The Book of Life Opens

The Book of Life opens for 10 days on Rosh Hashanah, which literally means head or crown of the year, culminating (and closing) on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

We celebrate the beginning of creation by turning inward to account for the impact of of own words and actions in the past year, to make amends and take right action, and to pray to be sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year. Memory and introspection pair with gratitude and praise.

To me, this year, there’s something about bringing things back into balance in a world of extremes. With so much contention, uncertainty, mistrust, callousness, isolation, and suffering, how are we to celebrate beauty, stand in awe, and find forgiveness? Judaism gives us some steep orders here, and they’re not necessarily easy to meet.

Spending the first half of the day in community over Zoom, exactly nobody’s first choice yet most everyone’s preference in terms of keeping each other safe, I alternated between closing my eyes, really letting the by-now familiar prayers and melodies sift through to my spirit, and opening them, scanning the faces and names of this virtual congregation. I appreciated our rabbi, hazzan, and other musicians who gathered in the otherwise empty sanctuary to lead us through the service, and unlatched the parts of my own heart I tend to keep closed off.

Later, after lunch and a nap, my wife and I took a neighborhood walk. The sun was bright. Kids riding bikes. Summer swinging towards fall, a comforting pendulum.

To find comfort and to sit with the agitation that is the only appropriate response to injustices and inequities, to connect and be held by community while doing the inner work of teshuvah, becoming clearer and more honest about our role in the world that we create or destroy every day… these are our human and holy tasks.

May we remember that sweetness and joy are not antithetical to action and repair, but rather their sacred foundation. Shana tova u’metukah.