Days of Awe

by Suzanne Sadowsky

רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, comes at the beginning of the month of תִּשְּׁרֵי Tishri — which is actually the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. (The first month of the Jewish year is actually נִיסָן Nisan, the month in which Passover falls.) Each Jewish month begins with the appearance of the new moon, but because the annual festivals are connected with the agricultural seasons, they follow the solar year, since a strictly lunar cycle would separate the holidays from their appropriate season.

Why do we celebrate the New Year at the beginning of the 7th month and not the first month of the year? From earliest times there has been a civil year which begins in the autumn, much like our fiscal year or school year. It is a time for accounting of reaping the year's harvest. Also, just as the seventh day of the week is a holy day, so the seventh month, Tishri, is the holy month of the year.

Genesis tells us that at the end of the sixth day of creation, God looked at all that He had done, and saw that it was very good. And on the seventh day He abstained from His work and blessed the seventh day. Genesis says that God only abstained from work on the holy day, implying that the work of creation wasn't completely finished.

Just as God rested from the work of creation on the seventh day, so the seventh month is the time for us to look at what we have done in the past year. It is a time of accounting, a time to assess our work and our actions.

On Rosh Hashanah we are also to abstain from work. On this day and the ten days that follow —the Days of Awe— it is up to us to reflect on what we have accomplished, but also to look at how we may have missed the mark, ways in which our work is still unfinished. It is a time for reflection and accountability and a time for us to look at our lives and our world and see what more needs to be done. It is a time for us to be more mindful, to ask for forgiveness and to be forgiving, and for us to seek the ways in which we can participate in the still ongoing process of creation by doing what we can to make the world a better place.

Most of the time I think that I'm doing an okay job but I also know that there are times when I need to do תְּשׁוּבָה tshuvah, when I need to turn things around. These are times when I can become very self-absorbed, or feel unappreciated, or lonely, or feel that I'm not getting enough love. It's at these times that I get impatient with other people, when I don't always say things as kindly as I could, when I don't consider how my words or actions will affect someone else, when I don't take as good care of my health as I should, or when I spend my time carelessly.

The weeks of אֱלוּל Elul preceding Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe that follow really do help me to focus and become more mindful. One hopes that this kind of mindfulness, practice and intentionality will continue for the remainder of the year. It is when I can be mindful that I fully appreciate the joyfulness and the wonders of life.

All my wishes to all of you for a good, sweet year. May this be a year of peace, good health, joy and happiness. לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִּכָּתֵֽבוּ L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu.

—from our October 2000 Newsletter

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