For those who observe the Jewish High Holidays, the ten days from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur are a significant moment in the year.
This stretch is known as the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, which is often translated as the ten days of repentance. A more accurate translation of the word teshuva, however, is return.
This period of time invites us to step back from the hustle of daily life and create space for inner work and exploration as we consider how we have been living, how we have been showing up, where we’ve gone off course, and how to return to our true nature.
It is the original “homecoming” season — a time of returning to the lane, to the ancestral home. Back in the days of the holy temple, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were holidays on which even the most far-flung Jews returned to Jerusalem to engage in prayer at the temple.
Even in our modern world, the high holidays draw Jews who otherwise don’t engage in the practice of religion.
This period of introspection and reflection is an opportunity to renew, refresh, and restart.
According to the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the message of this time is that it’s never too late to start again. As long as we have life left to live, as long as we are breathing, we can create a new future from the present.
Teshuva tells us that our past does not determine our future. We can change. We can act differently next time than last. If anything, our future determines our past. Our determination to grow as human beings – our commitment to a more faithful, sensitive, decent life in the year to come – gives us the courage and honesty to face our past and omit shortcomings. Teshuva and God’s forgiveness together mean that we are not prisoners of the past, held captive by it. In Judaism sin is what we do, not who we are. Therefore we remain intact, able to acknowledge our failures and then move on.[1]
Regardless of whether you observe these holidays, this is opportunity to restart is always available to you. You only need to decide to restart, to turn a new page, to write a new chapter.
You can do this in any moment, on any day, at any time.
All it takes is the willingness to step into a new story.
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Koren Rosh Hashana prayer book, introduction, p. xxvii ↩
[…] Rosh Hashana marks the start of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Like the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the seventh month is about pausing to rest and reflect, to bring things back into balance. […]