As a child, there was one prayer that put the “awe” into the Days of Awe: “On Rosh Hashana it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, who shall live and who shall die.”
We then pray that, on this Jewish New Year, we be “inscribed in the Book of Life.” The imagery is fraught. God records all our deeds during the year just past, and based on that record, we are judged and it is determined whether we will live or die.
As an adult, though, my relationship with God has evolved beyond the fear that the permanent record threatened by my teachers for misbehaving had its counterpart in the sky.
If you look closely, the prayer does not say, “On Rosh Hashana God writes and on Yom Kippur God seals.” Instead, it says, “On Rosh Hashana it is written.”
I do not believe our fate is sealed on any one day of judgment. To the extent possible, we determine our own fate. Yet the imagery of a Book of Life, where our deeds from the past year are recorded, remains powerful.
We are the authors of the Book of Life. And in that book, there are many chapters.
One chapter may be titled “Family.” As we turn the pages to a new calendar year, we ask ourselves: Were we there for our children, our spouses or our parents? It is a day of self-judgment. As we review the pages written during the past year, we have the ability to begin a new page in that chapter — a page of greater love and caring.
We open the book to a chapter called “Community” and another called “Faith.” We ask ourselves: Were we active in tikkun olam? Did we volunteer? Were we charitable? Did we make time for prayer and mitzvot? Were we active in our task of being God’s partners in creating a more perfect world? Did we do our part to preserve the environment?
We may call these the Days of Awe, but viewed this way, they are also days of hope and possibility.
In our tradition, Rosh Hashana is a uniquely universal holiday. It is not only Jews who are judged on this day, and it is not only Jews who can open their Book of Life and change course. Rosh Hashana, according to tradition, celebrates the creation of Adam, not Abraham, and as such represents the capacity of each of us to open the story of our lives and write new chapters.
May we all have the capacity to periodically hold up a mirror to our souls and the willingness to write new chapters filled with love, compassion and faith.
Rabbi Jacob Rosner is the spiritual leader of the South Baldwin Jewish Center.
