This is the year that the monster will come

[sovay]

Erev Rosh Hashanah: I misplace the keys to my parents' house and cannot help with the cooking as early in the afternoon as planned, but my brother and his family turn out to have been laid low by some opportunistic bug (the preschool year has started) and don't make it for dinner after all; my father drives their roast chicken and their challah and their honeycake out to them in the evening. We eat ours after I light orange taper candles that technically belong to Halloween because that's what's in the house. The chicken is brined and stuffed with lemon halves and fresh rosemary; the huge round challah with honey drizzled lightly over its egg-washed crust is from Mamaleh's; the honeycakes are homemade and the twice-baked potatoes were introduced by spatch and me. I know it is not precisely the customary use of the Shechecheyanu, but I find it useful to have a prayer thank you, God, that we've made it this far. The year starts anyway, ready or not. I'd rather recognize it as it goes by. L'shanah tovah, all.

Comments

[ladymondegreen]

Amen. I noticed that the meditation in my machzor this evening closely resembled the toast from Hadestown. Also, our ornamental pomegranate has decided to bear fruit for the new year.

May your year be sweet and good.

[nineweaving]

L'shanah tovah.

Nine

[lauradi7dw]

I suspect that actually *is* the thinking behind the Schechecheyanu, at least for some people. It accompanies the holidays like Pesach for which the song "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat" was composed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34atu3WGUgc

I use it for the first local strawberries of the year, which is more in the sense of "I've been waiting so long and the time is finally here." That probably is the intended sentiment, but it could have many meanings to different people.

You may have gathered from choco frosh that I took seasonal foods to ringing practice last night. We decided that rather than hoping for a sweet year, maybe we'd better keep our expectations low and wish the people live through it. Still, I wish you and yours all the good and sweet things possible.

[gwynnega]

L'shanah tovah.

[asakiyume]

I hope your brother's family recovers quickly. But yeah, life with preschoolers is one infection after another.

The chicken is brined and stuffed with lemon halves and fresh rosemary ..... my mouth is watering.

All things can be new again with a new year. It's good.

[chomiji]

L'shana tova!

[ashnistrike]

L'shana tova! We are not quite managing to do everything on time this year, but I can smell apple-stuffed challah baking downstairs.

[ashnistrike]

Thank you for sharing that song. My eyebrows are now somewhere on the other side of the room.

[heliopausa]

Hah! I've only a little while ago replied to you elsewhere, asking if it wasn't Hebrew calendar New Year - and now I've come here, and I see that it is! Wonderful! Blessings on your year, and on your family celebrating it. :)

[zdenka]

Shanah tovah, and may we all survive this year too. That food sounds delicious.

[choco_frosh]

Or, "Thank you, Lord, for ensuring that we made it through the dry season."

Anyway, to a sweet year.

[sovay]

I noticed that the meditation in my machzor this evening closely resembled the toast from Hadestown. Also, our ornamental pomegranate has decided to bear fruit for the new year.

I think these are both wonderful things. Please say hello to the pomegranate for me. What is the machzor?

May your year be sweet and good.

And yours.

[sovay]

the song "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat"

I'd never heard that before. I am very impressed.

Still, I wish you and yours all the good and sweet things possible.

Thank you. The same to you and yours!

[sovay]

We are not quite managing to do everything on time this year, but I can smell apple-stuffed challah baking downstairs.

That sounds incredible. I hope there were photographs.

L'shanah tovah!

[sovay]

Wonderful! Blessings on your year, and on your family celebrating it.

You were spot-on! Thank you.

[sovay]

Shanah tovah, and may we all survive this year too.

Amen!

That food sounds delicious.

Everything came out really well. I like cooking.

[sovay]

L'shana tova!

At the risk of ending up in an endless reflecting loop, likewise!

That's a lovely icon.

[sovay]

L'shanah tovah.

G'mar chatimah tovah.

[sovay]

L'shanah tovah.

A sweet year and a better year and a year we all live through.

[sovay]

But yeah, life with preschoolers is one infection after another.

My brother's wife works with small children, too, so they're doomed coming and going.

All things can be new again with a new year. It's good.

I hope so!

[lauradi7dw]

Closer to the Advent, perhaps, is the pair of prayers for evening and then morning prayer in the BCP (paraphrasing) Evening: please keep us from perils in the dark. Morning: thanks for keeping from all that scary dark stuff.

[ashnistrike]

You can't see the apples very well here, but it came out very nicely: https://twitter.com/R_Emrys/status/911373397388595200

[sovay]

You can't see the apples very well here, but it came out very nicely

It looks delicious to me!