happy new year Archives

January 2, 2018

Happy New Year

Mark Rubin

Days go by fast or slow, depending on what’s up, my mood, etc. Weeks and months and years? They pass like a train in the biggest hurry to get to who knows where. 2018 already? Incredible!

With yet another loss at the end of a year, my mind wandered to an emblem of aging: more funerals than weddings. Googling that phrase took me to Ecclesiastes 7:2: It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. Hmmm! From writings which include the reminder that there’s a time for everything and a season

L’Shanah Tovah 5777. Happy New Year.

October 2, 2016

Mark Rubin

L’Shanah Tovah 5777. Happy New Year. The High Holy Days commence at sundown tonight (Sunday), beginning a period of reflection, remembrance, and renewal for Jews around the world.

I’ll get to what matters in a moment. First, though, there’s challah. No Jewish meal begins without bread, and a blessing in which we gives thank for bread. Challah means “loaf of bread,” but in modern times the term describes a braided egg bread, made round for the High Holy Days.

I have been sharing Jewish holidays with the same group of people for almost 55 years. We—my parents’ generation, truth be told—found one another wandering in the Southern Arizona desert, with everyone having escaped from New York or Havana. In

happy new year, l'shanah tovah, rosh hashanah, yom kippur

Food, The Rest of Everything