by A Lee, Reiki Master, http://www.TherapeuticReiki.com
To some people in the world, today is a special day…
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. From one perspective, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man. However, the focus is on it being a Day of Judgement ~ being judged by God for the coming year. In essence, it places God on the throne.
Three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the ‘wicked’, the ‘righteous’, and those of an ‘intermediate class’ are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed ‘to live’. The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur (another core Jewish holiday), to repent and become righteous; the wicked are ‘blotted out of the book of the living’.
Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown. While some Jewish communities observe only the first day, others observe two days worth of prayer and celebration.
In the afternoon of the first day, the practice of tashlikh is observed. This includes the reciting of prayers near natural flowing water, and symbolically casting one’s sins into the water. Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the “casting off” of sins.
Rosh Hashanah in the beginning of a ten-day period of looking back and evaluating your thoughts, words and deeds of the previous year, and of resolving to improve them in the coming year. This is a time of prayer, for God’s forgiveness and mercy.
No Jewish holiday exists without an abundance of prayer, rituals, symbolism, and of course, delicious food! Round bread symbolizes the cycle of time. Apples with honey honor the sweetness that is hoped for in the new year.
What I like about learning about other cultures and faiths is receiving new opportunities for creating fresh starts and for creating depth and meaning into one’s life. Anyone can use today as a time to take stock of one’s own ‘sins’ of the past (year), and to start afresh with realizing your dreams and insights of who you truly are meant to be in the new year, with all your goodness and talents.
I wish you all “shana tova umetukah” (“may you be written and sealed for a good year”). After throwing your pebbles into the river, feast on some apples with honey! Give yourself a long week of reflection to realign.
May you use this day and this period, to realize your life mission of being loving kindness itself.