Rosh Hashanna is a holiday that attracts the attention of most every Jew. In Israel, few neglect it.
For the Jewish people, Rosh Hashanna is not a secular holiday. On Rosh Hashanna, no one counts down to midnight to shout 'hurray' as the old year ends and the new year begins. Instead, this is a religious holiday. It is a day for reflection, repentance and prayer.
It is also a Day of Judgment. It is a time when all--individuals and nations--are judged. Our prayers tell us that on this Day, HaShem, our G-d, decides for the coming new year who will die and who will live; who will be successful and who will fail; who will be troubled and who will be calm; who will be sick and who will be healthy; who will be at war and who will live in peace, etc.
It is a day to think about the kinds of bad outcomes we could face in the upcoming year--outcomes that could destroy us. Perhaps this is why we pray: to request from the One above to grant us good outcomes for the new year, not bad.
We pray to avert an evil decree against us. We pray for joy, not sorrow, for triumph, not humiliation.
This is why we dip our bread into honey--to symbolize our hope for a sweet year. It is why we eat sweet foods during this holiday--to give ourselves a taste of the sweetness we hope will be ours.
Most of the year, mankind busies itself attempting to control human life. Our government, our health-care system, our nation's economists all focus on controlling our lives--presumably, to make our lives better. But on Rosh Hashanna, we step back from this attempt to control. We turn to HaShem, our G-d, to declare that, truly, only He is in control--not the government, or the politicians, or our government bureaucrats, etc.
This year, as Rosh Hashanna 5781 approaches, it is perhaps easy to accept that man is not in control. This Rosh Hashanna, it is perhaps easy to understand how little control we have--because we struggle so helplessly against a Corona pandemic that threatens to overwhelm us.
Look at Israel. Look at Europe. Look at the US. Look around. Does any government know how to control this plague? How many have died? How many more will shortly die? Everywhere you look, the situation is the same: governments stumble to get control of the Corona, citizens turn out in the streets to protest how their governments can't control it--and all of us suffer some kind of deprivation, restriction or limitation.
All over the world, people die from this disease--while other people, sometimes inexplicably, survive it. This disease is out-of-control. Man is helpless. We know it.
We see this truth, don't we? We see who dies, who lives; who suffers, who does not suffer--and we have no control.
On Rosh Hashanna, our prayers tell us the truth: it is HaShem--not Man--who controls who will live, who will die, who will falter, who will strive forward, who will be uplifted, who will be cast down.
Facing this, we will pray. We will hope for Mercy. We will certainly pray for our safety. We will pray to survive because, suddenly, this Corona has taught us we don't control anything.
Every day, the news tells us how people get corona and survive, and how people get it and die. Every day, the news pounds us with the truth we see in our Rosh Hashanna prayers: who will die, who will live; who will be devastated, who will be saved.
This is our Rosh Hashanna, 5781. It is a time of Judgment. It is indeed a time to pray.
May your prayers be heard. May HaShem answer those prayers. May He answer all our prayers.
This year, may we all truly be inscribed into the Book of Life.
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