HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

L'Shana Tova if you are Jewish -

And if you aren't, we Jews would like to share our New Year with you - because at this time, I'm thinking we all need a fresh beginning, a couple resolutions, and a cocktail.

Our little foursome and a few hundred other Jews gathered at Moonlight Beach here in Encinitas for an evening service. It's such a great event - we go every year. It's called Tashlich (tosh-LEEK) and it's that point where you get to symbolically cast away all your sins from the past year, cleansing yourself to enter the new one. Here in San Diego, we use breadcrumbs to symbolize the sins and throw them into the ocean. Cuz that's dramatic. And also, a legitimate excuse to go to the beach with your friends during the week.

Here's a little bit of the text from the service. I think if you're a part of any religion - or no religion at all - it has ideas that resonate so true with our state as a nation and on this planet. And depending on your faith, that's either uncanny coincidence or a little bit o' God talking.

Let us cast away the sin of deception, so that we will mislead no one in word or deed, nor pretend to be what we are not.

Let us cast away the sin of vain ambition which prompts us to strive for goals which bring neither true fulfillment nor genuine contentment.

Let us cast away the sin of stubbornness, so that we will neither persist in foolish habits nor fail to acknowledge our will to change.

Let us cast away the sin of envy, so that we will neither be consumed by desire for what we lack nor grow unmindful of the blessings which are already ours.

Let us cast away the sin of selfishness, which keeps us from enriching our lives through wider concerns, and greater sharing, and from reaching out in love to other human beings.

Let us cast away the sin of indifference, so that we may be sensitive to the sufferings of others and responsive to the needs of our people everywhere.