What Rosh Hashanah Means to Me

Tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday known as Rosh Hashanah, which is in essence the Jewish New Year.

Rosh Hashanah is somewhat different than the standard New Year's Eve holiday, which has no religious affiliation. The Jewish New Year has deeper connotations attached than simply marking the passing of time and celebrating.

According to the Old Testament, Rosh Hashanah is the time when you ask God to bless you with another good year, and to cast away your sins of the past year.

In greater detail; Rosh Hashanah and the following ten days lead to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and Jews spend these ten days atoning for the sins of the past year, and asking God to inscribe them in the book of life for another year. God will decide whether the next year will be a good one or a bad one.

If you believe in God, then you don't necessarily need to be Jewish to take meaning and be affected by the importance of Rosh Hashanah.

I myself am not overly religious, but I'm inclined to think that asking for God's blessing for another year on Rosh Hashanah, what is undoubtedly one of the most holiest and important days of the year, can only be a good thing.

Additionally, I'm sure we all have sins of the past that we need to shed. Jews today do this symbolically by tossing pieces of bread into a river or stream (representing sins being cast away as we ask for God's forgiveness)

But everyone can do this by recognizing that Rosh Hashanah is a time of year when we can make a change for the better, to right wrongs and to say long overdue "I'm sorry's". To promise to be more true to oneself and others and to realize what is more important in life, rather than focusing on petty things that consume us daily.

Of course, every day can be a great day to start over, you don't need the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah or a Catholic holiday or New Year's Eve or any other holiday to tell you this.

You only need to look inside yourself, past the wall of false feelings that we often build around ourselves;