Monday, September 29, 2008

New Years Greetings, Jewish Style

Just a quick post before the holiday. I left another over at the The Second Road , if you're interested, where I'll be guest posting once a week.

Here's how I ended my first entry (Commitment)
Hey, I could have gone anywhere with this post, and probably did. I wrote it on a plane, going over it in my head in hypnogogic sleep, eyes closed.

Thanks for having me, Second Road.

May your site become the GPS of recovery programs.
Sounded right at the time. But here's what I really wanted to tell you before I forgot, before taking off for the holiday.

Jewish or not, in the next couple of days, you might be hearing people around you saying,
Have a happy, healthy New Year.
Or,
Have a happy, healthy, sweet New Year.
This is because Jews like sugar. We really do. We'll dip an apple in honey on the holiday this week just to make the coming year sweet. If we eat sweet things, the year will be sweet. Like on Star Trek, Captain Kirk says, "Make it so, Suloo." We try to make it so.

It's a belief that by saying it, doing it, putting ourselves through the motions, we can make things happen. Change things. This is one of the secrets of behavioristic religions like mine (we're all about doing). And social scientists generally also subscribe to cognitive-behavioral interventions, and surely, hypnotism. Making it so is a little of both.

So...

Have a happy, healthy, sweet new year. May there be no more suffering in this world, and if there is, we should have enough honey to go around.

therapydoc

P.S. For those of you who want to know what the Jewish people are praying for in the next couple of days, the reason your Jewish friends won't be at work, won't be taking calls, won't be publishing comments, etc., take a look at this.

16 comments:

frumhouse said...

LShana Tovah! Here's hoping the rain stops in time for Yom Tov!

Anonymous said...

What a beautifully constructed message. Much sweetness for you in the new year.

Anonymous said...

What a beautifully constructed message. Much sugar for your new year.

Anonymous said...

LShana Tovah.

here's to a sweet and healthy year.

Anonymous said...

It is just so strange to me that someone would go out of their way to say something nasty in a comment. Or leave a really angry, snipey comment.

Guess the virtual anonymity frees people's sense of appropriate boundaries.

If only everyone felt their faith as deeply as you do, TherapyDoc, I don't think anyone would have it in them to behave this way.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year's! May your family be very well and SWEET this season.

April_optimist said...

One of the things I miss since my divorce are the holidays--and the food. I still make charoses and latkes and hammentashen. And of course I believe there is power in the words of hope and acknowledging blessings.

therapydoc said...

Thanks all. Author, if only I felt my faith as deeply as people think I do.
:)

Jack Steiner said...

Shana Tova.

Anonymous said...

hey TD- I saw this on belief net--sarah S. known for her language and comedy--is having a jewish grandmathon -if you are jewish and a grandma, you should go vote in florida and dip the jewish grandma scales.....

therapydoc said...

Sounds like fun, but what am I voting for?

Batya said...

Have a wonderful year.
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-sang-in-our-synagogue-choir-on-rosh.html

Melissa said...

L'Shana Tovah! I attended my first High Holy Days event several years ago (because they hired me to sing) and every year since I've been singing at Temple Emmanuel on 5th Ave. and I SOOO look forward to the Shofar service. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have become part of my own observance, just because I'm always there now. It's enriching.

(My other job is Roman Catholic.)

shrink on the couch said...

A sweet new year to you and yours! And thanks for the holiday greeting instruction.

Leon's current assignment said...

Happy, healthy, sweet new year to everyone in your world, TD. And may the Days of Awe bear much fruit.

*

Isle Dance said...

Good one!

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