My New Year's Message To All ππ―ππ―ππ―
And then a quick assessment of the VP debate
Hello!
As noted yesterday, I've been feeling down. Needless to say, in addition to what I described in my previous letter to you, this has also been a year in which my dad died. Queen Elizabeth resorted to the phrase βannus horribilis" to describe 1992, a year that brought a fire to Windsor Castle as well as an outbreak of marriage/relationship endings amongst her offspring. While this year has, for me, lacked a fire and included all good things on the relationship front, I feel comfortable borrowing the phrase. There's been too much of the horrible.
Jewish tradition has it that the world was created on Rosh Hashanah. We think of it as the birthday of the world. As such, it is the essential time of renewal on the Jewish calendar. Between tonight and Yom Kippur, which ends Saturday night, October 12th, we are pushed to reflect, repent, and atone in relation to God and in relation to other people. The process is fairly simple in relation to God: sincere expression through prayer or thought of an intent to do better in whatever particular ways over the coming year; we are taught that God will accept this without reservation. In relation to other people, atonement is more challenging as it requires actively seeking the pardon, the forgiveness of another. It's not enough just to think about it to yourself. It involves the other person, intimately and intrinsically.
So, I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying this: though Judaism is not your typical βborn againβ kind of religion, it does want us to re-new, re-form, re-create our relationships with God and other people, and it gives us a roadmap to do so. We are not limited to this one time of year for such efforts; rather, we are given this time of year as one more chance to set things right before the Jewish calendar turns over. I feel the world could use Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a whole lot this year. We could use a reboot.
That said, I know that there is much more good going on in my life than bad; much more good that I encounter around me out in the world every day; many more blessings, especially in the form of the people I love and who love me. I haven't lost sight of that, and I won't lose sight of it, but many days those blessed sights are obscured by the extra shots of βhorribilis."
And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Just kidding. That's the last line of The Great Gatsby. I'm not sure why it came to me just now, but it seemed to flow. As I said yesterday, you gotta laugh.
Repentance and atonement aside, Jewish New Year resolution number one: laugh more.
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If you care to read on, here's my quick take on the debate last night. It won't affect the race between Trump and Harris at all, but I agree with the majority of polls and focus groups: Vance was better. He was actually quite good. He slid past questions that are difficult to slide by, and he presented the Trump agenda in a much more listener friendly way than Trump has. He also entered the debate extremely unpopular and performed in a way likely to improve his own standing with American voters if not the prospects of his ticket.
Walz looked terrified on his first answer, but other than that was fine. Most of his answers I would rate as somewhere between pretty good and good, although there were a few that were really garbled and also a few that were, for me, somewhere between very good and excellent. In any event, Kamala didn't select him for his ability to compress multi part answers into one minute or two minute frames. She picked him for the βvibe," the energy, the presence out on the stump.
I could pick more nits, but what would be the point. At the end of the day, they both came out alive, Vance enhanced and Walz undiminished.
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Before the debate, my daughter snapped this photo which, for obvious reasons, was nice to see.
Thanks for this column! Normally, my daughter and her husband, plus 2 of the 3 grandchildren go to services outdoors at a park. Yesterday, with the temp hovering in the high 90s, we decided to have our own service at home. Your column was my contribution to the service.
Just a note to say I enjoy your column, loved your father and think your focus on the New Year is amazingβgetting God to forgive us is easy but atonement with people you have harmed, thought badly of or whatever youβve done is much more difficult. It truly has been a difficult year and we need to focus on good thoughts and action to get the outcome we need in the election. D.