just too stubborn to lose. Knowing who the good guys are will take a bit of doing, but if you look real careful like, you will see those white hats (although mine is black). See how tricky this could be? The ability to separate the truth from the bullshit takes a lot of effort but is well worth it. You cannot allow yourself to be victimized by disinformation. Just don’t drink too much Kool-Aid!
That said, time to get on with the New Year.
For those of you not familiar with the Jewish New Year, it is just what it is. Jews have been around for five thousand seven hundred eighty-four years and we ain’t going anywhere. That’s quite an endurance record and should be acknowledged for what it is. As a people we have survived slavery, genocide, and the usual rations of stupidity. It is amazing to me that we have had the resilience and strength to continuously move forward. By no means is this meant to imply that as an ethnic group we are infallible far from it. But there is something to that inner strength that springs forward to survival!
There was a time when I had forsaken my Jewishness and felt a mite ashamed while hanging around my Christian brethren. I envied Christmas (although we did a right fine job with Chanukah). I don’t know if I thought Easter was for me (although resurrection sure sounds great). We did color eggs at home. Had one of those PAAS coloring kits. https://www.paaseastereggs.com/ Although to this day I am not all sure what the eggs and the rabbit have to do with the true meaning of Easter (another one of those mysteries of life).
This has changed muchly; I embrace Jewish tradition unconditionally. I love and appreciate what we have accomplished as a people. I am 100% Ashkenazi!
Back to the New Year—5784! This is a special moment in time and a time for a fresh start. This is the holiest of days as we celebrate survival which culminates on Yum Kippur—the day of atonement so we can move without hinderance of yesterday’s baggage. What a brilliant series of events.
I wish you all well. And leave you with Rosh Hoshana greeting and the sound of the ram’s horn.
I hope in reading this you will have learned a little bit about me and how I feel about being a Jew. I am not one that often flaunts religion (or politics for that matter). I just thought you might enjoy. At the risk of offending some It is my ethnic and my heritage as well as my religion of birth. I am 100% Ashkenazi!
Shana Tova Umetuka: Translates to “A good and sweet year” and reflects the hope for a year filled with happiness, health, and prosperity.
By wishing someone a “G’mar Chatimah Tovah,” you express the hope that they will be sealed in the Book of Life for a good year.
It is tradition to blow the ram’s horn during this high holiday season. The raised horn is a common biblical symbol of victory, especially of being rescued from oppression.
I leave you with the Beastie Boys just because
Lawrence George Jaffe
Lawrence George Jaffe is an internationally known and an award-winning writer, author, and poet. For his entire professional career, Jaffe has been using his art to promote human rights. He was the poet-in-residence at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, a featured poet in Chrysler’s Spirit in the Words poetry program, co-founder of Poets for Peace (now Poets without Borders) and helped spearhead the United Nations Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry project which incorporated hundreds of readings in hundreds of cities globally using the aesthetic power of poetry to bring understanding to the world.
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