The dissonance: Fear and celebration as we enter a new Jewish year

Last night, one day before celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Biblical Feast of Trumpets, all of us in Israel experienced another Iranian attack – 180 ballistic missiles were launched toward Israel.

As I dropped off my 8-year-old daughter at her friend’s birthday party we heard the loud sirens alerting us to enter the shelters immediately. My daughter and I quickly entered her friend’s home to enter their shelter, where we saw 10 young girls squeezed together on a sofa, looking afraid.

The birthday girl didn’t look happy. Others had tears in their eyes. The sirens weren’t stopping. We heard the faint booms in the air, the sounds of the missiles being intercepted. Thanks to God, most of the missiles were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome above our heads.

This is not new. Israel has had many enemies throughout history. Iran has been actively fighting the Jewish people since Bible times (Persia). This year, and specifically today, we, in Israel, are feeling the enemy and the proactive attack over us more than ever, literally.

In light of this year and yesterday’s attack from Iran, it is not an easy time to celebrate a new Jewish year in Israel. Usually, we mark it with a festive family meal, drink wine and bless each other. School kids return home with decorated greeting cards for their families. We eat apple slices dipped in honey as a symbol of a sweet year to come. Workplaces and even military bases pause work to get together and bless each other. In general, there is a lot of joy across the land. If you’ve ever been to Israel during the Jewish Fall Festivals, you’ve probably heard Israelis blessing each other with the greeting, “Hag Same’ach!” (Happy Holiday) or “Shana Tova” – (Good Year). Today, in Israel, we are celebrating and marking exactly that.

But this year is different. It is the first Jewish New Year holiday since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Many families in Israel will be sitting around the dinner table without one or more of their loved ones because they are still being held captive by terrorists in a tunnel in Gaza, or because they died, or were a soldier who was killed in one of the many battles this year, or has a friend who has been injured and is in the hospital, or, perhaps, they are sitting at the table with their visible injury. And if it is not physical and visible, it could very much be the internal emotional injuries and scars from what they’ve seen, who they’ve lost, what they’ve heard.

We have been hit hard this year, and it is not over.

Nonetheless, as I contemplate this New Year, why is it still so important to mark it? Whether you are Jew or Gentile, whether you use the Jewish calendar or any other calendar, but especially for the Jews and Israelis this year:

We remember and recognize that the God of Israel is watching over us and is preserving us.  It is another year of life. 

We can also use the New Year to rededicate our lives and our children’s lives to Him.

I thank God our Father and our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that He is the Watcher over Israel, and the Preserver of our souls! Because He is, our lives are dependent upon Him.

Israel’s Watcher will not slumber nor sleep (Psalms 121:4).

In this great dissonance, the words of Habakkuk 3 speak to me and can be an encouraging guide to anybody going through personal trials and feelings of being torn:

16 ...Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
    to come on the nation invading us.
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:16-19)