Shanah Tovah: Hopes for a Good Year

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Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts next week, and I am trying hard to find some way to be optimistic going into the new year, but I have to admit that I am struggling. I won’t go into all the reasons I am in despair about the future of our country and our world. But I think we all can agree that there is far too much anger and hatred out there. Far too much greed, far too much war.

So as I sit in services next week and contemplate the past year and the year ahead, I will try my best to focus on all the good things in my life—my family, my friends, my cats, my congregation, my community, the beauty of Cape Cod, all the music and art and movies and television shows that lift my spirits, move me, make me laugh, make me think. The times I laughed so hard I cried, and the times I cried and felt empathy and compassion for those who are suffering. All the people who read my blog and my books and helped me with my research, and all the cousins I’ve found who have shared stories with me this year and in past years.

I am deeply grateful for all those things. And I will hope and pray that those thoughts will carry me forward into the coming year with the hope that things will get better. If we all have as much love and compassion for the stranger as we do for those closest to us, we can make the world a better place.

May you all have a sweet and healthy new year.

Shanah tovah.

By Gilabrand (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

No blog next week in observance of the holiday, but I will be back in October.

15 thoughts on “Shanah Tovah: Hopes for a Good Year”

  2. Well said.  Needless to say, I share very similar sentiments, but rarely take the time to pen it into words as beautifully as you do.  The world is upside down, much caused I think, by the current administration, driving the divisi

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  3. Psalm 121 for our present situation on the eve of the year 5786

    I look up and see the headlines towering over me

    Like high mountains

    Where waylayers plan their ambush.

    Who, oh who will help me

    And protect my path into the future?

    I want to believe

    That help from the Eternal Creator

    Is on its way to me.

    I want to believe

    That the Guardian of Israel

    Watches ceaselessly over me.

    I want to believe

    That my Guardian by day and by night

    Is at my side in these troubling and dangerous times.

    I want to believe

    That the Guardian of Israel

    Will protect me and all humanity from evil.

    May the Guardian of Israel

    Protect and preserve

    The end of the old

    And the beginning of the new

    From this time forward and forever.

    With best wishes for a sweet and happy new year!

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  5. Hi Amy, beautifully put. Shanah Tova to you all across the Pond.

    I have yet to read your last two blogs , however I’m aiming for that next week. I feel the beauty of life is shared memories with your family and friends as we cannot change world conflicts and the horror of war zones.

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  8. You’ve compiled a very thorough list of people and reasons to be grateful and hopeful. I find it does help to look closer to home and everyday life to drown out those things out in the world we can’t control.

    Have a happy new year celebration!

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