Sounding the Shofar...

For those of you who are not aware, Rosh Hashanah begins tomorrow at sundown. Rosh Hashanah is commonly known in the West as the Jewish New Year. Unlike the American New Year celebration (which commonly includes all kinds of gluttony, drunkeness, and basically every other type of fabulous debauchery one can imagine [for which I can't wait!]), Rosh Hashanah is a very sacred celebration that generally means extensive time in the Synagogue and alot of religious hooplah (such as starting celebrations with traditional Shofar trumpet calls, hence the photo and title of this post).

However, very much like American tradition, Rosh Hashanah is a time of introspection and resolution. A time of goal setting and the turning of new leaves. Rosh Hashanah is a time to reflect on past mistakes, and to move forward in a better fashion. Furthermore, unlike many American New Year's resolutions, Hasidic Jews are generally pretty committed to following through with decisions made during Rosh Hashanah.

Now, I'm certainly no Hasidic Jew, but I think I probably believe that any religious event or practice that has been around for thousands of years has got to have some spiritual power built up behind it. And I am a devout believer in progress. So I'm going to use this year's Rosh Hashanah to try and tap into a bit of ancient mystical mojo. I'm going to evaluate my character, try to love the people around me a little more than ever, and continue to move toward figuring out what the hell I believe.

Mazletov, y'all.