Rosh Hashanah asks us who we want to become. Shabbat returns every week to ask whether we are actually becoming that person.

Have you noticed how often we hear “Shana Tova” this time of year and how easily “Shabbat Shalom” fades into the background?

It is understandable. Rosh Hashanah comes only once a year. It carries the weight and promise of a new beginning: a new year, a new page, another opportunity to examine our lives and decide what needs to change.

Shabbat comes every week. We know it. We expect it. Perhaps because it is so familiar, we sometimes underestimate it.

But when Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat meet, we are reminded of something profound: Shabbat is not smaller because it comes every week. Its repetition is precisely what makes it so powerful.

Rosh Hashanah awakens us. Shabbat keeps us awake.

On Rosh Hashanah, we stand before God and ourselves and take inventory. We think about the words we should not have spoken, the apologies we still owe, the people we have neglected, the gratitude we have failed to express, and the priorities we allowed to become distorted.

We promise ourselves that this year will be........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)