If ever there was a moment when we might wish for better days ahead at home and abroad, it is now, at the advent of 5783
‘At the dinner table, apples dipped in honey are served, to presage the sweetness of a new year and the pleasure of renewal which that brings,’ writes Simon Kelner . This is both true and not true. I am indeed Jewish by birth, but I don’t practise my religion, and I would not give primacy to this aspect of my identity. However, there are times during the year when I can’t escape the significance of being a Jew – rather than merely being Jew-ish – and this is one of them.
But Rosh Hashanah is primarily a joyous event, rather like the turning of the year in the Gregorian calendar, and the principal provocation is to look forward rather than back. At the dinner table, apples dipped in honey are served, to presage the sweetness of a new year and the pleasure of renewal which that brings.
It is this particular feature of the Rosh Hashanah traditions which, this year more than most, might prove difficult to reconcile, given that the secular inevitably intrudes on the sacred. So how is it possible for us to embrace the forthcoming year with optimism, given what is going on around us? Religion may provide comfort and spiritual guidance, but it doesn’t help if you can’t pay your