Calling Our Readers to Submit their New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions? 

In September?

If you are confused, then you are looking at the wrong calendar.

According to the Hebrew Calendar, today is the first full day of Jewish New Year.

And to all of my Jewish friends, I wish you a very happy and healthy new year.

Today, Jews all over the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”).  On this High Holy Day, we celebrate the Earth’s creation, and we begin a ten day period called the Days of Awe, which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

These ten days are always very special to me and remind me why I so appreciate my religion. While there are some important communal celebrations, the High Holy Days are primarily a time for personal reflection, reassessment and introspection: What do we regret about our actions in the past year? Whom have we hurt or offended? How have we failed to honor our responsibilities to our faith and to love our neighbors as ourselves?

Most significantly, it is a time to chart a more righteous path for the coming year. Unlike the secular New Year, in which some of us make resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, or strive for a promotion; for the Jewish New Year, we try to self-analyze and figure out how we can better honor God, family and friends.  We also try apologize and seek forgiveness for our own mistakes, while promising to do better in the months ahead.

Accordingly, all of next week in The Recovering Politician, our contributors and I will be sharing our own New Year’s resolutions. And whether you are Jewish, Jew-ish, Gentile, or with no religious beliefs at all, I encourage you to do the same.

Just send us your New Year’s Resolutions to staff@TheRecoveringPolitician.com by Saturday at 10 PM.  They can be a sentence or two; or if you prefer, send us a 1500 word essay.  Or anything in between.

Thanks, and we look forward to reading your resolutions in next week’s The Recovering Politician.