Have a truly good New Year
Op-ed: as in every holiday season, people send holiday greeting cards filled with righteous misrepresentations of the previous year, while pretending to know what next year holds; instead, try being empathetic and compassionate, and find beauty and meaning in a daily existence that is often oppressive.
I do not remember how many people sent me the musical New Year blessing of singer Achinoam Nini. Apparently it is one of the trends of this years' holiday season among the left, or center, or both. I also do not know if Nini recorded it for the current holiday, Rosh Hashanah, or before, but it does not really matter — from her point of view, it's a timeless song.
For those who did not watch the music video, the song goes as follows: “It should be a good year,” Nini sings as her hands strike the piano keys, her eyes blinking.
"There should be no horrendous lynch / we should be an empathetic nation more than a chosen nation / free of violence, racism, arrogance / without incitement and without religious coercion / it should be a year of change and an end to the occupation / a sober year and an end to ambiguity / it should be a year of art and culture and poetry / in which the country's shores, its paths, and especially its soul, shall be cleansed. Let it be a year of modesty..." and so on and so forth.
It does not speak to me; I wrote to the tenth person who sent me the clip; she doesn’t voice my thoughts anymore. I'm sick of people who are not modest talking about modesty, beating my chest with all their might. They should beat themselves a bit too.
Do you not wish us an end to the occupation? A friend asked. I believe in many of the things she says, I responded, and I have no problem with the “what,” I am slightly nauseous over the "how."
Righteousness in a honey-sweet voice, from which a one-dimensional picture emerges of how bad everything is here, and what a land full of lynching, racism, and religious coercion we have established here —never spoke to me either.
Even A., I told him, our best friend, who is perhaps the biggest leftist we know, —except she is the type to donate and volunteer and help in promoting a better and more beautiful society— received a similar holiday greeting, "who knows how many times," and said it is not her "taste.”
Even the blessing of G., who owns a bicycle shop, and wrote us a blessing with a corny pun based on the Hebrew date wishing us “a happy new year with a new mountain bike" —adding that he also does trade-ins and provides all the necessary equipment for a skilled cyclist —was better.
Not to mention those who sent us the song by Arik Einstein, “May it be that we all have a beautiful year, and peace will be upon us.” And those who, every year, wish everybody a good year in their name and in the name of their entire family without forgetting to add their old and sick dog to the "sweeter than Honey Year” greeting card.
Or those good folks on the “Take and Give” website (free of charge), founded by Hevel Modi'in Regional Counci, who write "Happy New Year, I have a washing machine to give away," or “Happy New Year, I have a fifth grade book if anybody wants," or “Happy New Year, rabbits looking for a warm home," and so on and so forth.
Without pretending—precisely during these days, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, days of personal soul searching—to know what next year should look like.
Without creating a misrepresentation of the passing year saying that everything that happened is a continuation of lynch-related acts of racism, violence and arrogance —that others, of course, carried out.
To wish a happy New Year in the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and to think in terms that form compassionate human consciousness, even within a harsh reality. Seeking a proper meaning in a daily existence that is often exhausting and oppressive.
To reach beauty and truth in a constantly changing world; to wish a Happy New Year, sweeter than honey, to believe it is possible, and do the best to guarantee it is possible.
And if you can, at the same time, also offer special holiday prices for adults' and children's bicycles— how great is that?
