For Jewish Grievers, Celebrating a Sweet New Year (Anyway)
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It’s Time For Celebration
All over the world, Jewish people will soon be celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the start of a new year on the Jewish Calendar, There will be a lot of wishes for a “happy and sweet new year” -- signified by dipping apples into honey -- and greeting one another with “Shana Tova”, the Hebrew words for the greeting “A good year.”
For those in mourning periods or grief-stricken from the recent death of a loved one, it’s hard to imagine a “good or happy year” coming up.
However, at this time of the year, when the holiday presents the opportunity to wish and hope for a “good year,” a griever can take a moment to reflect on what a “good year” what might look like, especially in the context of having experienced the death of a loved one.
For sure, it doesn’t mean that “grief ends.” But, consider below what may result in better times in the coming new year on the Jewish Calendar.
Adjust to your new normal a little bit more each day
Reframe your sadness by acknowledging beautiful memories
Continue your bonds with your loved ones through thoughts and actions
Focus better at school, work, parenting, and other daily activities
Accept support from your friends, relatives and neighbors when they offer
Take a vacation for a change of scenery, to renew and reinvigorate yourself
Sleep better at night, with fewer nightmares and anxiety
Return to exercise to lift your spirits and release tension
Name any other things that might mean a “good year” for you
If you take a few moments this holiday season to reflect on this, perhaps you’ll believe that the possibility of “a good year” can lie ahead. Or at least a time when you feel “better” than you do at present.
The actress Mayim Bialik wrote about her experience with Rosh Hashanah in 2015 as she was grieving her father’s death. Read her commentary below:
What’s Your Grief website last year featured a blog from a young woman Michal Baitz. Michal is the founder and facilitator of The Mending Word, a healing space for grieving and connecting. She describes her first Rosh Hashanah without her Dad in this piece called Adapting to a new Grief
Remember, we know that we don’t stop grieving and bury it forever, but we find a new way to incorporate our loved one into our life.
We don’t “move on,” but we “move forward”.
And so, I wish my readers a “Shana Tovah” … a “good year” ahead.
