High Holy Days: 5767 (This year, or something like it)

Shana Tova, everyone. P.S. I'm Jewish.

It's a fascinating cycle we go through every year. Around the beginning of October, we celebrate the Jewish New Year. This is cause for much rejoicing. For a sweet New Year, we (symbolically) eat--sweet stuff. Apples and honey. Honey cake. Sugar. Oh ya!

After Rosh Hashana, we then have ten days for which to repent for all our sins and transgressions of the past year. This is not cause for much rejoicing. As a matter of fact, it's a bit spooky, to be honest with you. The "Ten Days of Repentence" does not have a pleasant ring to it, does it?

You see--it's not Santa who knows if we've been naughty or nice. It's G-d Almighty. And there's no lump of coal if we've been bad. Oh no--we're talking life and death here. [I'm up for debating the logical and theological rationale for a monotheistic deity--but not tonight.]

Every year, our good deeds are weighed against our bad deeds, and we're either inscribed into the Book of Life, or...not. And so, after ten days, it's Yom Kippur--the Day of Atonement. To represent our sorrow and sense of atonement, it is traditional to go one full day, from sunset to sunset, without eating or drinking.

Whether or not you buy the tenets of the Jewish faith, I believe the concept holds merit. I find it useful to check in on myself from time to time, to evaluate progress across my life, and to check that I'm not becoming too morally bankrupted....