Rabbi Josh Hearshen's Rosh Hashanah Message for 2024

All beginnings are difficult.” (Mekhilta DeRebbi Yishmael Shmot 2:9) These words are an essential piece of advice for every person who’s ever lived. New beginnings are fun and they’re exciting but they’re also packed with fears and anxieties. Above all else, they’re the quintessential “unknown.” Whenever we choose to begin something, we become very aware very quickly that we have so little control over the world around us. We cannot bend nature to our will. We cannot force other people to fall in line with our vision. We cannot control the world. Our tradition understands this often-quoted line to explain beginnings are hard because they represent a change, and change is hard. In other words, it’s not the beginning so much as the change beginning brings.

This concept is a summary of what’s expected of the Jewish people every High Holidays: we’re to begin again and we’re to look to change. We’re to look at ourselves and at our communities and at our country and at our world and find what needs to be changed. This is not easy work. Often, it’s hurtful and hard to see things that aren’t as they should be. We need to work on loving and respecting the image in the mirror, but for the purpose of this short message, let’s accept that the work of looking within is difficult work. During the High Holidays, we’re called upon to find the places where change is needed. We’re called forward to find what’s lacking and what needs to be improved. We’re called to look hard and long and see that our world needs healing, and perhaps we can do our part to make some of the change and healing possible. This is hard but necessary work, and it’s work we can do together as a one people.

Rabbi Josh Hearshen is the Rabbi at Congregation Or VeShalom.