As Rosh Hashanah approaches, a conciliatory atmosphere naturally prevails in the public. Everyone sends each other greetings and wishes for the New Year, trying to ignore old rivalries, and looking forward to a happy and sweet New Year.
During the High Holy Days, we spent a lot of time in synagogues.
Many who do not usually come to pray all year round come to the prayers on the High Holy Days, and even the permanent residents of the synagogues devote more time to prayer and reciting Tehillim on these days.
What should we ask for in the New Year?
Pray for unity
We have personal requests: health, livelihood, relationships, peace at home, children, happiness from children, success in Torah study, strengthening in the fear of God, and so on. Each and every one of us asks to be written and signed for a good and sweet year.
And we have requests and wishes in the public arena as well – peace, security, raising the banner of Israel, more brotherly love, more respect between one another, more connection to the eternal values of the people of Israel.
We ask that the Creator of the world send down a spirit from on high upon us, and we will discover the goodness within us and the Jewish point that is common to all of us.
In recent years, public discourse has become unpleasant. It seems that the walls between sections of the people have grown higher. Some people deliberately inflame tensions, out of various interests, but it seems that we have somewhat forgotten that even a debate can be conducted with respect, and that even a disagreement does not have to degenerate into verbal abuse.
And the funny thing is that each side is convinced with every fiber of its being that the other side is the one who is quarrelsome, blunt, instigating, crossing red lines. The camel does not see its own hump, and even when a mirror is presented to it, it responds with a tone of rejection and forgiveness. And this is what the Sages have already said: "A person sees all the afflictions, except his own afflictions.".
When each public sees only itself, its positions and its values, and is indifferent to the world of another public, the result is a dialogue of the deaf. And after all, there are good and wonderful things in every public. Why don't we seek out the good and the beautiful, the inspiring things, and strive to learn from each other and to rise above each other?
This is what we pray for on the High Holy Days: "That they may all be united to do Your will with a complete heart" – that we may all unite to worship the Creator, to love Him, to fear Him, and to fulfill His will, which is the key to a good and happy life.
Prayer for redemption
Above all personal and public wishes, one great and central wish hovers in the prayers of the High Holy Days – that the kingdom of God be revealed in the world: 'Rule over the whole world with your glory, and let your glory be exalted over the whole earth, and let the splendor of your might be displayed over all the inhabitants of the world of your land.".
We beg the Creator and Leader of the world to no longer hide His face from us, that His reality and presence may be visible and felt, until "every action will know that You are its action, and every creature will understand that You created it.".
We ask that God, the Holy One, will remove evil from us – "and all sin will be consumed in smoke." For the people of Israel, we pray: "Give glory to the Lord to your people… joy to your land and joy to your city." And most importantly – 'a horn will grow for David your servant, and a lamp will be lit for the son of Jesse, your anointed." May we have a good year, a year of redemption and salvation.
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