A Rosh Hashanah Blessing

Here's a blessing I composed for the conclusion of Rosh Hashanah services at my congregation.  I was honored that a number of my colleagues also chose to use it at their synagogues across the country:

Here’s to a new year!

Here’s to babies being born, first days of school, lost teeth, new jobs, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings—to all of life’s joys, and those who share them with us.

Here’s to broken hearts, cancelled plans, illnesses, sad farewells, funerals that celebrate lives well-lived—and to all who hold us up and support us in difficult moments.

Here’s to community, and recognizing that treasured friendships can be forged among those who differ from you in height, in weight, in age, in gender, in color, in income, in race, in faith.  Here’s to looking in another’s eyes and seeing all the way through to their heart.

Here’s to recognizing that love is love is love is love.  Here’s to seeing that the validity of one person’s grievances in no way diminishes the validity of your grievances.

Here’s to those who daily emulate God by lifting up the fallen, healing the sick, redeeming the captive, feeding the hungry, comforting those who are in pain.

Here’s to laughter through tears, tears through laughter, and the freedom to let our emotions flow forth uninhibitedly.

Here’s to having all of our senses open to the beauty of the world around us, and here’s to the realization that one of the most wondrous elements of God’s creation can be experienced just by looking in the mirror.

Here’s to embracing passion and activism about the things that really matter.  Here’s to learning how not to sweat the things that don’t.

Here’s to believing with all our hearts that the world can be better, that the messianic age is on the horizon.  And here’s to doing our utmost to make sure that day gets here pretty darn soon.

Here’s to beauty.  Here’s to compassion.  Here’s to love.  Here’s to sweetness.

Here’s to 5778.  May this new year bless us all.