* Translated by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
Do you feel a unique energy in the air? Do you notice how every conversation ends with "Shana tova" or "Gmar Hatima Tova" -- May you be inscribed and sealed (in the Book of Life)? It would be worthwhile to shut out all the background noise and tune into this frequency. We call it optimism. We call it a new year. We call it Tishrei and the Ten Days of Teshuvah. Netanel Peretz, a teacher from Ashdod, describes it as follows:
"Every year at this time a miracle occurs. For a few days, all of us succeed in believing that it's definitely possible to change.
Even those who are the most hopeless, those who are stuck or broken, open a window so that light can dispel the darkness of their bleak routine.
Suddenly you see millions of people within whose hearts a sincere belief takes hold that there is a real prospect for this year to be truly beautiful and different. They will be better than before. Their hearts will be open to receive the bountiful goodness that is forever streaming down from above. There will be the courage to go forward without fear. There will be the strength to make things right. Suddenly there is a softening -- and for more than just one brief moment -- among so many people who decide to just let go and give goodness and kindness a chance.
And I think to myself how much this cannot be taken for granted, this capacity to believe in the power of goodness and kindness. How appropriate to give thanks for this miracle that occurs each year at the start of the month of Tishrei. May the new year with its many blessings begin."
