A new year, a new attitude

As we prepare to undergo our annual pleadings to the Almighty to grant us a sweet and prosperous new year, we should take time to examine our worldly connections to one another. The High Holidays are not only a period of deep introspection, but an opportunity to view our external connections to one another.

While not necessary in order to achieve a proper level of Tefilah (“Prayer”), membership in a synagogue or attendance at a Chabad-led or Hillel-sponsored service can bring meaning during these Days of Awe. Our natural tendency as Jews has been to gather together to embolden and reinforce each other through the power and majesty of common prayer.

Hearing a moving and powerful sermon can give us much to consider and to reflect upon as Rosh Hashanah opens and gives way to the Days of Penitence that culminate with Yom Kippur.

We Jews are a proud and resolute people. We bolster each other during times of crisis and woe and celebrate during periods of prosperity and joy. We do not require organizations or institutions to do our biding for us in absentia, although we oftentimes relegate others to do just that.

We should have hands on all of our tasks and should apply ourselves to be better in the coming year and to learn the valuable lessons of self-reliance and self-control. There is nothing better done than that which we do ourselves.

Among the younger generations, the old methods of conducting business in the Jewish community may be rapidly losing their importance. The millennials are highly critical of staid institutions that concentrate wealth upon themselves, choosing instead to roll up their sleeves and perform acts of charity themselves. We have much to learn from their ideals, especially in the wake of data from the Pew Research Council that suggests that interfaith marriage coupled with unwelcoming attitudes from insular Jews could render our community smaller nationwide, if unchecked.

As always, we have much to be thankful for and much to pray for as a new year begins. As we welcome 5776, the CCJN wishes you all meaningful insight and spiritual direction both from within ourselves and from each other as we in the Greater New Orleans Jewish community seek redemption. Ktivah V’chatima Tova.