Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez’s Rosh Hashanah Message for 2024
Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez shares her thoughts and inspiration for the Jewish New Year.
“Shana tova!” The walls echo with the greeting of Rosh Hashanah.
Or perhaps if you, like me, find yourself in a Sefardi community, it is “tizku leshanim rabot” (may you merit many years), and the response is “ne’imot ve’tovot” (pleasant and good ones).
A good year. Not a happy one.
We wish people happy birthday, and we often say this is the birthday of the world. We wish people a “Chag sameach,” a happy holiday, for nearly every other holiday, and yet – at the beginning of the year we leave joy out of the equation.
As someone known for Jewish joy, I find this particularly striking and this year I am really sitting with it. What is the difference between a good year and a happy one?
The past year has been a complicated one, not one which was overall happy, but was it still good? Were there joyful moments? Of course. But would I describe the whole year as joyful?
Absolutely not. But was it entirely a dumpster fire in every way? Well….
But is that inherent in what we want to wish for? What is the line between good and happy?
Perhaps it is in what we have the power to create. When God created the world at the end of each day, God looked around, and “God saw that it was good,” allowing forward movement into the next act of creating. Perhaps that is what we are both reflecting on and manifesting when we say, a good year, shana tova, tizku leshanim rabot. We have the power to create goodness in our lives, taking positive steps where we can make change to make the world a better place not only for ourselves but for the future.
Shana tova, tizku leshanim rabot – make it a good year!
Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez currently serves the community as an education and non-profit consultant for organizations nationwide and as an active volunteer leader, including with National Council of Jewish Women’s Rabbis for Repro Advisory Group. She received rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat in 2018 and a master’s in social work from the University of Illinois in 2006.
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