It’s Rosh Hashanah 5780! Shanah tovah (שנה טובה) from the team at NPI

If you are observ­ing Rosh Hashanah, the Jew­ish New Year, which began this evening at night­fall, please accept best wish­es from all of us at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute. We hope the new year is a sweet one for you!

Rosh Hashanah (mean­ing the head of the year) is one of the most impor­tant Jew­ish hol­i­days. It’s the first of what are known as the Jew­ish High Holy Days that take place in autumn. The com­mand­ment of cel­e­bra­tion for this occa­sion can be found in the Book of Leviti­cus — specif­i­cal­ly Leviti­cus 23:23–25 (Eng­lish text):

The Fes­ti­val of Trumpets

The Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing: Speak to the peo­ple of Israel, say­ing: In the sev­enth month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of com­plete rest, a holy con­vo­ca­tion com­mem­o­rat­ed with trum­pet blasts. You shall not work at your occu­pa­tions; and you shall present the Lord’s offer­ing by fire.

Read­ers inter­est­ed in Rosh Hashanah-themed Torah reflec­tions may want to read Rab­bi Eric Weiss’ 2014 com­men­tary on the Jew­ish New Year. Weiss is the Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Bay Area Jew­ish Heal­ing Cen­ter. Rab­bi Weiss was ordained in 1989; he is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at San­ta Cruz where he received a B.A. in Biol­o­gy and Juda­ic Stud­ies. Here’s a snip­pet from his reflec­tions:

It is tru­ly the ways we explore the ter­rain of our spir­it that bring us the nour­ish­ment, even in the midst of phys­i­cal lim­its, that allows us to move beyond the con­fines of our body.

A dis­eased cell can­not pre­vent pray­ing, a defec­tive heart pump­ing can­not pre­vent feel­ing your spir­it flut­ter, and a com­pro­mised organ can­not pre­vent your soul from explor­ing inner terrain.

The Jew­ish hol­i­day cycle is set. No mat­ter how you feel, the var­i­ous hol­i­days come and go. This New Year may not be what you want for your self or oth­ers. But here it is. It is not a mat­ter of mak­ing the best of it. It is a mat­ter of doing what you can with it.

Even the seem­ing­ly small­est amount of spir­i­tu­al reflec­tion is good enough. After all, what is an insight but a quick yet clar­i­fy­ing moment that leaves a last­ing mark.

Rosh Hashanah reads:

• Rosh Hashanah marks start of one hun­dred and sev­en­ti­eth year for Sacramento’s most sto­ried syn­a­gogue (Sacra­men­to Bee)
• A sur­pris­ing new twist on apples and hon­ey for Rosh Hashanah (L.A. Times)
• For a Rosh Hashanah meal of your dreams, three new cook­books offer recipes from near and far (The Wash­ing­ton Post)
• Rosh Hashanah cel­e­brates day of new cre­ation and oppor­tu­ni­ty (Guest opin­ion for The Tennessean)
• All about the apples: sev­en, superb Rosh Hashanah pud­dings to get your new year off to a sweet start (The Jew­ish Chronicle)

Again, Shanah tovah!