Parshat Va’era: Happy New Shanah

Shabbat Shalom dear friends.

I'm in a quandary. Today is the first of January, but I don't know what to wish you.

I could utter the usual greeting for the day which is of course, “Happy New Year” but to be honest, I feel a little strange saying these words to my fellow Jews, in Shul from the pulpit, with a great deal of conviction.

After all, we've already wished each other this sentiment when we said, "Shanah Tovah" last September as we entered our New Year. Tomorrow night is Rosh Chodesh Shevat, the fifth month of our year! Were it not for our adding a second Adar to our luach/calendar, as it's a leap year next month, the end of Adar Rishon and particularly Rosh Chodesh Nissan would mark the year's half-way point. I don't know about you, but I think it is bad form to wish someone a Shanah Tovah halfway through the year!

We know that today marks the first day of Two Thousand and Twenty-Two (2022) in the 'Year of Our Lord' , AD - Anno Domini, so wishing my fellow Jews a meaningful Happy New Year does seem inappropriate. Additionally, today's Gregorian date is based on the solar calendar and as we know, we follow the lunar cycle.

You can see that I am in a bit of a conundrum!

Perhaps, a way to untangle the problem begins with understanding what the term 'Shanah Tovah' really means. Although we translate it figuratively as 'Happy New Year', it literally means 'A Good Year', which of course conveys the message of the greeting. I may wish you in all sincerity a ‘Happy New Year’, but I don't only want you to have a 'happy' period of twelve months.

There is only so much happiness one can be blessed with until the reality of life's challenges and obstacles provides us with a 'reality check'. Rather, I am wishing you a 'good new year' because that implies the notion that I would like you to encounter a year that is memorable for the right reasons.

Happiness is a transitory state of being. It is an emotion that can change quickly, whereas, if things are good, they exceed the moment and provide us with a deep sense of appreciation. We count our blessings, sometimes when we're happy and perhaps, at times when things are not going so well in our lives.

If we delve into the etymology of the word 'Shanah', we find that the root of the word is Shin - Nun -Hay. According to some scholars, The Tanach uses the word in two ways, one to mean 'repetition' and the other could signify 'change'.

Discussing the concept of repetition, Mitchell First, an eminent writer (https://www.thetorah.com/author/mitchell-first) points out that the Hebrew word for the number 'two' is sheni, which is the repetition of a number. Similarly so, we refer to the Book of Devarim as Mishneh Torah - literally a repetition of the Torah, as much of the book follows this structure.

There is a view by some people that the word 'Shanah' refers to 'change' (see Ernest Klein's ‘A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language’) who believe that this refers to the seasons of the year which change periodically as the verb 'Le-shanot' is translated as 'to change'.

However, many prominent Rabbis including the Radak, Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch and the Ramchal follow the previous definition. I would tend to agree, granted that we re-read the Torah on an annual basis, which follows this logic. Additionally, the idea of repetition is built into our psyche. If not, why would I repeat the same prayers three times a day and a fourth time on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov (setting aside the five prayers of Yom Kippur). To really know something, you need to repeat it continuously.

Returning to our discussion, it does seem as though, when we wish each other a Shanah Tovah, at least on a literal level, we are hoping that the person we speak to will be blessed with a similar year to the last - but only in repeating the positive elements - hence the 'tovah' addition.

Fortunately, using the Hebrew obviates our clumsily wishing each other a 'Happy Year that will bring you the same 'good' memories and events which reflect those of the year that has just concluded!'

I do think though, there is another element that we can consider in the greeting.

Examining this week's Parsha which vividly describes our bondage in Egypt along with the first seven plagues, The Mishnah (which also comes from the same root) in Eduyot (2.10) informs us that Rabbi Akiva said a number of things that last twelve months:

The judgment of the generation of the flood

The judgment of Job

The judgment of the Egyptians [which included the plagues]

I wouldn't have wished whichever Pharaoh was in command a 'Happy New Year' on the day he went for his daily dip into the Nile! What did happen was that Gd repeatedly sent the plagues to Pharaoh and his people as often as he (Pharoah) repeated his own behaviour by firstly agreeing to let the Bnei Yisrael leave and then changing his mind. I would say that in his case, both possible meanings of the word apply!

As Jews, we have suffered a great deal over the millennia, at a time when a new solar year ushered in a period of calamity. On the 20th of January 1942 (i.e nearly eighty years ago), a meeting in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee took place between fifteen senior Nazi Government Officials. These included Heydrich and Eichmann (yimach shemam - may their names be blotted out) and these resha’im (evil men) sealed the fate of Europe's Jews. In only 87 minutes of time based on the solar calendar.

The horrors that faced our people during the Second World War were repeated on a daily basis for numerous years and it was even longer for those living in Germany. Would we have wished anyone a 'Happy New Year' on 1st January in any of those years? Yet, I guarantee that every Rosh Hashanah without fail, we said Shanah Tovah to each other in the hope that the brief sparks of goodness from the previous year would shatter the darkness that would possibly continue to envelop our nation. We said our greeting and hummed the Hatikvah in the hope that our situation would imminently improve.

Life has been generally good to us here in the UK for over three-hundred-and-fifty years. Sometimes we were happy and sometimes we were not, but we could do worse than wish each other a Shanah Tovah and hope that the coming year would bring us a repeat of the tolerance and respect of our non-Jewish neighbours and the continuing protection of the Crown.

Let us read this week's Torah portion and appreciate how, when compared to the enslaved Bnei Yisrael we, their descendants, are able to live in freedom. The Promised Land is not a forty-year journey through the desert and hopefully, we will be able to return there (in four-and-a-half hours) once our own Covid plague is vanquished.

As we face the new year of 2022 and continue our journey through the latter part of 5782, may I wish you, not a 'Happy New Year' but a positive period of time, encompassing the lunar and solar calendars in which we are blessed with good health and peace and may we all witness the coming of Moshiach, may he arrive speedily in our days.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov for Shevat!