Spoiler alert. This will be depressing. I suggest you don’t read it and come back tomorrow.

Today is the first day of Rosh Hashanah,  and this post will be shorter than usual. There is a lot going on in the world, and I feel much more like observing Yom Kippur than celebrating Rosh Hashanah. I have a lot on my mind,  services seem remote and limited in importance, and do I really need another sermon.

The situation in Israel and the Middle East  is so fragile, and it is getting harder and harder to tell Israel to restrain itself. Its power seems strong at the beginning of 5758. It may be less strong in the future, and this may really be the time for a “let’s end this once and for all” solution.

Here, we face a very dangerous election in just over a month. It may be hard for those of us with common sense to understand it, but the majority of electoral votes could easily bring Trump back into power. That could cause untold harm to pregnant women, lead to deportation disruption throughout the country, see Ukraine defeated, and Europe placed in very volatile circumstances  and see the United States in trade wars around the world and facing new inflation pressures. Natural disasters are increasing in severity, large due to climate change, and a new administration may accelerate climate change. We don’t need any of that, but American voters are both so easily misled and so lazy. And faced with potential economic problems as a result of the potential bombing of Iranian oil facilities and potential supply disruptions caused by the dockworker strike, I am afraid that the Trump vote might grow.

None of these worries should be on one’s mind as we enter a new year. We should look forward to only good things and be thankful for what we have. And we have so much. We have lived through rare times.

No God will straighten all of this out. It is up to us. And we may not be up to it.