New Beginnings

Last night at sundown marked the beginning of the Jewish New Year, commonly known as Rosh Hashana or Feast of Trumpets, and it marks the first day of what is known as the days of awe.  The Days Of Awe is a  10 day period of time were people search their hearts and seek forgiveness from those that they have wronged as well as seeking forgiveness from G-D. It is a time when people reflect on their actions of the past year and seek to improve that which they can. It is literally a time for new beginnings. It is a time when people petition G-D for a good and sweet new year full of blessings because it is believed that during this time, leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that G-D is literally deciding the fate of all peoples and nations.

It is the idea of a new beginning and forgiveness that I would like to address.

Over the past year I have offended some of you rather badly, it was not my intent to do so but I have none the less. In some cases I have tried to reconcile the differences only to make matters worse and in other cases I have sought out forgiveness from those I have offended only to be ignored or scorned. In these cases I have done what I can and I have to leave it in G-d’s hands. I can only pray that those people will find forgiveness in their hearts.

In at least one case I have offended an entire group of people, Muslims, based on their religion or, more precisely, some of the radicals, never once equating what I was doing, with what has been done to me and my family because we believe differently than Christianity. So to anyone who is a Muslim who is reading this, I am sorry for my ignorance and near hypocrisy in passing judgment on you based on radicals with in your religion. There are crazies in every religion and I have no right to judge all by the actions of a few.

So starting today, for me at least, I am going to seek a new beginning. I am going to try to be more open minded and try to sift more carefully, that which is being fed to me by the media, in all its forms, and focus more on the things of G-D. That is not to say that I won’t screw up from time to time but it is to say that it will not be my intent.

So to my friends and family who may be reading this, Have a happy new year and may it be filled with sweetness and joy.

Shana Tova

God Says Be Happy!

Today I am a happy man. There is just something about fall that brings it out of me. I can be in the worst of humor or not feeling well and yet bring me out into a beautiful cool fall day and everything else just kinds of fades away. The wind blowing through the trees is like healing balm to my soul, the cool air wraps around me like willowy gauze, and my spirit and soul breathe a sigh of contentment.

One of the definitions of being happy is “Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment." So I guess, for today, at least, I have found happiness because my soul in indeed content.

I think that probably all of us can think of things or times when we have felt happiness and contentment. The birth of a child, our wedding day, seeing old friends or perhaps, like me, nature, is what does it for you, but I am willing to bet that most people would not associate their house of worship with the idea of happiness, this is not true of everyone, of course because I have met some really enthusiastic people in my time in churches, but really how many of you would say that your Synagogue or church service makes you happy? I have heard some hair raising or tear jerking sermons from time to time but many times I have sat in houses of worship where it felt more like a funeral service than a celebration of G-D, though in all fairness I have also been in places that their services keep you rocking and praising G-D for hours afterwards, and that is really the point G-D actually commands that we are happy when worshiping Him.

Deuteronomy 16 says it three times. Verse 11 “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite in your communities, and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow in your midst, at the place where the Lord your G-D will choose to establish His name. Verse 14 adds “You shall rejoice in your festival “and at the end of verse 15 “you shall have nothing but joy.”

Perhaps the reason that there are so many people, who don’t believe in any kind of G-D, is because we are not following His command to be happy when we are celebrating or worshiping Him. Too many religious institutions are filled with pomp and circumstance and pageantry, but they also seem to be lacking any kind of joy. Why should an atheist believe that there is a god when those of us who claim to worship Him, or Her ,depending on your point of view, are unhappy miserable people? Why should they believe when we fight each other over differences in religious points of view or form? We need to be happy ourselves, accept others differences, no matter their faith, and then we can project that happiness on to others who don’t believe. If they never come to a place where they believe in G-D, they might at least get to see G-D through us, and that alone might make a difference.

Shalom