Cantor Sandy Horowitz 
Face it, New Year’s Eve is a big deal in our culture. We might celebrate the arrival of 2023 by going out, being with friends and family, drinking champagne and making lots of happy noise, or staying home and watching the ball drop in Times Square. And we engage in that all-time practice of making New Years’ resolutions. It can all be a lot of fun, and it can also be pretty stressful, as holidays often are.
As Jews, making resolutions is a familiar process, certainly lighter in tone but not dissimilar to our efforts each fall during the High Holidays, also known as the Days of Awe leading up to Yom Kippur, the most sacred Day of Atonement. We do tend to focus on different aspects of our lives, however. Whereas the Days of Awe are a time of spiritual and interpersonal reflection, the secular New Year is usually more about personal self-care, like resolving to exercise more or eat in a more healthy or environmentally conscious way.
On the other hand, why shouldn’t self-care be a part of our High Holiday process of reflection and repentance? Since our tradition tells us that each of us is created in the Divine image, during the High Holidays we might ask ourselves whether we’ve been taking sufficient care of our own physical and mental needs, along with our spiritual reflections. And to balance things out, we might want to add a little spiritual resolution into our New Years 2023 considerations.
The lines become even more blurred when we consider the two different calendars that govern modern Jewish life. Yes, this coming Sunday will be January 1st 2023 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOO-HOO! At the same time, in the Hebrew calendar where the months are tied to the cycles of the moon, January 1st is also the eighth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, just another day, nothing special.
When we remind ourselves that New Years Day is also “just another day”, it can help mitigate the pressure of holiday high-expectation and over-excitement. It also means that our resolutions, whether of a physical, mental or spiritual nature, can be reviewed and renewed at any time. Every day, even. If we trip up in our efforts to do better, we can resolve to try and do better tomorrow.
As we mark New Years 2023 / 8 Tevet, and every day following, I wish for you and for all of us:
May we be healthy!
May we experience joy!
May we find peace.
Each day. Every day. Happy 2023.