Happy new year

Jews all over the world will be celebrating the Jewish new year tonight.

In half an hour here in Tel Aviv I will light my candles with my family and then we will go over to my mother's house for a family meal. Delicious food, always, and many many people.

Unlike secular new years' celebrations, on December 31, the Jewish New Year is a time for introspection,  leading up to the 10 Yamim Noraim, or 10 days of Awe, that close with the Yom Kippur, a day of  fasting and reckoning in which Jews ask forgiveness to peers and to God for all their sins.

I have spent the morning cooking as tomorrow I have about 20 people over for lunch - but I have taken the easy way out and the meal will be salads and cold cuts.

So now I am sitting in my living room. Surrounded by flowers sent to my by my best friend (a girl) and by my husband and children. I am waiting for everyone to come to the living room to light the festival candles. They are having their showers - and I'm listening to some music. All smells clean. All is quiet. All is good.

As Benjamin Franklin (apparently) said: “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man” (or woman).


Happy new year to all of us.


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