Symbolism of the New Year
Taking control of our lives by redirecting our hearts and minds.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that takes place each year in the Jewish month of Tishrei, involves an abundance of ritual and preparation. We blow the shofar, we eat symbolic foods, we prepare ourselves for long hours of communal prayer. We celebrate the ushering in of the Jewish New Year with festive meals and reflecting on our conduct over the past year. Together with our families, we eat pomegranates and other delicacies and collectively celebrate making it to another year together. L’chayim, we all say!
The start of a new year holds much special symbolism. Across cultures around the world, the new year is often ushered in with parties and celebrations. If new years have been happening since the onset of calendars, why do they generate such exuberant reactions each year? Such celebrations must be tied to a deeper, intrinsic human need that speaks to something deeper within ourselves.
After all, each year planning a celebration means that humans choose to invest energy and resources, as well as often identify a new set of goals for the year ahead. These rituals take time and motivation, and speak to a deeper need, one that links the new year to the human desire for renewal and improvement.
As humans we all have an innate desire for belonging, to find meaning in our rituals and traditions that allow us to find something greater in the world around us.
And yet, each time we gather together to mark a new time period, be it a birthday or a new year, we are finding the sacred in the ritual. We mark the occasions by gathering to acknowledge the changes in the world around us, to contemplate the way time is passing us by, and to ponder the meaning of what this passage of time means for our lives.
Judaism, with its rhythms and calendars, allows humans the opportunity to reach for balance.
And this is precisely why the new year, with its rituals from resolutions and parties, represents our desire for renewal and improvement.
We want to be better. We want to have some control over our upcoming lives, because if the last year has taught us anything, it is that the future is highly unpredictable.
We therefore use the sacred times set by God to resolve to do better. We take the opportunities to recommit ourselves.
And in this way, we take back control over our lives with the rededication of our hearts and minds to God’s sacred obligations.
Nomi Kaltmann lives in Melbourne and is the founder and inaugural president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia. A qualified lawyer, Nomi writes regularly and is a former fellow at Tablet Magazine, with her articles appearing in The Forward as well as Religion and Politics Magazine.
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