Ah, Rabbi Sommer, you’ve hit it again. Right on the nose. I heard people on the radio talking about how September really feels more like a new year than January – especially in Manitoba, where the summer is short and precious. The people reluctantly come back from the lake and take up reality again, preparing for the snow to fly by Halloween and the bone-chilling cold to be here by Hannukah.

I find it fascinating that the Rabbis chose to put the New Year for calculation of years, Sabbaticals and Jubilees on Rosh HaShanah, the first day of the seventh month. They said it was the anniversary of the creation of the world – hayom harat olam, literally today is the pregnancy of the world. Connecting to what I said yesterday about the Shechinah being our mother, Rosh HaShanah is the world’s birthday, and in Elul we blow up the balloons and hang the streamers for the world’s birthday party.

It’s a new year – new clothes, new teachers, new resolutions. May it hold sweetness for us all.