Are We Doing Better?

If you can find some hidden spark of goodness in the dark places, hold it up for the world to see, and tip the scales

In Jewish homes and offices all over the world, people are taking down their old calendars and hanging up new ones, fresh and ready for the year 5780. As they do so, they look at the clean first page wistfully, hoping that the new cycle of 354 days will be better than the months they’re about to consign to their memories.

But for those who see Rosh Hashanah only as “time to change the calendar,” the days hold no special essence. There’s no cheshbon, no nefesh, no Kingdom of G-d Above, and no Days of Judgment and Mercy. Rosh Hashanah does not stand firmly at the center, like a lighthouse between days past and days to come, casting new light in both directions. It’s merely “days fleeting, days passing, without taking, without giving,” in the words of the famous poem “Shakah Chamah” by the gaon of Torah and mussar, Rav Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan.

We, however, have Rosh Hashanah. We know it’s Yom HaDin and the day when we declare the Creator King over the entire universe and over our own hearts. For us, something huge is happening on this day, as we stand together before Him as one congregation, and at the same time, each of us is experiencing his own personal “Rosh Hashanah.” Every individual is occupied with self-renewal, working to build his own new year according to the plans he drew up during Elul or maybe just the day before.