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Finding New Optimism for a New YearSeptember 2006From the Desk of Rabbi CohonLet the old year and its curses end; let a new year and its blessings begin! - Sephardic Piyut, "Tichleh Shanah"
Rosh Hashanah is a critical time for reevaluating our own lives on a persona level, too. How have we done in the past year? What can we look forward to in the coming year? Will it be a year of blessing and peace or, like 5766, a year of challenges and some losses?
This has been a challenging year internationally. American is still enmeshed in a war in Iraq that has now taken longer than our participation in World War II. Israel has fought a frustrating, costly, and disappointing war in Lebanon against a brutal terrorist group and failed to remove it as a threat. Our brothers and sisters and cousins in Israel lived in bomb shelters for a month and more for the first time since 1973. Iran seems intent on fomenting Islamic terror everywhere and getting nuclear weapons.
Back home, gas prices are at historic highs, while real estate is flat, as is the stock market, and we can't take shampoo, bottled water, and lipstick on airplanes anymore.
Even in film, Al Gore told us definitively the planet is warming up much too fast, electric cars were killed purposely twenty-five years ago to the everlasting detriment of the environment, and Oliver Stone gave us 9/11 all over again five years later.
And, of course, we're all getting older...So what's there to celebrate from this 5766 year?
It was not the best one some of us have experienced, as Americans, Jews, supporters of Israel, or even as temple members. As the piyut, the Rosh Hashanah prayer from the Sephardic tradition teaches, sometimes it's best to say "let the old year and its curses just end...let the new year and its blessings begin!"
And yet, in spite of the challenges of 5766, there is some good news to contemplate and celebrate in the coming year. First, Israel survived its rough months and will emerge stronger, smarter, and more focused on its real needs regionally. World Jewry surged to support Israel in time of need, and we will remain oriented towards the Jewish state's welfare and betterment. Here in America there is a greater involvement and commitment to addressing our place in the world in a serious, honest, and ethical way. I believe that in the coming months that heightened awareness will bring us to new and better directions.
On a congregational note, after some leadership challenges, our temple is now poised for a period of great growth and development, with many exciting opportunities available to us for exceptional accomplishment and involvement in the near and more distant future. We have outstanding new leadership, and I am privileged to work with Donna Beyer, our president, in moving Temple Emanu-El towards real excellence and continued community leadership.
But most importantly, in this coming year we all have a wonderful opportunity to make our lives better, happier, and more meaningful in the coming 5767 year. Rosh Hashanah is a gift, really: the chance to begin again, afresh, to remake the world in the image that God would welcome.
In this coming New Year, may we each embrace in our own personal lives goodness, blessing, and Jewish learning and prayer. And may we help our congregation, our people, our country, and our world move from, well, curses, towards blessings.
On behalf of Boaz, Gabriel, and Cipora I wish you a Shanah Tovah umetukah -- a good and sweet New Year.
L'Shalom v'rei'ut, in peace and friendship,
Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon
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