Monday, September 30, 2019. Today, we celebrate not only the Birthday of the World and the beginning of a new Lunar Jewish year, but the 12th anniversary of the start of Rosh Chodesh Cleveland. We are glad to continue our tradition yet another year, in the company of friends, the trees, the lakes, and the birds.
While it is still mild and warm in the Great Lakes, our minds are turning to fall. Summer’s greens are darkening and yellowing, a few early leaves are falling, and the cicadas are humming. In the Middle East of course, in ancient times as now, it’s still hot, and yet, it is the time of ripe fruits – grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives – while the time of rain is beginning, soon to cool the soil and ready it for planting. In two weeks, at the full moon, we will celebrate with gratitude the season’s harvest in our sukkahs, with cedar boughs over our heads. (and in the Midwest, corn stalks!)
For now though, we focus on the work of the coming week, the ten days of introspection between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This morning we blew the shofar, the ancient ram’s horn, and woke ourselves to a New Year, and to the truths of our faults, our frailty, our futile (it seems) attempts to be better people than the year before. Judaism, however, makes the radical statement that change is not only inevitable – we are partners in it. We are all innately holy, and so we can change ourselves, with intention, and with daily attention to removing the obstacles that might obscure our holiness[1]. And so the annual cycle of transformation begins – what is required is that we face our true selves, envision a changed future, and make a daily plan for getting there.
Some of us may be entering the holidays deeply feeling the pull of the divine, ready for transformation; others may wonder if it will ever come; yet others may be so caught up in a continuing whirlwind of change that the spiritual seems far away. Whatever our situation or frame of mind, the trees, lakes, and birds remind us that we are holy in our essence, held in the arms of the divine world, beneath the shelter of its wings, among our friends and our families. L’Shanah Tovah, a good, sweet and wonderful year! — Kirby
[1] Alan Morinis, Every Day, Holy Day. Boston and London: Trumpeter, 2010.
The next Rosh Chodesh Walking Meditation will be Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 7:30 am. Contact us for location.
Rosh Chodesh Cleveland 