That says it all, doesn’t it. Donald Trump at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the first day of a new year. On this day, you want to embrace optimism. But it is hard to do that, when the world feels like it is Rosh Hashanah, 1914, the last summer before World War I when the wheels were inevitably turning and no one knew it, or Rosh Hashanah, 1939, two weeks after Germany’s initial invasion of Poland when the full scope of the war in Europe was still unknown, or Rosh Hashanah 1973, when plans were afoot for a very different Yom Kippur. There are so many places today, on Rosh Hashanah 2025, where things are already going wrong, and when a small brush fire anywhere could quickly envelope us all.

Of all the prophetic voices to be heard over these High Holidays, it is that as adapted by Leonard Cohen that might affect us most: “Who by fire, who by water?…..”

Or maybe it is gentile Kurt Vonnegut (he had a Jewishwife), whose prospect of ice-nine in Cat’s Cradle chills us all. Once thing begin to calcify (as the freezing temperature of water is raised to over 100 degrees), everything stops. Time stops. Everything is finished. It is all over. It can not be reversed. It may not be the book God seals on Yom Kippur, but it’s a book  Vonnegut has written, a book whose story just stops. The book is sealed. Doomsday is here, but no onecwill know it.

Arthur, you are being too pessimistic!! Especially on a day such as today, a day when we are to atone for our past mistakes, so that we can get on with a better, more meaningful life. 

Whoever just said that to me is right, and I will do my best. But it won’t be easy, will it?

So, I ask for forgiveness for all of my shortcomings, including the contents of this post. And I hope we all can join together in rebuking statements like “I can’t stand my opponent”  so that we move on to a 5786 that is much better than 5785 was. No ice-nine, and in fact, no ICE.

L’shana tova to all.