Tonight is the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. It is usually a time of family and celebrations and that most typical of Jewish traditions: feasting. This year we will be having a quiet one with just ourselves instead and it is one of only two times of the year I can honestly say I feel homesick. Nevertheless we will be dipping our apple in honey and eating our raisin challah.

Jewish New Year is an important time in Judaism. The Sunday School story says from now until Yom Kippur in 10 days time the Book of Life is opened and God weighs your prospects for life, love, wealth and success in the year ahead depending on your conduct, prayer and repentence. More prosaically I use it as a time to reflect on the year that was and to look ahead to the year that will be. It is a time to take stock and each year it is a time to say to oneself "I am amazed that X, Y and Z happened this year". It is a time to think about your life, how you live it and how you relate to others. One of the great things about Judaism is it is about the relationship between people as about the relationship between people and God. Rosh HaShannah is that time of reflection and anticipation.

Interestingly Yom Kippur, the day where all Jews fast (ie no drinking nor eating) for 25 hours, is the time for final repentance but also the final time to think ahead for the year to come. On Kol Nidre, the solemn prayer recited at the start of the fasting, we say that "all vows we have made in the previous year we hearby renounce". It has caused Jews no end of grief over the centuries as it has been taken to mean no Jew can be taken at their word. But any reading of the text makes it clear that this prayer only relates to personal vows - in other words, resolutions. So Judaism has a mechanism of never letting you break a New Year's resolution - if you haven't been able to fulfil it, you renounce it at the last minute. It doesn't make the vows any less worthwhile. It means they need to be re-affirmed if you still intend to uphold them. The prayer forces you to look back and forwards at the same time.

Even if you aren't Jewish, very few of us ever stop and take time to take stock of our lives. Take a few minutes tonight and do just that. It's worth doing at least once a year.

Shana Tova and may you be inscribed in the Book of blogging Life for the year to come.

Update: Also see the lessons Roadrunner has to teach (via Joe, who adds his own twist). And RP rightly hopes for a boring day.

There's more at Aaron's and Rachel Ann's.