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January 9, 2004/Tevet 15 5764, Vol. 56, No. 16
Delight in the new year
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
A clear screen beckons, clean as the slate of a new year. What to write, but, more importantly, what to do. Or not.
It seems as if we effortlessly cross the divide from one year to the next, slipping blithely from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, nonchalantly flipping the pages of the calendar, casually programming our PDAs to display a new year.
How easily we transition from '03 to '04; how little thought we give to the passage of that precious commodity called time.
And yet, as Jews, the secular New Year has diminished significance; it recedes in direct proportion to our syncopation with the Jewish calendar, with its cycle of days and months, of holidays and holy days. It is that calendar, from Tishri to Elul, that provides a rhythm to our days; a welcome constancy to our years. It is that calendar and the inexorable pace of the Jewish year that pushes us ever forward, even as we remain rooted in our past, a reminder that time is passing, and we must not let it pass us by.
And so, Jan. 1, without the spiritual underpinnings of the Jewish New Year and its imperative for assessment and atonement, lessens in importance. But it also serves as a useful marker, a reminder of our own evanescence, of the innate transience of our lives.
Turning the page of the calendar, there is a clutch at our throats when we think of loved ones who may not be with us next year. Or of those whose lives may be changed by illness, misfortune or loss. Or those who may be humbled by disappointment, or overwhelmed with responsibility. Or those who are restored to health. Or those whose luck has turned. Or those who find love. Or those who bring new life into this world.
Who will live and who will die, we ask on the High Holidays. Indeed, the question strikes us with the same force now as we begin a new calendar year.
The hoopla and revelry can distract us. So, too, can the onslaught of fevered commercialism that feeds off our own insecurities and breeds an exploding market for self-improvement. Look better, feel better, perform better, we are exhorted. We resolve to eat right, to exercise. We take long hard looks in the mirror and wonder where the years have gone, why our grown children now seem to resemble us more and we, our parents.
Time passes, whether we like it or not. And it shows. Inside and out.
And so, a new year beckons ripe with possibility and rife with choices, ripe with promise and rife with challenges. And whether we like it or not, whether we are ready or not, '04 will go by in the blink of an eye and then, if we are lucky, it will be '05, and then '06.
Our lives can pass in a blur of fleeting days without our ever knowing. Or we can make a conscious effort to take the time to mark their passing, to revel in what we have, what we value, what we love.
The rabbis teach that in the world to come, each person must account for every time their eyes beheld a delight, and they did not indulge.
This year, indulge.
Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.
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